TRIM ISSUES - Please help

[charles.manifold]

Hello all,

I have an '86 Starcraft (16' fiberglass) with a 3.0 OMC Cobra i/o.

This is my first boat and I am new to the boating world, so there is a ton that I do not know! I have been out on it a few times and its seems to be more difficult than it should be to come out of the water and plane out. Unless I am trolling, or eventually after I am able to plane it out at a faster cruising speed; it digs in and just plows. The nose goes way up and it doesnt seem to really increase speed, it just feels like I am pushing my way through the water.

It felt like more of issue the last time I was out because it really limits the manueverability of the boat. when I try to increase speed to adjust for other water craft it just goes nose high.

Also the time ingeneral that it takes to get on plane seems like way longer than it should be...

Wondering if it is just operator error, or if there are things that I can look for??

The prop is in great shape and according to the manual is also the recomended size/pitch.


Any thoughts are appreciated!!

 

[steelespike]

Re: TRIM ISSUES - Please help

You should trim down for hole shot.What size prop?Numbers may be near the base of the blades.
Its possible the boat has absorbed water in the foam under the floor.Some times you can tell by raising the bow while on the trailer
with the plug out watch for a constant trickle of water out the drain.
Sometimes you can feel the foam new near the edge of the floor in the bilge.
What is the boats present wide open throttle(wot) rpm and gps speed lightly loaded.
If you have a bunch of people in the rear 1/2 of the boat it would make it difficult to plane or maintain plane at reduced throttle.

 

[charles.manifold]

Re: TRIM ISSUES - Please help

The prop is a 13 1/4 X 17.

I replaced a section of subfloor (a section over the fuel cell that wasn't fiberglass). It was rotten, but everything else looked dry. So if the foam is saturated it isn't apparent.

When you say wide open throttle you mean literally throttled all the way forward and that speed maintained? If that is the case I do not know, it got up to about 4000 rpms before I hit some chop and had to back off. But it felt like I could have throttled more... Also not sure about GPS speed, I'll have to check that next time I go out. The speedometer I think read between 20-30 (but I don't know if that's accurate).