Could this be the cause?

[ADS]

Originally Posted by ollyit

thanks boys i'll measure mine also tonight

Easy olly!

[Biggles]

Bilge Rat,

Normally I would agree with you but I had no problem before I fitted the 13 incher, then refitting the original 12 inch prop solved the problem.

I pick up the 14 inch prop tomorrow which has been refurbished and hopefully won't cause any problems.

The 13 incher had a few dinks in it but nothing major.

Regards Nick R.

[Bilge Rat]

Originally Posted by boatster

How about the little fin anode under the cavitation plate?

Every little thing matters on the set up but in this case i cant see the Anode skeg making much difference, beisdes this if it was at some dire angle one would assume that Olly would have spotted it and corrected the angle in his attempts to sort the problem out.

Olly .... where is the fuel tank located, could the problem be some sort of weight distribution ? nothing obvious sticks out from the photos you attached.

[robrib]

Originally Posted by ollyit

Ongoing issue with my searider in most conditions, particulary when airbourne! - with it leaning to port

Today however I may have found the cause, I got a roll of decking stuff at the last boat jumble I went to and spent today making sections for the floor, did a rear section and cut a side peice for where the my feet go, got it all nicely shaped and fitted, and used this one as a template flipped over to make an exact copy for the other side, to my horror I have about an inch gap on the starboard side and only about little gap on the port side which suggests my console is not totally central and could be the cause of the leaning, and not the prop,engine position,dolefins, weight distribution etc -

The people who put the console in for me are really nice people and did a brilliant job on the work i asked them to do, if this is the cause then do you reckon I should take it back and ask for it be corrected? - any thoughts suggestions appreciated -

couple of pics attached to show what I rabbiting on about -

Hi Ollyit,

I've got a searider 5.4 and the "centre" consoles on these boats are not equidistant from both tubes on either side. The only problem for you is .... the consoles are fitted slightly to the starboard side!

[Bilge Rat]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Bilge Rat,

Normally I would agree with you but I had no problem before I fitted the 13 incher, then refitting the original 12 inch prop solved the problem.

I pick up the 14 inch prop tomorrow which has been refurbished and hopefully won't cause any problems.

The 13 incher had a few dinks in it but nothing major.

Regards Nick R.

Nick ...... let us know what happens with the 14 inch pitch prop, i've heard all sorts of stories when people pitch up, with incidents of adverse cavitation and running height, propping is an exact science. I need a new prop for mine and have been thinking about gong up two inches in pitch and seeing what happens ! my beliefe is that i'll lose about 200 rpm top end but gain a slight increase in speed at the top end ! though have to wonder is it really worth the extra knot or two.

[Kernow Buoy]

[QUOTE]Every little thing matters on the set up but in this case i cant see the Anode skeg making much difference

I appreciate its under different circumstances but I had a 5m Bombard with a 40hp tiller steer, with the skeg anode dead straight I could only hold on at WOT for 2 min's maximum the tiller being forced hard toward me, it really was that uncomfortable.A medium size adjustment had me holding on for dear life rather than pulling, I was amazed at the forces that that little thing can generate! It may be worth a fiddle with.
Kernow

[Biggles]

Bilge Rat

I'll let you know next week.

In my case 12 " is just too small and the engine over revs like mad.

With 13 " It seems better but there still seems to be some room for improvement. Thats why when I saw the reconditioned prop on E Bay at a reasonable price I bid for it.

I'll try it out on Saturday and keep you posted.

The trouble with this prop lark is that its bloody expensive to get another prop just to see what difference if any it makes.

On my last engine going from 11" to 13" was too much with a normal load. It took ages to come out of the hole and it was nightmare in rough seas when you were riding the throttle. For that engine I think a 12 incher would of been ideal but I never got round to buying one at £130 a throw.

Regards Nick R.

[Bilge Rat]

Originally Posted by Biggles

In my case 12 " is just too small and the engine over revs like mad.

Me to, or so my wife keeps telling me but she'll just have to do with 12"

[Bilge Rat]

[QUOTE=Kernow]

Every little thing matters on the set up but in this case i cant see the Anode skeg making much difference

I appreciate its under different circumstances but I had a 5m Bombard with a 40hp tiller steer, with the skeg anode dead straight I could only hold on at WOT for 2 min's maximum the tiller being forced hard toward me, it really was that uncomfortable.A medium size adjustment had me holding on for dear life rather than pulling, I was amazed at the forces that that little thing can generate! It may be worth a fiddle with.
Kernow

Suprised you managed to hold onto a 40HP , as i previously said it could be the skeg making a diference, but if this were me it would have been the first thing i checked, TD5 completely lost his skeg at Bradwell some months back and it made no difference to the boat running straight, however when he tried to turn it was another issue.

