Port side list at dock

[SV Pretty Lady]

Hello all. I have noticed a slight list to portside at dock. Constant list, not occasional. I can feel the list when I am in the cabin. My fuel tank on the port side is half full. There is a small diesel heater on that side, too. The black tank is gone. Starbird side has a full water tank and 3 batteries. The AC system is in the middle under the forward birth. Bilge is near empty.

What could be causing this list to port?

[Stu Jackson]

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What could be causing this list to port?

This has been a known issue forever.

Some folks have suggested adding lead weight to offset it.  That's crazy.  The best use of lead is called batteries. 

[Noah]

Probably built that way. It is a phenom of mythical proportions with our boats. Search "port list" and you will read a lot about it. Some claim it is crowd hysteria some claim it is real as can be. I am in the second camp and ballast/store more heavily on starboard to counter act.

[KWKloeber]

Lady

The short answer is that it's impossible to perfectly balance the weight of a boat design.  It's just a normal design/production thing.

The longer answer is that
Equipment, fiberglass, wood, all have weight and everything would have to perfectly designed to 100% distribute the weight evenly.  Some manufacturers do it better than others :-)  The heavier the boat, the less prone to a list (presuming that more weight will end up on centerline and help counteract some "mis weighting" in other locations.)  A narrow racer will a long keel tend to have less potential to list, than a broad flat cruising hull (given other things being equal.)

The early C-30s had a much more noticeable port list than you show.  Be thankful.

When I removed/rebedded my keel, it was off plumb ("vertical-ness") by about 1-1/2" at the bottom, maybe more -- it was too many yrs ago and CRS.)  I don't know what percent or angle that equated to, but you can see that the keel was not "hung" (installed) perfectly vertical. 
But, being a later year C-30 in the MK-I series, the early port list was not present on my hull, and isn't widely reported on later model years.  Magically went away with no change in hull design or equipment placement.  So how?   Because my keel wasn't hung perfectly vertical and so it counteracted (corrected) the port list caused by the weight imbalance.  Catalina disputes to the death that it hung C-30 keels off-plumb to compensate for the inherent port list.
However, my case is evidence (albeit n=1).  So now I have a wicked port list (because I hung my keel plumb when I reinstalled it (seemed the correct, prudent, thing to do at the time; D'oh!)

Understand also that with factory jockeys, hanging a keel isn't accomplished to rocket-science precision.  Whilst cranking out production boats as quickly as the factory is able to meet demand, there isn't time to tend to such precision.  So even though the list may be "corrected" it might not be "perfectly corrected" due to the time and the give-a-crap factor of any particular jockey -- an example, I found a complete 360 coil of exhaust hose hidden out of sight (was my jockey too lazy to cut off the excess from the end of a 50-foot roll? Nah.  )

-k

[Ron Hill]

Guys : Stu is right - stupid to use deadweight to solve the port side list.
 
I used a starting battery, a 35+ Lb. tool box, equipment in the bottom of the V-berth hanging locker and a full starboard water tank to solve the list!!

A few thoughts

[Noah]

I agee. That worked for me as well.

[Stairmaster]

I'm glad to hear about this because I thought I was going crazy  We've only had the boat since January, but recently noticed we lean to port a bit more. It seems to be less noticeable when both water tanks are full and the holding tank is empty , all which makes sense. Guess we will start storing all the heavy items on starboard.

[Roc]

do an inventory of where you have things stored. As Ron said, arrange items that would counterbalance each other or put more weight on one side over the other to level out the boat.  You may find that you are keeping heavier items on the side that's listing.

[Noah]

In my opinion, a little "left leaning" is a good thing.