transom wedges

Jklingel · 04 November 2006, 05:58

I did a search here for transom wedges, and found little, so I have a question or two. Here is my situation. When I got my new 6.5 m RC I found I had to have the motor trimmed all the way down, to the max, or I got a gush of water over the transom. This concerned me, as I had no wiggle room to push the bow down when/if necessary. I spoke w/ 'my sales guy' and got a nice 'huh?'. Upon putting some weight in the boat (1200 lbs) I found I can not get over 4K rpm or the water gushes in again. Question 1: Shouldn't a boat be designed so that the motor is not trimmed all the way one way or the other, leaving the owner the option to trim a tad more or less as necessary? Question 2: Are these wedges http://thmarine.com/product.cfm?PRID=35 perhaps an answer? It seems to me that my transom does not have the proper angle to start with. BTW: No weeds/dead seals on the skeg, no damaged prop, elephant trunks are up, etc, and we loaded as much weight in the bow as we could. 1200 lbs does not seem like that much of a load anyway. Opinions?

Pete7 · 04 November 2006, 08:09

Any chance of some photos because I suspect your engine has been mounted to low on the transom. The cavitation plate should be level or higher than the bottom of the boat. If you have a nice stainless steel prop then the engine can be raised several inches.

Pete

Jklingel · 04 November 2006, 19:00

Pete: Thank you. I will get pics today.

ian parkes · 04 November 2006, 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete7

Any chance of some photos because I suspect your engine has been mounted to low on the transom. The cavitation plate should be level or higher than the bottom of the boat. If you have a nice stainless steel prop then the engine can be raised several inches.

Pete

Sorry to Hijack but looking at mounting height etc on my own boat , How come the motor can be raised when it has a SS prop ?

Pete7 · 04 November 2006, 23:43

They don't seem to ventilate so much when raised, thinner blades possibly. One thing for sure don't polish them, lost two knots after spending an evening with the duraglit

Pete

Jklingel · 05 November 2006, 03:42

Pete: Can you tell anything from this? Thanks. john

Pete7 · 05 November 2006, 13:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jklingel

Pete: Can you tell anything from this? Thanks. john

Yes, its feckin cold were you are

Right since you have a nice stainless prop on there, raise the engine on the transom by a hole. Put the engine skeg on a block of wood on the ground. Undo the bolts. Bribe a couple of big lads to hold it still. Raise the nose of the tailer with the jockey wheel until the transom drops. Bolt the engine back on and take for a spin. 3 lads could do this on a slipway in 10 minutes. You might try two holes btw. Let us know what happens.

Pete

ian parkes · 05 November 2006, 15:41

Iam following this post as hopefully it will save me posting similar questions .

My motor is at the same level as yours John which I guess is where its supposed to be with the cavitation plate level with the bottom of the hull.

Iam wondering if I would get any improvement from lifting it because its a fairly heavy motor for the boat size and it does seem to sit a little lower in the water than others when not moving .

I have an alloy prop and no intention to go stainless and no ventilation poblems iether .

Pete7 · 05 November 2006, 18:14

Ian,the only real way to know is to try it. For a couple of hours work testing, it would be worth finding out. The only down side is it might ventilate on hard turns at slow speed, but how often do you do those ?

Pete

Jklingel · 05 November 2006, 19:56

Pete: I will gladly try two holes up. I have a chain hoist in my garage, so no sweat. I won't be able to do stink till June, though. I am sorry to say that Ribcraft USA did not have Suggestion One for me on this. Maybe when I was looking at boats I should have kept my appointment at Polaris in Canada and maybe I'd have a different boat..... Ian: good luck w/ your rig, too. See you guys in June. BTW: Yeah, it's cold here, but nothing like it was in the 70's and early 80's. Global warming?

ian parkes · 05 November 2006, 20:13

whats the advantage of raising the motor ,
I can't help but feel there is bit more speed in it , or maybe an easier cruising .

The way I see it is if there is too much leg in the water it has to cause more drag , but is there more to it than that?

It doesn't ventilate now unless you do a figure of 8 quite hard but i guess most boats do then .