Bottom Wedge...
 

Has anyone ever added a wedge to the bottom of their flat bottom gun? After talking to Tres Martin he suggested adding a wedge to the bottom of my boat for more transom lift. The wede consists of 1/8 glass added to the flats of the chine and the strakes that taper down to 0" over the distance if 14". Iam currently running #5's on boxes and suposedly need this mod for the boat to ride correctly (creates high pressure at the transom and adds lift and lets it fly level rather than bonering up every big wave that is hit). He said he has seen as high as 5mph increase on a stock bravo boat but claims a solid 3mph.

I hate to say it, but I would consider sending it to lipship. Should help resale too because there are just not many cig buyers that would want to gamble with that kind of modification made by anyone else.

Im sure phil wont be doing any glass work himself and he will probably out source the work anyway. i Don't see how the mexican kid that would probably end up doing the work will do any better of a job than say some one like "glass dave". Dont especially want to trailer it all the way to FL for a simple mod when there are guys more than capable of doing it just an hour away. If there were two identical boats side by side and one was a lipship and one wasn't im sure 98% of people couldnt tell the difference. just my .02 cents....

I think he meant that Phil could do work with your current set up to dial it in without the glass work you speak of. A call to Phil at the least is in order.

I talked to phil after a poker run this summer about my setup...i don't think he wanted any part of it. In a nut shell he told me to sell what i have and to move to a twin step and to get in a boat with newer technology. Sure easier said then done but i'm trying to work with what i have. Tres Martin is a guru on setting these boats up and i have no doubt that he knows what he's talking about....I was just wondering who had this modification done to their boat and how it handled after. I believe he started dong it to stop the porpoising issue these boats had.

Bigfarmer I have a 1995 flat deck and am interested in what you are talking about. I do my own glass work and would love you to daw a diagram of what you are talking about so I can visualize the finished design.
Thanks Rick G.

You can get more transom lift by changing props. 5 blades create more transom lift. Rake plays a role as well. Maybe use BBlades test program.

Can you get me a diagram of the bottom of our boats? I've searched for a picture of the bottom and came up short.

Do the Arneson Rocker Plates achieve the same thing?

Which lifting strakes? The ones that run all the way to the transom or the inner ones as well?


This doesn't seem that difficult to do. All you need to do is layup a flat fiberglass sheet on a flat surface, wide and long enough to cut out all the pieces you are talking about doing. Then grind the taper you are wanting into it (0 to .125" over a 14" distance), this would be the dirty part but not that hard.

Then make templates of your strakes/chines, transfer to your flat fiberglass sheet and cut them out. There was a member here that gave a good write-up on how to temporarily bond additional strake length onto the bottom of the boat for testing purposes before permanently doing so ( I'm pretty sure it was BenPerfected). A similar process could probably be used to test your wedges before fully committing and permanently bonding/finishing them in, in case they didn't really help at all.

Another thing to consider is your trailer and how it's bunks are, as long as boat doesn't sit on its chines on the trailer bunks.