New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

[The Grayt 1]

When I had my new 93 Seaswirl I/O 4.3l omc cobra serviced the guy was telling me a little about trimming. When we tested the boat out at purchase the front end was porpoising a little. I had the prop all the way down. He told me later that you are supposed to raise the drive a few inches to level it out. Will this help the ride? What else will ti do?

 

[skargo]

Re: New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

Your drive's angle is trimming. Try the search function, there are hundreds of posts on this very subject. Good luck!

 

[Snobike Mike]

Re: New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

Trimming adjustments are critical for many aspects of boating. If you search I'm sure you'll find enough info to make your head spin.

In brief, trim down to get going and trim up while underway.

 

[Philster]

Re: New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

http://www.motorboatmuseum.org.uk/learning/trimming.html

That is a fun little toy/game above that let's you drive a boat and raise power and adjust trim. Have fun! Very educational.

Set the horsepower. Notice that the boat gets going nicely with the engine in (down).

But... to skim across the water and build top speed, this happens with the drive out (up). This action lifts the hull out of the water and reduces resistance (of the hull plowing through water). This also keeps you from destroying the engine. An engine at full throttle probably can't reach redline when the drive is down/in. That is a tremendous amount of stress. You raise the drive. You can only raise it so far before the prop and drive lose too much control, and this is why you need to learn/read/practice.

There is a bunch of info here, too:

http://www.boattest.com/resources/view_News.aspx?NewsID=3348

 

[Snobike Mike]

Re: New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

Neat game. I got 112 mph.

 

[dozerII]

Re: New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

Read this article, it was posted on here before and is the best one I have read.
http://www.clubmarine.com.au/internet/clubmarine.nsf/docs/MG19-2+Technical

 

[skargo]

Re: New boat owner, what does trimming mean? What does it do?

Neat game. I got 112 mph.

Me too.