Re: Proper use of power trim (New user)
Like tas said, get to know "your" boat as all are different.
He said that if he trims all the way down (in) he looses speed. This could mean that his transom is near vertical. My transom tilts back about 20 degrees so I run my tilt farther "in" than he does to get the same effect.
One thing I used to do on another boat with a pretty vertical transom, was to trim all the way in, in preparation for the "hole shot" (getting the boat on plane from a standstill). Then I'd firewall the engine and as soon as the boat started responding, I'd trim out as it was picking up speed. This worked slick.
On top end (Wide Open Throttle ...WOT), my son's boat (pretty vertical transom) can be trimmed out to the highest speed and given rpm but if you continue to trim out, the speed falls off and the rpm increase. Obviously this is over trimming.
Other boats could blow out when over trimmed which means that the speed falls off rapidly and the rpm's go out of sight.....very bad.
On my current boat I cannot trim out as far as I'd like....due to the high slant of my transom so I can't do either of the above.
The speedometer and tach tell you what you want to know about boat attitude. When you get the speed at max (for a given throttle setting) and rpm's at min (for a given speed) you are where you want to be.
Trimming out too far can cause a condition called porposing where the boat's bow rises and falls in an up and down motion. Two ways to combat that: either speed up till it quits (if you can) or trim in till it stops. However, usually right at the point where it wants to porpose is usually your most efficient operating point for that setup.
Mark