Like a monkey humpin a football.....

[Entler]

I just posted a YouTube vid of my 2cyl Mercury and my first time out with megaphone exhaust. The boat is small and I’m prolly too big and the motor might be a lil too much. I’m starting to doubt highly that I’ll ever work the handling issues out with this boat. The megaphone sings like Robert Plant or Geddy Lee! Insta-feel-good times for me.others may not feel the same way. The officer at the end of the vid kindly lets me in on that. I tried to play dumb. No need to try, because I own it!!

https://youtu.be/eznABZT9-uU

Enjoy!
Also any and all feedback
Greatly appreciated!

[proprider]

https://youtu.be/Ll00c-kBEes Here is a nice tune from a set of triple megs. You need to let yours breath harder, mash that throttle. Thanks for the ride!

[Entler]

That my friend was an emotional ride!!! Pucker factor 11! That Yam is full boogie getting after it! Yeehaw!

[ryan_4z]

Hey Man,

That is really cool! How do you have to motor tied down? What is you propshaft angle compared to the planing surface of the bottom and how far below are you? These factors are crucial for handling at higher speeds. How long is your boat? How much lift? I love the ol' shovel nose look. I've been trying to get my Dad to build me a shovel nose boat for years. If you are ever in the mid-west with this thing man, hit me up and bring it by Wacusee. We will have some fun. We can put your motor on the back of one of my bank boats and have a ball!

[Entler]

Hey Ryan, I think you just drove it home! I’ve been dancing around/minimizing/discounting it, but about five or so years ago I had refinished the boat and after putting some of the hardware but on to the boat, we stood/leaned the boat against the house and had wrapped it with a tarp. Next spring we in wrap it and as we go to lift it, and some water cane out of it. Upon further inspection, I wanted to hurt myself because I had stupidly left the drain plugs in. Well the area where it sat was actually covered and wasn’t sure where the hell the water had come from. Basically the boat and tarp created a trap for condensation from the dryer vent in the house. It had swelled, waaahooed the transom rear cosmetics. Being as vain as I am, I made it pretty, and spent very little time under the boat. And there is more to the story on why I discounted it and applied focus on other issues icluding alum trim tabs and a motor extending the boat approximately 6-8”. Short story long, and the long and short of it all.......
I’ll be creating a good space and way to flip it so I can true everything. I actually have been wanting to lay down some epoxy for awhile anyways, but I’ll bet money that that’s be my problem. You just drove it home for me!
I’ll get this lil SOB to break 50mph after all! Thanks for that advice! Silly as it sounds, it’s like I need to hear it.

[ryan_4z]

Right on man! Let us know how she goes!

[Entler]

Thanks Ryan! The lower unit is tide down by like 3/4” tie down strap wrapped many times between hooks which are planted in the transom/angled motor mount wood. The prop shaft is about an 1.5 to 2” deep. The angle is has gone from kicked in to near perpendicular and have been tempted to try a slightly kicked out to lift the nose, but have yet to v nature down that dark and lonely road. I’ll need to remeasure the boat overall length because now internal dialogue is arguing. 🤪 I want to say it’s 8ft on the nose. There’s 29.5” w and 2.25”sponson height and 46” trap length scribbled down on my first printing of the Adams Hydro Greenhorn Bible. I believe that 46” was preshortening, to the transom at about 1.5”depth. Now it it’s about 5” shorter ending foreword of transom , yet still at least 1.5” depth. Nonetheless plug the numbers w long traps, and we get 4.02”. I know that these basic equations are missing some critical components. My 200# overweight butt puts a damper on some of that 4.02”, sometimes all of it.
I have been chewing on the idea of adding 1/4-1/2” height on sponson bottoms and air traps to possibly finesse some wind in the sails.
She sports a Dewald 3blade,not sure what pitch is.
I believe powerhead to be an mk28.
Quickie lower with the deeper skeg.
Boat really benefits from slightly choppy conditions .
Unfortunately these time zones apart, and mybrokenness keep this thing from getting sidelined by something like a “RunneBout”. 😉Kinda has a Canadian ring to it.
For me, it’s about tinkering and having a lil fun.
Many years ago when I raced a season, I was lighter by 50#,The kg7 was weak, but the boat was predictable. Things have changed since then, very little for the better.
I’d love to go for a scoot in a diff boat with same power to see and get a feel of something different and right!

