new boat , things to do

[Andy56]

Add a water pressure gauge to your list of things to do so you can tell if you are jacking her up too far.

yes i had the thought too, but as i am only going up till the cav plate is barely out of the water, maybe the equivalent of one or two holes, i should be fine. Did I mention its a manual job? I figure the hydraulic job is over kill for me. Its not a 80mph bass boat after all.
I am not after absolute performance. Just a well balance setup.

[Andy56]

I'd imagine the bow rises because your trying to push the hull thru, up and on top of the water, look at work barges for instance that run 150hp tiller steer they plane in 2 seconds and the bow doesnt rise

Its more like its not in balance and most of the thrust is directed down causing the bow to rise till you get on the plane, at which point there is a change in forces acting on the hull countering the thrust direction of the prop. On your barge, the prop thrust is in line with the center of gravity, all the thrust is horizontal with minimal vertical force. On mine, a significant proportion of the thrust is directed down on take off as the motor is obviously pointing below the center of gravity. The trim has minimal effect on holeshot because the motor is way too low. Once on the plane, i can trim out to a degree but i can feel its not quite doing as i ask/comand when i trim in. As i said, a finely balanced sea saw is the ideal.

[Dignity]

Add a water pressure gauge to your list of things to do so you can tell if you are jacking her up too far.

Ok, this is something I haven't heard before, how does this work.

[Andy56]

Ok, this is something I haven't heard before, how does this work.

when you google jackplates, you get most articles talking about hydaulic jackplates that can be wound up or down via controls on the console. These can give you 5-10" of verticle movement. So if you go too high, the leg water intakes can be out of the water, so, no water cooling! When the water is glassed out, you can run on the limit and gain a couple of km/hr, but if it gets a bit sloppy, the leg can bounce in and out of the water so you would adjust down to compensate. Its of benefit of you know how to harness the adjustments and a water pressure guage helps you stay within safe parameters.
in my case, i dont intend on going for absolute max performance, it will be set and forget, just a balanced performance with plenty of " head room".

[stevej]

[QUOTE=Andy56;1647229] I also doubt there would be too many people like me who like to get the most from their toys. I think i have read and watched every video or article on boats ever distributed. lol. a little knowledge can be dangerous to your wallet.
QUOTE]

what do you mean by this
overthinking what Is just a tinny can be dangerous to your wallet

[Andy56]

[QUOTE=stevej;1647298]

I also doubt there would be too many people like me who like to get the most from their toys. I think i have read and watched every video or article on boats ever distributed. lol. a little knowledge can be dangerous to your wallet.
QUOTE]

what do you mean by this
overthinking what Is just a tinny can be dangerous to your wallet

no, not overthinking, lol.

just spend on little things that adds up after a while. Sucker for gadgets like most men.

[Andy56]

Well the jackplate arrive the other day, in the usual way. Delivery guy counts to 10 rapidly then leaves his calling card.
So today i had the day off and decided to ring around for a fit up. Everyone busy for 2-3 weeks and $115/hr and $25 per ss bolt. ( yes it came with no spare mounting bolts ).
Found a lovely guy called Allan in craigeburn and he did it on the spot. He only wanted $100 and when he finished i gave him $130.

First observation. A straight edge from the hull to the motor showed that the cav plate was 2" below !!!! Motor on the highest mount possible. You have to put a ruler, not go by eye. So thats the starting point. So how low was it just by eye initially?
After fitting the jackplate, he adjusted the motor for the cav plate to be just above the hull bottom. This was a good 6" above the initial factory setup. I still have 4" of lift if i want, but i only want it to be right, not extreemly right. I will be very surprised if it dont work out now.
Was going to go out on this nice sunny day to test but i have other issues to deal with first. Next week will be the test.

Last week, i pulled out of point richards and turned to portarlington when we came to a full stop. I hit a sand bank, christ what a surprise, lol. So skeg has been sand blasted and the prop has a few dints on the edges. It was a pleasant day out and we caught lots of big squid.
On the way back the bow would not drop unless i got to 5000rpm and was extreemly uncomfortable. WTF?
On the trailer i can hear the bilge pump but cant see any water anywhere. Undo the bung and half of PPB comes out .
Today i had a closer look and the bilge pump wasnt functioning properly. I could feel eddy currents in the water but nothing exiting. Its a johnson sxf flow 1250g/hr so there should have been a pretty good stream. So on investigation, its a three piece pump. the filter cage gets riveted to the bottom and a cover goes over the impellor. The cover has a hole in the center through which water is sucked up. and the whole piece just clips onto the filter. Who ever fitted the pump was a clumsy oaf and damaged the impellor cover, hence it was sitting off the impellor. The impellor just spun the water around.
What to do? Buy a new pump? Complain to the sales guys? Complain to telwater? I rang the pump suppliers- johnson.
They knew exactly what was required and They are sending me a new impellor cover for free. NOW THAT is good service !!