[Kernow Buoy]

Suprised you managed to hold onto a 40HP ,

Cornish Born,
Cornish Bred,
Strong in the Arm,
'an thick in the 'ed

[Biggles]

Bilge Rat,

For your information the 14" Prop for me was worth every penny. On my old Merc with a 4 Meter Sea Rider I am now getting 30 Knots at 5500 Revs. Thats in a slight state of sea with 1 to 2 foot waves quite close together (Or so it seems when your belting along). I can still accelerate and pushing the throttle wide open the engine won't go past 5500 Revs. With the 12 incher it would Rev higher but you weren't going any faster and max speed was about 26 Knots. I actually managed to get the whole boat out of the water a couple of times which doesn't normally happen, either because I'm too scared or too slow.

So I guess each extra inch of pitch gives you an extra 2 knots on our size of engine.

I also had to alter my trim and this gave me some extra speed as well. I only did this because my mate has the same boat and we could all see that his was riding much better in the water. His engine was trimmed out farther than mine so I gave it a try and it worked. Initially I trimmed out too far and I was flying everywhere and cavitating on turns, but once I'd gone in a notch it now looks and rides the same as his.

Guess the old beast just needs a service now.

I shall be keeping a look out on E Bay for a 15 " prop and if I can pick one up at the right price I shall go for it.

Incidentally does anyone know if a 14" Stainless prop will give me some improvement over the alloy prop.

Hope this helps Bilge Rat,

Regards Nick R.

[Hightower]

Ha Ha, Nick.....I had a 15" prop onboard on Sunday, could have followed me to Haslar and borrowed it if ya wanted, can't decide to sell it or not but I recon I'll only use it for a spare or if I've a heavy load onboard.

What make outboard you got? You shot off too quikly for me to have a look ?

Andy

[Swifty]

Originally Posted by Bilge Rat

Every little thing matters on the set up but in this case i cant see the Anode skeg making much difference

Hi guys,
If I may add my tuppence...
My 90 had a dreadful pull to one side through the wheel and adjusting the anode skeg over cured the problem. As mentioned its surprising how much difference it can make. I could also do the hands off now, its so light. I have a 19" on at the moment and wot pulls out at 5000.

And by the way its not the size of your boat that count its the motion in the ocean...

[Biggles]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the offer. But I think after 60 HP the props are different. Probably bigger.

The engine is an old Mercury 50 HP Blue band, painted in good old MOD grey.

Its just to see me through until I can make my mind up which boat to get next.

We had some fun yesterday, just wanted to get a blast with my new prop and I'm well happy. Got a few little tricks to do with it to see if I can improve its performance, then I've got to coax a year out of it until I change boats.

Hope to see you around in the Solent again.

I tell you what mate, I knew that was your boat from about half a mile away its so distinctive, the colours don't half stand out. I like the new shiny engine as well.

Regards Nick.

[Hightower]

Thanks for your comments Nick, I only installed Hydraulic steering last week and the extra turns from lock to lock take some getting used to, especially when manuvering. I think I need one of those spinner thingys that attach to the spokes. It does make it much more pleasurable to drive now, although I couldn't open her up too much with Dad sitting behind me, he is 78 years old! Did mange a top speed of 35knotts though .

Let me know when your next down and we'll meet up.

[Biggles]

Andy,

Due to the fact that I have to work the next two weekends my next trip out is likely to be to RIBEX on the saturday. A few of us are going on RIBS and shall be spending the whole day drooling over new boats, eating fine food, having a few beers and trying to prise some 'gizzits' out of the stall holders.

I've got a little bit of work to do on my boat next time I see it. Fix down the rubbing strake at the front, tinker with the engine and fill it with fuel.

No doubt I'll see you round.

If you want to be certain to catch me just look out for me every weekend in the Hayling Bay area one hour before high tide and two hours after it every weekend. If its an earlyish tide I go out on the back of that and come back in the evening on the next tide.

Alternatively call me on VHF using my MMSI around High Tide. That is if I can hear it over the old beast. Callsign "Seaspray".

We normally end up going over to the IOW but I'm trying to drag them all down towards Selsey Bill and things East. We also like the Sandown area. It has some nice pubs.

Regards Nick

[Ian Austin]

Sorry Olly

Just seen this thread, if you remember we did all kinds of things while we were comming back from the Pub (only food) even leaning right of the side made very little differance to the effect, so the consol is not the problem, belive me.

The idea of torque steer i think is also not an issue either, as it was very hard to even get near full power, we were only running at about 35/40 hp, so i feel this has got to be somthing else, did you remove the Dolfins and try it without them, as it felt fine while the hull was in the water but seriously scarey out, even turning the steering in the oppisite direction did little to correct the learch to Stbd, you dont realy need them on there as you have enough power to get on the plain

Ian