Wandering at low speed.

[Philster]

When puttering along at 'no wake' zone speeds, my boat will not track straight. She goes a little left or a little right. Requires constant steering wheel input.

>Bravo 1.
>Three-blade SS prop in mint condition.
>I do not have a finned zinc anode on cavitation plate, just a flat one.
>Skeg is 95% fine (although I've heard skeg doesn't matter much anyway).
>No list.

Also:

I putter along with tabs all the way up and outdrive all the way in/down.

I am making 900-1000 RPM at puttering speeds in no wake areas.

Any ideas?

 

[capndan]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My understanding is that is pretty typical of Deep-V hulls.

especially big ones.

Have you had this boat a long time? Is this a new problem?

 

[bear_69cuda]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My boat does the same thing but if I hold the wheel still, it corrects itself.... Have you tried not correcting to see what happens?

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My boat does the same thing but if I hold the wheel still, it corrects itself.... Have you tried not correcting to see what happens?

+1 on this. If i hold the wheel still, the boat wanders left and back to the right repeatedly. How about lowering the trim tabs? you say you have them up. When i put my smarttabs on, almost all my wandering was gone.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

Try trimming your drive up a bit. Excessive trim at slower speeds will make mine wonder everytime.

 

[jkust]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

Until I owned an I/O I didn't know there was such a thing as wander. My OB's don't do it. For my I/O I finally realized one day to quit correcting it and you will go in slight zig zag straight line. I don't even notice it anymore in no wake zones.

 

[Philster]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My understanding is that is pretty typical of Deep-V hulls.

especially big ones.

Have you had this boat a long time? Is this a new problem?

Second voyage on the Scarab. Had my maiden voyage in fall and it did it then, too.

Hey, I don't mind any quirks if they are normal. Believe me, be it a sports car with 40 series tires that wander or my R/C nitro race cars that overreact to steering input, as long as it's normal, I am fine with it.

 

[Philster]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

Try trimming your drive up a bit. Excessive trim at slower speeds will make mine wonder everytime.

I will try that.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My outboards do it too. I don't know why, but all boats seem to do it to some extent. Seems like the bigger the outboard, the worse it is.
Normal stuff, though.
JBJ

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Wandering at low speed.

my sister's wanders: 19' Grady CC (deep v) with a 150. But mine doesn't: 21' CC deep v with a 150. But I read about it: many boats do this and trying to correct usually makes it worse.

 

[smclear]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

but all boats seem to do it to some extent.
JBJ

A true inboard (not I/O) does not wander like this. The rudder prevents it. This phenomenum only occurs in I/O's and I guess O/B's too.

 

[reap182]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

Mine does the same thing, try not to overcorrect and should do slight left to right.

 

[CHAWK46]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

Thought it was just my old Imperial Cuddy but my new to me Century BR does it but not as bad. My OBs never did it.

 

[KermieB]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My boat does the same thing but if I hold the wheel still, it corrects itself.... Have you tried not correcting to see what happens?

Same thing.. I hold the wheel straight and trim up pretty high. The slower I go the more it rocks trimmed all the way down.

 

[bekosh]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

When puttering along at 'no wake' zone speeds, my boat will not track straight. She goes a little left or a little right. Requires constant steering wheel input.

>Bravo 1.
>Three-blade SS prop in mint condition.
>I do not have a finned zinc anode on cavitation plate, just a flat one.
>Skeg is 95% fine (although I've heard skeg doesn't matter much anyway).
>No list.

Also:

I putter along with tabs all the way up and outdrive all the way in/down.

I am making 900-1000 RPM at puttering speeds in no wake areas.

Any ideas?

My Wellcraft does the same thing. Very common for deep V hulls. Trimming the drive out slightly helps a little, but I have found that dropping the tabs all the way down makes the biggest difference.

 

[dannyual767]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

+1 on this. If i hold the wheel still, the boat wanders left and back to the right repeatedly. How about lowering the trim tabs? you say you have them up. When i put my smarttabs on, almost all my wandering was gone.

posted by bekosh,

My Wellcraft does the same thing. Very common for deep V hulls. Trimming the drive out slightly helps a little, but I have found that dropping the tabs all the way down makes the biggest difference.

My 2004 Stingray 200LX used to have horrible low speed wandering characteristics. I installed stainless steel Nauticus Smart Tabs and like redone4x4, almost all of my slow speed wandering is gone.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

I always thought that my boat wandered because I have power steering and that means I get no feedback from the wheel. Because I have no feedback I can't tell that I am overcompensating to correct the wander causing me to eventually wander the other way.

 

[Triton II]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

My Ocean Series 580 wanders slightly and has fairly "mushy" steering response below about 5 knots constant speed. However if I select neutral she track straight. I may try fitting trim tabs, but in all honesty I've got used to it and treat it as part of her "charm".

TII

 

[spudshaft]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

"Classic" example: my '82 19' Ebbtide does it too. Makes docking and getting on the trailer interesting at times.

 

[Shife]

Re: Wandering at low speed.

Tabs full down at no wake speed. Problem solved.