Sluggish boat?

[sherretb]

Hi All,

I have a quick question. My family has a 15' blue fiberglass trihull boat. I am not sure of the make but it is the common one made in the 70's - 80's.

Anyway it has a Force 50 outboard on it that appears to be running fine and yet it refuses to plane under normal conditions. (2-3 people in boat)

Occationaly however, with one or two people in the boat and very calm water, the boat will plane actually bo pretty fast ~ 20 mph.

So what do you think. Is the boat just underpowered or do you think that a 50hp motor is enough and something else is wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

I have an idea but want to see what you all think

Thank you.

-Ben

[Jrr]

Sounds like motor is out of trim and boat is plowing, raise motor one pin position and see if it gets better, keep raising till it gets on plane. If you go to far you wont be able to control boat because bow will be too high so go a little at a time and be careful.

[Doc_Rhen]

:yeahthat: and yes I would think that you are a bit underpowered. I have a 1973 Fiberform Tri-Hull (cough...see classifieds....cough) with a 140 hp merc and if it is loaded heavy it takes a bit to get onto plane with nearly 3x the power you have.

[ondarvr]

Its very common for an older boat like this one to have waterlogged foam under the floor, it can add many hundreds of pounds.

[sherretb]

Great guys.

Thanks for the info.

The boat does not seem water logged. I was thinking that it might need a flatter prop but I definitely like the raising the pin idea because it is FREE! the other two issues would be a little more complicated to fix.

Thanks for the info though guys!

[tallswedeone]

Are you reaching full RPM's on the tach? I would probably start there before replacing props.

[wilsonriverfisher]

I say underpowered with a tired motor. Fiberglass is heavy but I would toy with the trim first

Mike:)

[DJD]

If trimming up isnt enough you may have to go down a pitch on propeller; probably end up with about a 13 pitch Good Luck