Hi Mike,
The original ballast in your Venture hull was there mostly to counteract the heeling forces caused by the sails. If the sails are gone, so are those forces. Your boat would probably float fine with no ballast at all. However, the ballast does add inertia, i.e. resistance to sudden movements, which you feel as a smooth motion in choppy conditions.
If you reduce battery weight, it will make the hull feel a bit livelier, but I think you'd have to remove almost all the weight to make it unstable.
I used to own a Siren 17 sailboat, which only had 130lbs of ballast. It was much more lively than your Venture, but I never capsized it in 10 years of coastal sailing and cruising. It had enough ballast that with the sails stowed, I could stand on the gunwale, one hand on a stay, and lean out, and it was no where near capsizing.
Curtis
Posted by: cpcanoesailor@yahoo.ca
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