Re: Motor height, w/pic - Does this look right?
Your problem is common to tillersteering boats.....and I don't see a console in yours!<br /><br />You and your fishing partner are in the stern which will definitely aggrivate the porposing and poor hole shot problem with just 65 hp. That picture is worth a thousand words.<br /><br />Now "if you had a 150hp" on that boat it would make no difference as you could "power thru it", jack that baby up, trim her out, run your high performance prop look at the mist blowing out your behind and try to see where you were going thru your watering eyes................; but you don't and you can't (power thru it) so you have to act accordingly.<br /><br />2. See no reason for any jacking on this boat....see below.<br /><br />3. Somebody mentioned a tilt pin limiting tuck in trim but I don't see one. Once you lower your engine, you should come out of the hole with the trim tucked all the way in and once on plane, trim her out. As you do the bow will lift (after the initial lift associated with getting on plane which would be significant on this rig) and the speed will pick up. Somewhere in there you will find your point of equilibrium.....max speed with min porposing.....compromise.<br /><br />4. Your 15p prop with a 65 hp on that boat should do ok, but a 15p ss, cupped, would probably be just the ticket. Should give you excellent performance and 35 mph with 2 in the boat. Would definitely reduce any cavitation tendencies you would have. <br /><br />I had an 85 on a similar boat and 39 was all I could get and I did a lot of tinkering with different props (ss) and jacking. Had a brother in law with an OMC 60 hp on a 15 ft trihull and he was running a 15p alum but water skiing. He really needed more pitch but couldn't due to the skiing out of the hole load. Don't remember his speed but 30 sounds about right with the boat normally loaded. He was wound up tight if the boat was lightly loaded. Could have done 35 probably with a 17 SS...but would have had a problem pulling skis.<br /><br />5. Once you drop your engine your cavitation should disappear. I would drop it as far as I could such that when the boat is level and the engine is level, the bottom of the whales tale aka anti cavitation plate is about 1 inch above a line extension of the hull. This will put it just out of the water when you are running which is what you want if you don't need it and want to maximize your performance. Again, you aren't going to get that much with that engine set up the way it is.<br /><br />Just noticed one more thing. You are running a deep V which is against you . If you had more hp it work for you by lifting out of the water at higher speed, reducing the hull drag and increasing the speed.....but again you don't. And it looks like you have a pad also....same thing here. For your engine a flat bottom would do best....at least the last 1/3 of the boat.<br /><br />Back in the '70's skeeter made a pretty much flat bottom 16' narrow bass boat with a steering console. A friend had a '65 Johnny and he could run about 37 with that rig. I had a 125 Johnny on a 17' that could do 39 and I could just pull away from him. He was running a 17 OMC SS as I recall. He had no hole shot problem as he had the flat hull area in the stern to provide lift and all his weight wasn't right in front of the engine.<br /><br />6. Agree that you need to leave your whales tale or whatever fin on there to help combat stern sag caused by you sitting right there.<br /><br />7. Once you do this I see no reason why your buddy has to get on the bow to get her on top.<br /><br />8. With a boat that new, I don't see a reason for hull contained water. Now you may have a live well full of water and that's another black mark for your performance since they are usually aft and I'd bet one of those lockers right by you are where it is.....bet it's the big one aft, on the port side. Drain that sucker and put em (fish....Walleyes looks like) on a little ice.<br /><br />9. Last. To get rid of the wet deck carpeting you have to get the temp/humidity above the dew point; the higher, the faster it would dry on it's own.....hard to do in the winter when the relative humidity is 99%. Would need artificial heating to dry it out.<br /><br />HTH,<br /><br />Mark
<br />
<br />
<br />
