I finished my 14' Power Skiff and launched it last weekend with a 15hp 4-stroke. Perhaps not unexpectedly, it has horrible bow rise with only one rider and bad porpoising. (When it was just me in the boat, and at low speeds, but brother in law nicknamed the boat the SS Viagra). I've got the motor trimmed in. I put two 30 lb weights in the front, and that helped, but I still can't go more than mid throttle on a smooth lake without being like Flipper. I hate to have to add a bunch of extra weight to improve ride quality because of the room it will take up (but will if I need to). I ordered some Smart Tabs to install hoping that will help. Has anyone used these? If so, what is your reaction to the product?
I looked at the whale tails, but the only ones I saw that would fit a 15 hp motor bolt through the cavitation plate and that would void my warranty with Suzuki. I've also heard that trim tabs do a better job of adding lateral stability.
Maybe the motor is trimmed in too far. Once you are on plane trim motor out until it starts to cavitate then trim back in to the sweet spot.
Before spending $$$ you might try placing some shims between the engine and the transom to effectively trim the engine in a bit more. I believe this has done been done by one or more builders on this forum.
I'm confused on the issue of trim. If I'm reading the posts right, Soloboat you are saying I need to trim out, and gdcarpenter you are saying I need to trim in more. My instinct is that I need to trim in more because I don't have porpoising when someone sits in the front of the boat, so it seems to me I need to get the bow down more. A guy at Boater's World told me the other day, though, that I need to trim up to put more pressure on the stern. Having heard it both ways, I'm a bit confused. I guess I will experiment with more trim, but I think I did that already and still had bad porpoising. I'll probably install the trim tabs anyway since they are on the way and lots of people say it helps with porpoising. Looks like an easy install also.
Fergal Butler: Sweet looking ride. Maybe down the road I'll try something that ambitious.
There are several youtube videos on how to trim properly Give a look, experiment before getting too drastic After 3 years I am still fine tuning my boat and honing my skills. The day I launched my boat was only the second time I was at the controls of a power boat.
The first thing is to take a straight edge and make sure the bottom is flat the last several frames.
I'm pretty sure it's flat, but will check it.
My apologies, must have had a 'senior moment' - yes you need to trim the bottom of the engine out to help it 'push' the bow down. If you have a standard tilt pin move it rearward a hole or two and experiment.
Actually, if you don't have weight in front, you should trim motor in .We had that problem at the resort-Dad had gotten a 4-stroke Tohotsu 25 ,A lot of weight for rear of 16 ft. lund with a single person. was a dog until we extended the fuel hose and put fuel tank up front and put lower pitch prop on.Now runs fine.When I had my 50 Johnson I even raised motor up 3/4 inch-made a lot of spray on back ,however gained 3 or 4 mph.
Not sure how much your boat weights, but if you are in the back using a tiller handle, you weight and the motor weight might be enough that that 15 hp wont get the boat up on plane.
Does it get up on plane.
The boat doesn't have any trouble getting on plane, it's just that without a fair amount of weight in the front when the engine is more than 1/2 throttle it porpoises badly. I got some Smart Tab SX tabs in the mail yesterday. Going to install them and see if that helps. If not, I'll probably get 50-100 lbs of lead weight and put it up front.