Boat capacity

[ugamarkj]

Anyone know how boat capacity is decided? I have a friend with a Heyday boat that has a 17 person capacity, and yet it is clearly smaller than my 252 with a limit of 12 people. I could see maybe 9 adults fitting on the Heyday boat comfortably.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Anyone know how boat capacity is decided? I have a friend with a Heyday boat that has a 17 person capacity, and yet it is clearly smaller than my 252 with a limit of 12 people. I could see maybe 9 adults fitting on the Heyday boat comfortably.

I believe it is a formula used by the USCG. It’s optimistic.... my states 10 persons With a weight of persons not to exceed 1835#.

While there is seating for 10 on my boat, it would be crowded though. In reality 6, maybe 8 would be about right for a fun day on the water

From the links below..looks like the formula is length X width / 15… one article I read that the divisor is sometimes 18. Did the calcs for my boat and the math works using 18 as the divisor. Just guessing but the heyday probably uses 15 as the divisor. So Yamaha is staying on the conservative side. And, this calc is supposed to be so that if the bost is swamped it will float upright with all persons on board.

Boat Capacity, Rules & Weight Calculation | BOATERexam.com®

Powerboats less than 20 feet in length are required to have a capacity plate. Learn more about these numbers, what they mean and how they're calculated.

www.boaterexam.com

Capacity and Horsepower Defined - boats.com

The real meaning of two of the most frequently hyped words in boating

www.boats.com

 

[biffdotorg]

That HeyDay is designed as an entry level tow boat. And like other tow boats, it's capacity is more around weight, than quantity of occupants. As the hull is really deep and displaces so much water to handle the ballast capacity.

Where the yamaha boats will be much more comfortable for more people, but have no where near the displacement to handle the weight. Our weight capacity alone is probably half the ballast capability of the bigger tow boats.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe the Coast Guard determines the formula used on that tag, and not the MFG?

 

[Quad]

I see higher capacity on MANY wake boats, I wonder if it's a weight thing, as the hulls are designed to take extra ballast and that ballast could be in the form of human-shaped sacks of meat and water?

 

[biffdotorg]

I see higher capacity on MANY wake boats, I wonder if it's a weight thing, as the hulls are designed to take extra ballast and that ballast could be in the form of human-shaped sacks of meat and water?

Look at the freeboard alone in the stern. There is so much hull there, it blows my mind on a trailer. Yes, they are designed that way for sure.

Now take a Super Air Nautique or MasterCraft and look at the layout. There literally is a deep draft, high freeboard and loads of seating. When they say capacity of 15-17, they can do it. As a captain, I have no desire for that many people under my responsibility. Totally different animal from the entry-level Heyday boats. Although, they did release a more normal looking tow boat recently.