skibum
Well-Known Member
...There is also a trick to comming up on plane and keeping your boat level and that is start with your drive fully down and as you begin accelerating and feel the boat beginning to lean a bit then start trimming the outdrive slowly as she gradually gains speed and keep on trimming it to keep it level. Once on plane you then make the final side to side balancing by adjusting one tab to level her out.
My advice is give it some time and I think you will come to enjoy the boat. I enjoy mine immensely now but like you I had all kinds of doubt when I first bought it.
I forgot to comment on that. It is best to try to not have the drive all the way down when you get on plane. When you start off, the drive should be down to help minimize bow rise. If you leave it down, when the boat gets on plane, the engine will continue pushing the bow down. This causes the bow to get too low and makes the boat very sensitive to steering input. Combine the sensitive steering with the listing that is also caused by the drive being down too far, and you get the behavior that is causing your problems.
Ease into the throttle, and use short taps on the up drive trim as you accelerate. This way, the drive will not be all the way down when you do get up on plane. You'll also learn to time your up trim inputs as you accelerate so that the listing as you come up on plane will be minimized as well.
What really suprises me is how well this boat rides at WOT. She settles down in the water and feels rock solid and stable. Too bad I can't (shouldn't, won't, etc..) ride around at 40+MPH all the time.
Michael