Working on my narrowboat design, another though occurred to me.
If you have the weight concentrated at the stern and the bow, the whole thing is effectively a dumbell. With a long, narrow hull, this is more acute. The whole thing will be unstable and will tend to oscillate under steering
Tim the Wombat
Wombat, what you describe is known as 'hogging' of the hull. probably not a problem in a model, but in real ships leads to fracture of the hull and often loss of the ship. Having said that, its always best from a stress point of view (mechanical not mental) to have weight evenly distributed along the boat.
http://www.worldwideflood.com/ark/hull_calcs/wave_bm1.htmthis is interesting!
Ian