Boat leaning to the left!

[b.gagnon]

Boat leaning to the left!<br />The boat is a 1978 sea nymph 165 with a 1979 Chrysler 70hp outboard.<br />While sitting in the water it sits perfectly level, but when underway it is like there is an extra 500lbs on the left side.<br />The cavitation plate is about 1" below the bottom of the boat(I am going to raise it this week)<br />I tried a Finn but it did nothing but loose 4mph!(I assume due to the motor sitting so low)<br />Could this be the cause????

 

[SeaKaye12]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Interesting. <br /><br />I'm experiencing the same thing with my 16' runabout. Tri-hull with 85 HP Mercury.<br /><br />When I was at the helm I accused my fishing buddy of being too fat; but when we changed positions...same awkard tilt to the left.<br /><br />Really looking for an answer to this one...it's annoying.<br /><br />Thanks for reading, Chuck

 

[PuddleJumper]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Check weight distribution in the boat-ie:if batteries on left ,can they be relocated to right?etc<br />Does your steering wheel try to pull to the right? If so then adjusting trim tab may also help.

 

[b.gagnon]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

I have no-feedback steering so there is no pull! I also store the battery behind me as it is.<br />The gas tank is on the left corner of the boat but it does not seem to make a difference weather it is full or not.

 

[crazy charlie]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

A 79 Chrysler outboard???? And the boat leaning to the left.I would highly recommend a 10-15 horse kicker to balance you out .You will probably need it.

 

[Jdeagro]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Crazy Charlie - Try to be nice!<br /><br />SeaKaye and b.gagnon:<br /><br />The most common cause of a list to the port side is from the torque of the prop (torque list).<br /><br />Most manufacturers anticipate this and that is why the helm is on the starboard side.<br /><br />Raising the motor may help, but based on the info you provided, maybe not. It may take a lot of offsetting weight to eliminate this list, that may not be practicle as the tendency or amount of list may increase with speed. Try trimming the motor up as you may be running bow down. Hydrofoils tend to make the list worse. If you do not have electric trim, and must trim manualy then you will loose some of the planing ability in order to correct the list. Not good either.<br /><br />If none of this works to your satisfaction, trim the motor up about 10 degrees and install Smart Tabs to correct the remaining list and put the boat on plane in seconds. They are available here on iboats. com

 

[Grayhorse]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

I have an old Carver 25' with twin mercruiser's that listed to the left during sea trials after refit. Port outdrive trim indicator switch needed re-calibration. Had port outdrive trimmed up substantially higher causing list. A hydraulic beavertail for trolling was also not trimmed up far enough. I'm sure this isn't your exact problem, as you have only one outdrive, but check to make sure other similar issues don't affect your boat, such as a mis-mounted fin, mis-aligned engine, misshapen hull, anode fin mis-aligned, etc.

 

[bdirect]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

While in fact it may be the engine causing this my 1980 tri hull with a 50hp Evinrude started doing the same thing. It turned out to be a broken stringer causin the hull to twist the boat when under power.

 

[b.gagnon]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

I raised the motor last night and will take it out tonight!

 

[magster65]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Check what bdirect says. My bro had had a boat that did that and there was a small hook in one side of the hull. Hopefully this isn't the case with yours!

 

[b.gagnon]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Well, raising the motor had no effect on the lean! It did make it handle better and gave me 1mph faster. Next I will remove the fin.<br />The hull looks to be fine.

 

[Jdeagro]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

You may find that with the motor up a bit and removing the hydrofoil that this helps with the list. Removing the hydrofoil will help with the top end as it is probably causing the loss of speed with the extra stern lift and resulting bow pressure.<br /><br />You may want to check the trim on the motor, trim it out more. <br /><br />Unfortunately triming the motor out and removing the foil will both make it harder to get on plane.<br /><br />You may also want to check the bottom of the hull to see if there is any dammage or hooks.

 

[b.gagnon]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

I would like to install smart tabs, But this is an aluminum boat and the wood part of the transom only goes down about half way, so I would have nothing to mount them to. As far as getting on plane goes there is no problem there. The boat has a 17p prop that gets it going in a hurry! I just got my Tiny Tach in the mail last night and am hoping that I have enough room to spin a 19p for a little more speed. The boat tops off at 31-33mph. Speed doesn't seem to change much weather I have 1 or 4 people in it.

