Flaunting my ignorance

[huskeria]

Hi all,

I am new to boating but this place is a lot of help. I have what I suppose is an obvious question but I am hoping to get a bit of help anyway.

I just bought a 17' 170t charger. Its essentially a fishing boat with a pedestal seat in front and back. It has two seats behind the windshield and two lounge seats in front of the windshield. The boat is billed as a fish and ski model. Its supposed to be rated as a five person boat or 700lbs. Pushing it is a Johnson 150 hp ob.

I know that I will not use the right terms but as i accelerate the front of the boat goes up in the air. I was told by the person that I bought it from to start accelerating with the bottom of the outboard touching the boat. And as I accelerate I am supposed to tilt the outboard to make the nose of the boat come down.

Maybe I am doing something wrong but it seems to take a ton of time to get the nose of the boat down. It is high enough I cant see in front of me very well. My wife and I were in the seats behind the windshield and behind us is the heavy motor, three batteries and the fuel so I know it is back heavy. I got nervous and from then on either she or i moved to the front of the boat to help pull the front down. If it matters, the front of the boat would finally go down after the outboard angle was adjusted and we were going between 11 and 14 mph.

So, am i expecting too much from this boat or am I doing something wrong? I would think that if its billed as a fish and ski then it should be able to get us going without someone being forward. I was on the water with the person I bought it from and it was doing ok and going just under fifty mph. Of course then I had two grown men forward in the boat. My wife was scared the boat would flip over backwards if i kept increasing speed to get the nose down. Obviously I don't want to do something that would endanger them. So.... Is it normal for the nose to raise that much? Should I just accelerate and adjust trim till it rights itself? Is this dangerous to my family? Thanks much. Sorry for being so wordy.

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

sounds normal to me. Store some gear in the bow to help it out, or better yet get some Nauticus Smart Tabs. They will eliminate all your problems mentioned. But yes, its normal to be "bow-high" under initial acceleration until you are on plane.

 

[marcortez]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

The bottom of the outboard should not be touching any part of the transom when trimmed fully in.
Close yes, but touching no.

When your accelerating from a stop position, keep the motor fully trimmed "down" or "in" until the bow starts to come down.
As the bow comes down, adjust the trim "out", or "up" until the boat is more or less level on the water.....neither bow down too much or stern down too much.

A 150 HP outboard on a 17' boat, even loaded with gear and passengers, should rocket right out of the hole with little effort.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

at 11-14 mph you will stay at that angle. give it gas; the stern will rise and the bow will fall. don't be timid.
Boats operate in three zones: level at idle/"no wake" speed; level at higher speeds on a plane, and dragging the stern, bow up, in between. You want to get in and out of that middle zone quickly.
Try this: motor at idle speed to some open water where you feel comfortable. Push the trottle all the way, all at once. It's NOT like a car. Once you are level, back it down if you want.
If the bow drops too fast, you dig in. raise the motor to fix this, and/or slow down.

Never take the family on the maiden voyage.

You have a very large engine for that length boat. That is part of the issue. check your capacity plate for max horsepower before you go wide open. And three batteries is a lot for a 17' boat.

 

[OnTheWaterNow]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

At 11- 14 mph the bow will remain in the air for awhile. you need speed plus your trim to get on plane quicker. you dont have to floor it but you will need more than 15 mph to get on plane quicker and you will not flip over.

 

[180shabah]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Clarification - Start with the trim adjusted ALL the way down/in. Apply throttle. DO NOT trim up until AFTER the bow comes down and you are on plane.

It is not uncommon for a boat to take 3-5 seconds to get on plane. Although a small boat with plenty of power should plane relatively quickly.

 

[huskeria]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Thanks for the advice. I get the concept now of how to adjust the outboard and when to do it now. I agree that I was timid out there. Next week I will go out by myself and get more experience before taking the family again.

The motor came with the boat from the manufacturer so I would assume the boat is rated for that amount of hp. I have looked at several of the same model of boat on craigslist from around the country and they too have the same motor.

I guess one last question then. The boat is rated for five people as I stated and has a 700 lb limit. Does the weigh limit mean that it would be unsafe if four 200 lb guys were on it? Or is there a dummy factor built into the ratings and I would be safe enough hauling 800 lbs of fat old guys around?

