Unusual Handling question - leaning to port !

[smidsy]

I ended up mounting mine inside the hull where I had easy access to the hull.If you have that access I would recommend this for coastal use anyway..not for deep water use.Someone on this site did a post about how to set it up......its been brilliant.

Hmmm, interesting. I had never considered that a transducer would work inside a hull, that's a really neat way of doing it, ill look into it as an option.

[smidsy]

Two things:

1. A 5.2m hull shouldn't need a foil with a 90hp 2-stroke. It'll be creating excessive stern lift while on plane resulting in the boat's attitude being too high and flat in the water to remain hydrodynamically stable. As such it will want to fall onto one chine or the other. You need to drop the stern a bit at speed.
2. As for always falling to the port side ... your transducer looks way too low in the water. Normally they should only be 3-4mm below the running surface of a glass hull and aligned parallel with the water surface at desired sounding speed. Yours looks to be about an inch lower than the strake at the leading edge and angles down from there, so it's effectively acting as a small trim tab causing lift on the starboard side (which will roll the boat towards the port chine). Plus prop torque doing the same thing.

I'd take the foil off, raise and level the transducer (or at least kick it up out of the way) then see how it performs. If it seems stern heavy at that point, look at weight redistribution before putting the foil back on - they have a decent use case for tiller outboards but are generally just a bandaid fix for weight distribution issues on larger boats with forward steering.

UPDATE

Took me ages to get on the water in suitable conditions to go full throttle and replicate the conditions !

Then when I went to login here, my membership was downgraded somehow, so I could log in, but couldn't post. Only worked today.

Anyway !

Removing the hydrofoil has transformed the boat, and she handles beautifully!

I have had no uncomfortable and unexpected leaning issues at all, and in fact she will lean into the wind, as is usual, in a controlled comfortable way.

I wasn't expecting the handling to also improve considerably at low to medium speeds. The boat feels like it sits lower, and at more of an angle. Hence, im thinking, the bow V has more influence on the steering. It fills me with confidence in choppy conditions. I'm sure if you tested my hearts BPM, it would be much lower now in dodgy conditions, I feel calmer and less at risk.

A few weeks ago, I got caught with some early winds which came in 3 hours earlier than expected, and was in the worst conditons I've ever been in, with just me and my 2 kids on board. 20 knot southerly, which being on the north end of Cockburn sound makes its horrible. I felt comfortable and in control, able to handle the conditions to get back to the boat ramp safely. This would have had me really stressed previously !

I was getting 39 knots previously, I get 37 now, no biggy, and not sure how much that relates to being in more open water.

Thanks again Morphous and all the other commentators, Legends !

I bought this boat for a bit of a bargain price given the market here in WA, and I believe the previous owner may have sold it thinking it had a mores serious issue. Turns out it was just a simple fix!

[Lovey80]

Was the transducer changed at all?

[smidsy]

Was the transducer changed at all?

Yes, levelled out and moved up half an inch.

Downside, the display is less clear when moving, which gets worse and worse with speed, so im guessing the wash from the boat chine causes that.

I'm still deciding what to do on that, or if to do anything at all.

The type of fishing I do is usually going to certain spots and fishing. Trolling, drifting, or anchoring and burleying up. Depths and location are usually what I focus on. But im not used to having such a good sounder. My previous boat had a $150 sounder. This one has a $2,000 sounder, im probably not adapting my fishing to it abilities.

Where I fish(Cockburn sound, WA) its rare to see a decent fish on the sounder. In saying that, I found my first bait ball on the sounder yesterday. In hindsight it could have been a snapper or salmon ball(damn it ). It was in a shitty location, drifting into boats, and it was just me and my 8 and 6 year old kids, so I was trying to stay above the ball, which setting up a rod for jigging and do everything by myself while answering questions about why the angry man in the boat next to us is looking over at us, and when will we get to eat lunch, and why we havent we gone home when we told Mammy we were going straight home.

So not sure if I would use it more if it worked better, or I would just be wasting time and effort as I will just go to the usual spots anyway,

[Lovey80]

Post a pic of how the transducer is set up now and we can help you out with positioning. Your sounder is probably the most important piece of kit on your boat if you want to catch fish.

[Dignity]

So not sure if I would use it more if it worked better, or I would just be wasting time and effort as I will just go to the usual spots anyway,

Always try to get the best out of your screen but if you are just going to your old spots then in reality you would only need the GPS to get spot on.
Even offshore reef spots that produce the fish can be up to 50m away depending on tide, direction of current (yes they are different to tide), water temperatures, in a bad mood - who knows but the sounder needs to be your best friend. Try round about ways of getting to your old spots, that's some of the best ways of finding new grounds.
My sounder is getting on in years but I have it working pretty hard.

[smidsy]

Post a pic of how the transducer is set up now and we can help you out with positioning. Your sounder is probably the most important piece of kit on your boat if you want to catch fish.

Im sure I post this already, but its not showing up.

Anyway, Thanks for the offer - here you go !

Attachment 125532

Attachment 125533

[smidsy]

Post a pic of how the transducer is set up now and we can help you out with positioning. Your sounder is probably the most important piece of kit on your boat if you want to catch fish.

Ok, I'll try this again. Those links dont seen to work.

20220426_171741.jpg

20220426_171732.jpg

[Lovey80]

That even looks a bit low to me but hard to tell without a straight edge from the hull. If the listing has stopped and the reading is ok then leave it.