The jack plate is on! Hooked the lifting eye to a come-a-long attached to my big live oak in the backyard. Took the bolts out and gently lifted the beast off of the transom. I used tons of 4200 when installing the plate and motor, and used some over-sized washers on the inside of the splashwell.
The water was REALLY choppy today; actually there were some 6' seas! I stayed mostly in Big Bayou that was protected some from the serious wave action; though I did venture out into the big stuff just to see how she did.
I didn't have my GPS with me because I was only planning on taking a short ride; I will post my speeds when I go out tomorrow.
The 10" setback definitely changed the angle of thrust; the attitude was quite different. I started out with the motor slightly above the height which it was originally mounted on the transom. Running at this height the stern seemed very low, most likely due to the fact that the leverage was different with the set-back, and the fact the jack plate pushed the motor back with the angle of the transom. I raised the motor a bit more and ran again, I could definitely tell there was much less of my boat in the water. The jack plate was picking up water and spraying it to the side considerably at lower speed, and when I slowed to a stop, it would scoop a good bit and direct it right into the boat!!!
I ended up running with the motor raised a good 2 1/2" above where it normally runs. There was very little hull in the water, my RPMs got up to where they should be at WOT, around 5400. I was skipping across the chop, the attitude was good; looking sternward it was really strange to see my motor that high up. My water pressure was about 18psi at WOT so I was good there. As I mentioned earlier, I had no GPS with me so I was unaware of my actual speed but I could tell I was really moving along. I moved out of the protected waters into the bay, man was it rough! There were some 6' waves capping; the boat was handling differently than what I am used to as I was riding much higher than normal. I was getting splashed pretty good with the combination of strong winds and big waves, but the boat handled it fairly well.
Here you can see the height at which I was running the motor. My hull has a bit of a step at the rear, my A/V is slightly above the step, not the keel.
Hopefully the wind will be a bit calmer tomorrow; I will hook up the GPS and get some speeds.
T H Marine makes a plate for the bottom of the jack plate that is essentially like a trim tab for the center of the boat. It is advertised as such; I think I will definitely have to get one as I think it will stop the wash when slowing down as well as the spray when running at median speeds. It really seems like it would be standard with the jack.