Thanks again

 

[180Fisherman]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

That type of boat typically has very low seating similar to a bass boat. I'd think briefly losing sight of the horizon while accelerating would be pretty normal

 

[180shabah]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

The boat is rated for five people as I stated and has a 700 lb limit.

That is five people OR 700lbs, whichever you hit first. That 700lbs also includes all your gear, toys, coolers, snacks etc. If everybody is 200+, then you really only have a 2-3 person boat.

 

[Lrider]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Is this the boat or similar?

Cool !

http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/boa/1734335300.html

 

[huskeria]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Yes, that is the same boat. Other than that one has windshields on it and for some reason some past owner discarded the ones for my boat. The next project is to try to find some somewhere

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Never take the family on the maiden voyage.

You have a very large engine for that length boat. That is part of the issue. check your capacity plate for max horsepower before you go wide open. And three batteries is a lot for a 17' boat.

yep, no family on maiden voyage EVER! That also goes for the first time out each year. 3 reasons, you don't want to endanger more people than needed, you don't want any one else witnessing your stupid events (forgetting to put plug in, reconnect kill switch, etc..), and also, it gives you someone to call when it does go bad! (or next of kin to notify if it goes REALLY bad!)

batteries... pretty common on a fishing boat like that. 1 starter battery, 2 for a 24 volt trolling motor. Most likely they are entirely different circuits, without even a switch between them.

capacity... you will be fine with 4 200# guys. Not like game wardens carry a scale and require you to step on it. Its a judgement call at best, and I have YET to ever see one care about specific weight. Need a lifejacket and seat for every butt on board! (and yep, you WILL get stopped in alot of areas for having someone on one of those pedestal seats, it is above the gunwal.)

 

[roscoe]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Many boats have a rating for people/weight. Say 5 people or 700#.

And they have a total capacity weight rating, say 1400#.
This would include people, gear, motor, fuel, etc.

So, find the capacity plate in the boat and see what it says.
I'll bet you have more actual weight capacity that 700#.
Something like 5p/700#/1600# total would be more typical.

Would having 800# of people aboard be unsafe? Maybe, probably not.

But remember, all passengers must be in a seat, and you don't want them sitting up on a pedestal seat while flying across the water.

So you can put 2 people in the seats behind the windshield, and 2-3 in the seats on the sides in front of the windshield.

Oh, and that GT 150 is a very nice motor.

 

[huskeria]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

The amount of people that respond here is amazing to me. Very helpful.

Yes I get the reasons why you wouldn't want anyone with you on the first attempt at taking a boat out. The situation I discussed was actually my second attempt.

The evening before was supposed to be the maiden voyage. I had a hard time finding an available boat ramp because of high water. I drove to an area that I knew had another boat ramp and as I was going down the road I saw another boat ramp closed sign. So... my option was to back the trailer up a quarter mile and back onto a highway to keep looking or I could make the decision to take a road through a very old cemetery and come out on the other side.

As it turns out I took the road through the cemetery. It was one lane and really more of a path. I navigated the first two turns just fine. But on the third turn I found that my trailer was straddling a headstone. I couldn't back up from that position. So for the next nearly hour my wife was giving me dirty looks as she stood outside of the pickup warning me of various headstones I was about to hit as I tried to worm my way out of there.

In the end we went home defeated. The only things injured in the first boat outing was my ego and a newly dead bush from that cemetery. On the positive side, I believe the people that pulled off the side of the road to watch me had a very enjoyable evening.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Great. Now your boat is haunted on top of all the other issues.

 

[Auxlarry]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

Welcome to the boating world!

the guys here are right. Since your boat is under 20' it is required to have a capacity plate on it informing you of max. HP, and allowable weight.
My 18' has on the plate 6 people or 1440 lbs. That means all your gear weight included. So, if you have 6 200 lb. people (1200 lbs) you need to make sure all your gear is less than 220 lbs.

 

[karatejoe]

Re: Flaunting my ignorance

no one said yet so I will.
Your question is a good one but it tells me 1 of 2 things.
You need to take a boater safety course or have an experienced boater friend take you out to show you how to boat safely.
Either of wich would have answered your question and would make you and your wife feel safer about boating.
Also youtube has a lot of good videos on operating a boat in various conditions.