Lot of good questions you ask, and while there are differences between your boats, the important parts are the same (smart and reasonable boat driver). Just bring more gas money.
Does your boat have a stepped hull? That will reverse a few instructions, so I won't address those here, but wait for your answer.
Starting: don't hammer the boat onto plane like you might a skiboat. Your new boat weighs enough to break the drive doing that. Ease into it about half throttle or around 3000 rpm until she gets out of the hole. You'll quickly gain a feel for it. Some drop their tabs to help, but you may not need to. Dropped tabs will reduce the bow rise though. Trim in the drives when getting on plane. (IN and DOWN mean bring the outdrives close to the transom, OUT and UP mean just the opposite) After up on plane, start with the drives and tabs neutral and see how that feels. While the boat is on the trailer, set the prop shafts parallel with the running surface of the boat and note where your indicators are. Do the same with the tabs. This way you know where neutral is on the indicator. After getting on plane, you can back off the throttles (WELL IT'S POSSIBLE!!!
) and stay on plane at a slow speed, especially if the tabs are down.
Very few boat stuff. Usually that is racing where a boat is airborne and lands on the back of a wave quickly forcing the nose down too far, and the speed pushes it into the next wave. But, it can also happen on the Busch's Bluewater's wakes, or one of the 53' Carvers that plow down the main channel if you try to pass them at just the right slow speed. In normal boating on LOTO I've never gotten close to stuffing. The ONE time was a slow speed passing of a cruiser from behind, going real gentle to not scare my passengers, and the huge wake was just the size that we almost poked the other half with the nose while still going down the "hill". You have to stay on the throttles at that time, or the slowing action will lower the bow/raise the stern and we would have taken water over the deck.
If your boat is listing to one side due to wind or weight dist of people and things, then drop the tab on the lower side a little to see how that evens up the ride. Do it again if need be. Generally speaking, less tab is better than more. If raising the high side tab is an option, that is better than lowering the low side tab. Some boats run better with a little tab down on both side while underway. If your boat is porpoising, then that is an option. So is trimming in the drives or adding speed.
Start running with neutral drives and tabs on smooth water. Trimming in forces more bow in the water, lengthens your hull at the water line, and can smooth a rough water ride. Doing this at high speed makes the boat handle and steer funny. Trimming out brings the bow out of the water, improves efficiency, can lead to porpoising and if you do hit an big wave or wake at high speed, can cause you to launch with too much bow lift, and on landing can contribute to stuffing. Neutral is a nice setting to learn a new boat. IF you do get airborne (and that is kind of fun, and your boat is built for it) you'll probably fly level and enjoy it.
Good things about Formula sport boats: They are built better than most of us are drivers. You'll start to get beat up personally before the boat is over-taxed. If the speed you're going is comfortable for the waves you're in, you're probably safe. You'll get the feel for it.
Two last things: Don't back off the throttles too fast or you might get lake water running up over your sundeck and into the cockpit. Your wife will love you for that
. And secondly, docking can be easy with two engines. Keep the steering wheel centered and use the forward and reverse levers against each other to move the boat. Note: your props bite better in forward than reverse.
Don't forget to let us know if your boat has a stepped hull, as there is a lesson there too.
You're going to do great. This will be a lot of fun for you.
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