Jack plate questions

[Iandayen]

I have a 1960 14' Sea King boat (Pic below)

On it i have a 1968 50 HP 4 cylinder Mercury 500 Thunderbolt outboard.

http://i31.tinypic.com/2j6a80p.jpg

My problem is that with the motor in the second from last hole out in the manual trim positions My cavitation plate is still about 1.5" under my boat.

http://i32.tinypic.com/15i6uyp.jpg

I am getting a lot of spray at higher RPMs and when I put the trim back in then I get water up the shaft and into my transom, flooding my boat very quick.

Here is video of spraying (short video - like 4 seconds but it shows you what it's doing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CapA3DviUy8

I have been told that my motor being too low is causing the spray. Can i safely put a jack plate on this boat? I was a welder for a long time, and I am no novice when it comes to fabricating something, i was thinking somewhere along the lines of what this guy did.

http://www.dillon-racing.com/jackplate/plans/jack-plate-page-01.htm

Would that be sturdy enough to work with on a fiberglass boat?

I was thinking I could put a metal plate on the inside of the transom to bolt through also to spread the weight out a bit and make it a bit sturdier.

Any insight would be great, thanks!

 

[crb478]

Re: Jack plate questions

If you have the fabrication skills I would go for it. It sound like your motor needs to come up at least 1 1/2 inch and maybe as high as 3 inches with the additional set back of the jack plate. I made one out of extruded aluminum that I picked up at a scrap yard for about 30 bucks. It is not as smooth as a professional one, but it works fine for me.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Jack plate questions

no welding needed if you can bend it. i ran this one on 4 different boats. 50 hp Johnsons.

this is poor camera angle