1976 Merc 1500 - Engine Races While Turning

[Kargh]

Hello folks,

New to the forum, new to boating in something other than a 12' aluminum boat, so I have a lot to learn yet.

Anyways, last year I bought a 1977 Hydra Sport, 18' with a Mercury 1500. I had the engine serviced and tuned. It was always semi-easy to start but recently it has been getting harder and harder to start though I think that might be more an issue with tank pressure. It seems like it would turn over much faster with a full tank vs a half-full tank. Anyways, that is a separate issue.

The problem I'm noticing is that when I'm out messing around on the lake and I turn at high speed, it feels like the prop 'disengages?' and the engine races without any actual forward momentum. At that point, I back off on the throttle for a few moments, then take off again.

Is this normal? Is there a certain point where the prop will disengage if enough force is applied to it? Or, is there an issue that I should be looking into?

I'm still researching this myself but sometimes it is hard to find what you want when you don't know the proper terminology for what is happening. Feel free to yell at me to go read post X, Y, or Z

Thanks!

 

[Chris1956]

On some hulls the prop will ventilate in a turn. Also the faster you go, the more it will ventilate, especially in a turn. See if trimming down, before turning will fix it. If not, can you drop the engine down on the transom a half inch or so?

 

[Kargh]

It is a tri-hull, if that is any help.

I've always dropped the motor as far down as it will go -- and I just realized that I really have no clue what the difference between tilt and trim is. Further research on the subject has not helped clear up the issue. I only have one Up/Down switch that I know of. Up will raise it out of the water for trailering, down, well that does the opposite. I've always lowered it as far down as it would go, the whole motor ends up tilted back a little bit past vertical.

Boy do I feel like a noob

 

[60sboater]

I've only had one boat that had tilt/trim. It had a trim switch and a tilt switch. Trim was for adjusting bow angle up/dn while underway. Trimmed full down,it would plane the quickest...from there I'd adjust for higher speeds. Trimmed all the way up and it would not plane...just ride along at a steep angle. It was a 17' deep-v with a 140 Mercruiser.

Tilt was not to be used except for launch/retrieval.