Re: Bouncing boat
If the boat is roughly in the condition it was in when new and you haven't changed much of anything you just need to get used to your boat.
The position of the engine with respect to the hull determines your performance. When getting up on plane (hole shot) performance is improved if you have the engine "tucked in" whereas the lower unit is parallel to the transom.....propeller closest to the boat.
As you get on the water (15-20 mph) the boat picks up speed as do engine rpm's and you are "on the water". If you keep your original trim position the boat will "plow" meaning the bow (front of the boat) will be digging into the water and your speed will be reduced for a given throttle setting and the boat will be hard to steer.
Once on plane, start trimming the engine "out"....pushing the propeller away from the boat. The bow will lift out of the water as you do, speed will increase and rpms will too for the same throttle setting.
If you continue to trim out without changing anything else, the bow will come up too far and become unstable which is called porposing (bow goes up and down) or what's called "chine walking" where the boat rocks from side to side......chine walking usually only occurs at very high speeds when you are running your boat faster than it was designed to run.
To stop the porposing you created, either increase your throttle until the boat settles down, or reduce your trim setting (tuck it in) till it settles down.
If you are at high speed and are trimmed out, if you reduce your throttle the boat will probably start porposing. To stop it, if you want to run at the slower speed, then just tuck her in (trim in) until the boat stabilizes.
Play with it and give your self time to get used to it. You'll really enjoy it.
HTH
Mark
