stability question

[shaenjay09]

i have an 87 monte carlo 16.5 ft with an 3.0 merc and alpha one. my skeg is broke and bent to the right. the boats kind of unstabile getting to a plane and after. is that cause of the skeg? i have a whale tail on there. any tips to make it more stable.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: stability question

Yes get the skeg repaired....... no skeg combined with a whale tail is the problem

 

[scoutabout]

Re: stability question

I'd agree that a bent or broken skeg isn't going to make your boat exactly handle better.

Can you be more specific about the instability? Is it excessive steering play or pulling to one side or the other? You may have some other problems with the outdrive too.

 

[shaenjay09]

Re: stability question

yah we have to shift the weight alot to keep it from tiping on the plane and geting into it. and it kind of pulls to the drivers side . well have to shift the weight to one side geting up on the plane and then once its up shift to the other alittle to keep it centered. it just seems real tippy

 

[Chris1956]

Re: stability question

I would doub't your issue is the fault of the broken skeg. I would remove the Whale Tail and see if it improves. Make sure you trim up a bit, when you get on plane. You want to lift the bow a bit to eliminate "Bow Steer".

 

[scoutabout]

Re: stability question

I'd try it without the whale tail too and see what happens. Having said that I had a SeaRay the same size as your boat with the same outdrive and motor with a whale tail. It was always rock solid on plane or any other time.

It sounds like a very strange issue to me though. Almost like you've got a bunch of water under the floor sloshing from one side to the other which makes it unbalanced?

Has the boat every handled "normally" while you've owned it or is this been an issue from day one?