Hydraulic Jack plate Question

[Thecrease]

I have a Crestliner Fish hawk 1750 bass boat running a 2000 Ficht 115 Evinrude on it.

I run the Willamette a lot in this boat and I have a prop on it. I have managed to run fairly skinny water in it as long as I am going fast enough to keep her up on plane.

At the end of the warmwater season I hit something doing 42 mph and broke part of my skeg off and dinged my SS prop. I am going to get it fixed but was wondering if it would be worth my money to get a Hydraulic Jackplate installed so I can run skinny water.

If you have experience with Hydraulic jack plates your opinion is greatly appreciated.

No I do not want to put a jet on it!

Thanks for the input
Clayton

[Starfish]

A hydraulic jackplate will slightly improve your boat performance but realistically it's not going to make much difference in shallow water running. You're only talking about a couple of inches more height you can effectively run. Your cavitation plate will still need to be underwater, it will just be a few inches higher than the bottom of the hull. I'd guess you'll get 3 to 6 inches shallower capability... not enough to save you if you hit a rock. On the other hand, you'll probably pick up a few mph speed so you might want it for the performance.

[duckboy]

I have a CNC Hydraulic Jack plate on my boat, Running a 17 foot duckwater (with pods) with a 60 hp Merc Prop 4 stroke.

The jack plate will allow me to raise the whole motor 5 inches, but in my boat, I am not able to go full tilt with the jack plate all the way up, as it causes cavitation.

If I go slowly (like 5-10 mph) I can get through places that are very skinny.

I think a flat bottomed boat woul give very different results than I get with the boat I have.

[trap50]

A jack plate won't do whaat you want. It's meant for high end preformance.