 

[trog100]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

when that propeller tries to turn one way it has to work against something.. what it works against is the boat hull.. basically if the prop ties to turn one way the boat tries to resist it and gets turned the other way..<br /><br />with a biggish engine in a little boat this will cause the boat to lean and probably try and turn in the opposite direction to the prop.. this aint about weight its about torque reaction.. its normal and some means has to be found to counter-act it..<br /><br />the boat dont need to be level at rest it needs to be leaning the opposite way to the way the prop turns.. or trim tabs (sadly not smart tabs in this case) have to be used or some other means of counteracting the torque from the prop..<br /><br />no mystery here.. just that every applied force has an opposite but equal reaction.. he he<br /><br />trog100<br /><br />dont get me wrong here i like smart tabs.. if i could get some at a reasonable price in the UK i would fit them to my boat.. but their one weakness is u cant independantly adjust em if excessive lean is your problem..

 

[Jdeagro]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

b.gagnon & trog100;<br /><br />You both have some misconceptions about Smart Tabs.<br /><br />trag100 is correct regarding the torque list.<br /><br />However he is not correct regarding the ability of Smart Tabs to correct the list. If required you would simply adjust the pressure (at the Plate bracket) higher on the port side and lower on the starboard side. This is very common and our customers do this quite often. In very severe situations we can supply the customer with one heavier actuator for the port side. In any case we have always been successful in correcting the problem. If the boat sits level at rest, leave the balance alone. <br /><br />Now for the mounting to aluminum hulls. Again we do this all the time with no problems and on boats that do not have reinforcement behind the aluminum. Please keep in mind that the stresses to the mounting and the tabs themselves are not like hydraulic trim tabs, because the plates automatically rotate up (beyond horizontal if necessary) and the actuator absorbs the stress and shock. The maximum load that the hardware will experience is limited to the resistance (pressure) of the actuator. Hydraulic trim tabs will incur significantly more since they are rigid in any position.

 

[trog100]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

arguement accepted John.. i was thinking more along the lines of on-the-fly independant adjustment of each tab.. but as u say i am sure some clever tweaking during fitting would go a long or even all the way to solving the torque list problem..<br /><br />offset fixed tabs would need less offset as the boat speeds up.. the torque reaction is always worse as the boat accelerates as the boat speeds up the affect from the offset tabs gets greater due to the increased water speed acting on on them so u would need to be able to takes some off.. with the correct spring loaded tabs on each side the tabs would back off on ther own..<br /><br />so yep.. smart tabs are probably "smarter" than i have given em credit for.. he he<br /><br />trog<br /><br />ps.. in fact taking the idea to its logical conclusion.. just the one spring loaded tab mounted perhaps nearer the center line of the boat might do the job better than two.. he he

 

[willamettejeff]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Have you tried adjusting the trim/anode fin on the motor yet as some have already suggested. Since you have a lean to the left I believe you will need to adjust the back end of the fin to the right or clockwise when looking up at it from below. I, as others here, have had the same problem. Since I don't have non-feedback steering I could feel a strong pull to the right with the lean to the left. Adjusting the trim fin corrected this as my boat now tracks straight and level with no pull either way in the steering. It may take multiple adjustments to get it right.

 

[b.gagnon]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

I tried the tab with no luck!!!<br />The tab on this motor has very limited movement and did not help much.

 

[trog100]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

the tab is more for correcting the veer-off a straight course thing and keeping the boat tracking true.. it wont do much as regards correcting the excessive list..<br /><br />trog

 

[willamettejeff]

Re: Boat leaning to the left!

Originally posted by trog100:<br /> the tab is more for correcting the veer-off a straight course thing and keeping the boat tracking true.. it wont do much as regards correcting the excessive list..

I beg to differ with you Trog, without belaboring the point it has been my experience and others as I have read on these forums that the trim tab can correct some or all of the list resulting from prop torque and with that the resulting veering off course. Perhaps my boat being a deep vee with smaller beam is more subject to the effects of prop torque. In any event doesn't cost anything to try adjusting the tab first. After that and after having eliminated any other possible causes, its then time to employ more expensive solutions to the problem. IMHO anyway.