It could have been me making the news that night. Very sobering that when you buy a new boat, you should give it a thorough shakedown to iron out issues you dont know it has.

PS, the water must have been filling whilst i was busy powering out backwards from the sand bank. So dont jump to the wrong conclusions guys. I just checked the fuel tank and i did go through a bit of juice for the day. It all makes sense now

PS, i couldnt tell that the boat was full of water when we were fishing. It just seemed to cope allright with an extra 100kg i didnt know we had, lol. I think this is a great hull design. The bow was up because as i powered out, the water would all rush to the rear and cause the bow to rise even more until i got on the plane then it would flatten out.. More reports after testing next week

[Andy56]

Here is a photo of the jackplate.

[Andy56]

So i did end up going out once more. the bow was still a bit flighty. The boat was porpoising in the 1m swell and i could hear the prop going in and out of the water.
So i clearly have the motor slightly higher than necessary and i need some ballast up forward.

So dropped the motor about 1/4" and went to bunnings and bought a bag of 20kg sand. I put the fuel tank up forward under the casting deck on top of the sand . I ran a fuel line up front and put a water separator 10micron filter next to the bulb. Man that hull is packed with so much closed cell rigid foam, it will never sink, lol.
i was going to go out today but i am still suffering from a head cold caught on a plane. will have to wait an extra week or so and the snapper season is running away from me.

[Andy56]

So out i go again on sunday. It is better buts still bow light. So now i am going for an extra 40kg up forward.

As a side note, i am getting fuel readings of 4.4km/lt off the axiom. Now, i did spend a lot of time just pottering around with the bow up higher than i liked. At that intermediate speed of not quite on plane or full throttle to get on plane. So clearly i havent got it sorted yet and it just feels like i am plowing the back of the boat. So i do anticipate a better fuel return when i eventually get it sorted.

PS, another donut day unless you count a monster toady and a 3" pinky as fish. The more donut days, the closer to a win, hahaha Nobilong we get the ####ers.
but seriously PPB is starting to become a turn off for me. I am seriously thinking of weekend trips to port welshpool just to get out of this run of outs. Even Eden or Merimbula seem so much more inviting.

[scottar]

One word.......foil. It's a tinnie, it's light in the nose. Your hull also has a minimum hull speed at which it will work properly. To go slower but keep the bow down, the easiest way is with stern lift. Personally I run a Permatrim on the big boat and a Solas laser foil on the tinnie. The laser foil is stainless and thinner which in my mind means less drag as the AV plate needs to be low due to the keel.

[552Evo]

Andy, re PPB, what areas are you trying? I’ve done ok in Altona bay - deep, for flattys and gummies except when the water temp is too cold in winter. When my number 1 Deckee comes along that’s the only place she will go on the boat.
Southend of PPB both sides is great for squid and whiting.
Personally (when I’m solo) I prefer to get out of the heads, launch from queenscliff - I’ve done west a few times towards Barwon and Torquay with success, next time I’m going to head east of the the heads and see whet I find there - hoping for kingies this time of year.
In a tinny south PPB should be good.


Saltwater fishing, boat mad but has a job that gets in the way.

[Andy56]

One word.......foil. It's a tinnie, it's light in the nose. Your hull also has a minimum hull speed at which it will work properly. To go slower but keep the bow down, the easiest way is with stern lift. Personally I run a Permatrim on the big boat and a Solas laser foil on the tinnie. The laser foil is stainless and thinner which in my mind means less drag as the AV plate needs to be low due to the keel.

I think getting the weight distribution right is going to be the key here. The motor is now at the right height. In my mind it will be a better boat getting the hull working properly than over muscling the rear end with a permatrim or foil. To me it makes more sense for the hull and motor to work in unison rather than the hull going in one direction and the motor muscling it all back. Thats not to say i may not go down that path, but at this stage I think its not necessary

I went out with a friend on sunday but before he turned up, i went out solo and the hull behaved itself. It turned easily and stayed level but obviously with this light weight the bow was easily pushed around by waves. So I am encouraged by this behaviour to continue on with the weight balancing. Now the obvious question that most would fear is the extra weight effecting performance. Well it did cross my mind too. But fear not , this 50hp etec is a gun, lol.

[Andy56]

Thanks 552Evo. My issue is also that i live in sunbury so its a hike. I have mainly been around altona and werribee. Until i have the boat sorted I am not inclined to go out too deep.
The week i caught lots of calamri , i went to indented heads. The other issues are weather and work. Its been crap most weekends. The only day during the week i had off, i got a head cold, and it was a great day. I am off lottery tickets.
I have seen a school of kingies off mornington pier and i mean BIG school. And that was a donut day too, lol.
I have only been to welshpool once with a friend. we hired a boat and anchored off a chanel. We got busted off at every turn. Those were the days of innocence when i couldnt tie a knot to save myself, hahaha. No fish but great day out.

[ericcs]

is it possible to relocate the portable fuel tank up the front so you can remove ballast, and shift some weight forward?