[ryan_4z]

Dude, I dig the tinkering. Racing can get tedious and fun projects keep it all real. You will definitely find that glass water will make the boat behave differently all all stages. A little bit of chop will be ideal for you, but not to much. Glass is good but you will skate on it. Not usually problematic unless you get too tweaked out. You are right to think that you need a different boat because what you are running is obviously older technology. That being said there are things you could do, especially since you are looking to improve handling for fun not competition.

First and foremost, just make sure that the motor/transom assembly is secure in all ways before launch. It looked like the motor was bouncing around on you at middle/higher speeds. Naturally that may be camera effect but, hard to tell and this is just something that should always be cared for for safety. I have seen guys try to race with a bungee holding the motor down and not known why that wasn't good. I have seen expert racers sh!thouse when their transom handle wasn't strong enough to support the motor tie down. (Which is why you should tie down to transom mounted Eye or U bolts. It wasn't til years after I started racing that I realized that motors on pleasure boats are NEVER tied down! haha, youthful perceptions.


Second and foremost, make sure the bottom is flat in all directions for at least 30 inches from the aftmost edge of the bottom (the planing surface). Your boat is very short, and you should be able to go faster than that boat will handle, but you don't seem to be out of boat yet and your hesitation at middle speeds is just getting used to hydroplaning, combined with out of proportion eqiupment. Once you get the planing surface flat, which is the part of the bottom you ride on, then you can measure the lift at the bow accurately from that surface as a zero plane. If the length to the back of the sponsons is only 4 feet then you want basically that whole portion to be flat with just a bit of lift starting at the dash. If the back end tails up into a 'rocker' then this is not bad. A 'hook' would be bad here, especially at top speeds.

Your weight is fine, but slimming down will always help speeds and longevity. I wouldn't worry too much about calculations. You need to make performance based adjustment at this time. Did you build this boat? If not, what skills do you have for modification?

I would get the important aspects to 'square' and then take another, cautious, test run. If you make changes to the boat be cautious about what it might do that you don't expect. You seem to be aware as far as this goes, but it must be said.

Basically, get the bottom flat. Go parallel, 1 1/2" or so below bottom. I would get your major outside variables figured out to the point where this gets you a decent ride. Then go up an tucked in from there. I firmly believe that a hydroplane should never, ever, ever, be kicked out past parallel and if you are going there you have other issues. (I have been there. I had other issues.) Take your test runs cautiously as a hydroplane, once maxed out, goes from creamy to wierd in about 0.5. If the boat is not forgiving it will toss you out if it is out-powered. Your boat is definitely capable of pushing this barrier, but that is not a bad thing. Only take caution.

Your motor sounds sweet so I suspect you have some HP to work with. Good Luck and Have fun!

[csh-2z]

Cool video! You should build up that transom so the motor sits on it. Then if you want to raise it up more place shims (ex. 1 1/2" x 10" x 1/4") on transom

[Entler]

Funny you mention that. A week later, I had thrown some steel spacers in there for a trial run. Between the spacers and the minor lift of like a 1/4”, I got about half way between the boat ramp and home and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that my steering cable went slack on the left side. At that moment I was prolly scooting along at about 25mph. Luckily the motor never made any overly sharp motions in slowing down,albeit facing opposite direction when stopped. The minor extra steering tension had exposed the armature welding job performed on the steering bar that I had scored off of eBay in a package deal.
So yes, spacers!! And good eye!

[machinedcomp]

Pretty cool little Hydro. If you want to test it with out disturbing the law. Try the Swan Island ramp in NE Portland. I test my 350 boats there all the time.
Thursday thru Saturday 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm you can make all the noise you want. You just can't enter the main channel of the Wilamette river. You can't legally go past the Coast Guard Station. Good luck.

[Entler]

Funny you mention that! One week later, I was going to head there, but went to Milwaukee Ramp because I was running out of daylight. Then the story of the comment directly above began to unfold.
I used to take the boat to Swan Island 20yrs back.
Word has it that it’s flooded with homeless camps. Built in crowd I imagine.