Boat Weight Question

Ok, I have a 2004 220 sea ray sundeck with a tower, now I was just at the Sea Ray website looking at the specks cause i'm trying to plan out how much weight I'm going to throw in it this summer, anyway it says that:

max persons weight: 1600 pounds
max wieght persons/gear: 1800 pounds

now does this mean the boat can handle a total of 3400 pounds? Or no more than 1800? How much weight do you think I can put in it in addition to people (we usually only have no more than 5 people out at a time). The specs are at this website, any advice would be awesome, thanx a bunch.

http://www.searay.com/online_brochure.asp?tab=1&modelid=34822&reqtype=1, 9,15,19,5

This means that the Coast Guard has approved the boat to handle a maximum of 1800 pounds. However, what the boat can actually handle and what is Coast Guard approved can vary greatly.

my boat is CGA at about 1100lbs. Ummmm, welllll, we put about 2000lbs.

MVDA is right. The coast gaurd underates what the boat can handle by alot. Thats usually a number that is for safety reasons. Most boats can handle alote more. Its more a question if the engine
can get a good hole shot depending on how much you weight your boat. We have a 04 X-Star and
the coast guard number I think is 1600 LBS.
Beleive it or not we run 3,000 LBS of water ballast plus people. Needless to say we had to change the prop to get a decent hole shot.
Just remember more weight, Bigger wakes.. : )

Ok, so question number two... the rents don't want any ballast in the boat because of safety reasons, now I'm a pretty persuasive person yet this seems to be a losing battle, any suggestions as to how I can get them to let me throw weight in the boat?

I would suggest, respecting the parents, (their boat, their rules) and make sure all of your friends kiss your parents butts, so that they will always be welcome on board. more friends that your parents like, the more weight you will have in the boat regularly. sorry to sound so crass, but it is something most of us who have been lucky enough to have parents with a boat, have had to go through.

When they're not looking, open up the drain plug so the hull fills with water.

Yeah or do what I did once and help your dad out when getting the boat ready for the season and undertighten an engine plug. Boat will run great and continually fill the boat with water while it is running. Wake will get bigger and bigger. Just don't burn the bilge motor and almost sink it. OK don't try that it sucks. You could try bringing more coolers full of ice and beverages of choice on board, hiding lead in places, inviting larger people (or more people either way), little tricky things like that might slide. It's gonna take a good amount of weight to sink that boat to get a large wake. Keep in mind that you'll probably have to be riding at a higher speed to get a clean wake from an I/O, I've experienced that before.

Lead is easy to hide under the seats and in the ski locker.

Haha could you imagine his dad wondering why the hell he's burning transmissions on the tow vehicle. That 22' beast with lead and gas will make towing a real chore.

maybe friends with backpacks full of lead is a better option.

"friends with backpacks full of lead "

Brilliant

Ryan, luckily we don't tow the boat, we have a slip at a marina at the lake so once its in for the season, its in till the bitter-freezing-cold end.

Where can I buy some lead bars and how much weight is in a lead bar?

just use one fat sack and fill it when you wana go wakeboarding then let it drain out when your done, then just put it in the ski locker. your marina will have a hose, just use that to fill the fat sack.

your boat will be fine with the weight.

People always bag on lead for its negative bouyancy (ie. if you swamp your boat with water, the water will be neutrally bouyant, but if you swamp it with lead, you could take it to the bottom of the lake)
I'm just curious... How much floatation would be required to keep a 50 lb lead weight afloat? Would it be practical to add enough extra floatation to your boat to compensate for the lead that you are adding? (ie. for every lead weight you throw in the bow, throw in an extra life jacket or somthing). The weight of the floatation (though I'm assuming it won't weigh much) will add to the weight of the boat when you are on plane, but will counter-act the weight of the lead when (um... I mean if) you swamp the boat!
Just some early morning ramblings....
B

who cares dude, lead is better

most people put 2k or more in their inboards and Vdrives no matter the CGA rating but i would use my own judgement if its my own boat..AN IO need much more weight to the front ,start with maybe 600/800 in the bow drop a 350 in the back and use the trim to clean up the wake...then with people to balance left and right to clean up that part of the wake and then add or subtract from there...

BTW id use sacks not lead...

The problem is his parents won't let him sack out the boat. So hiding lead or adding people makes the most sense.

bummer, the only thing for sure is, if the boat did sink for some reason, the lead bars would ensure the boat would be at the bottom of the lake. fat sacs on the other hand become wieghtless in water, and the boat would only sink to the winshield, just a suggestion of persuasion bess.