Dodge they told me they only built 2 of these boats last year. You can buy a bigger boat for the 200-250k and its a little more than people want to tow. I don't mind towing it but I feel like you don't see a lot of "pocket cruisers" going down the road anymore.

maybe you are right on prop surface area, or maybe you aren't getting the nose up enough and are plowing. If I lower my bow down just a touch it makes a big difference, and even trimmed out right there is a lot of boat in the water.

At WOT I'm right on the edge of blowing the prop out and sinking the nose, tried all different variations with not much help. As before the transom rebuild and removing all the soaked wood and foam, it appeared the nose would come up a bit more, but not a lot. Also with the wet wood and foam the trim was not a touchy.

This season I plan to remove the anchor chain one more time and also bring along some friends to check out the differences. Will try each method one at a time and then with both.

Wouldn't mind trying a Bravo 2 just to see what it would do, but don't know if the drive could take the torque

Only other thing to try, doubt I'll do it, but epoxy in some starboard on each side of the hull from about amidships to the stern wedge on each side. Try to get rid of the rear wedge by adding a panel to tapper it out to nothing at amidships. This way if it turned into a porpoising machine it could be removed later, or if it worked it could be removed and a more permanent fix installed. As before, doubt I'll try just different ideas

I would remove the stock wedges and move your trim ram up about an inch. Even if they are level now, a boat normally rides with the stern down a bit. that stern down angle puts angle on the trim tabs even if all the way up. I dont relly understand the concept of having wedges when you have trim tabs.. If it porpuses then drop the tabs. I do think your lack of bow lift is the problem. Adding more power just pushes the bow down harder if you dont have the mechanical leverage. The B3 maybe adding to those problems by increasing your stern lift which is exactlly what you dont want.

Chris

I'm thinking a prop can only apply so much pressure to open/free water before it starts loosing (blowing it out the sides). If this was full hydraulics the motor would start bogging down from the load, but a prop does not have a confined space so the pressure exerted is lost to the sides instead of all going to the rear. Could take my B1 lower off my Rinker and try it, but not sure that would help

Don't want to remove the area of the wedge because that would take a lot of work and while I could do it, I would hate to have to put it back if it didn't work. Maybe if I lived in Louisville where my old boat buds are, I might give it more thought, but this is into the experiential stage. Just how much more money am I willing to put into a boat just to find out some answers. Would love to see the boat hit 60 mph, but don't think it's worth the trouble. Might think more about it more if someone could use the results for future designs, but who is building a heavy trailerable cruiser anymore. Searay and others build them but they are no where near the weight of the Formula

Start asking around about speeds from guys that bought the big blocks. Not sure how many are out there....not many. It takes over 800hp and 2 props for this hull to go 60

Figure of speech with the 60, and don't know of anyone ever that has tried to get gains out of this hull other then me

In runabout type boats, you are able to get plenty of bow lift with Bravo III drives running 3 X 3 prop sets. You will start lifting the stern running 4 x 3 or 4 x 4 prop sets. At lease this has been my experience. I can't see a Bravo I drive giving a bunch more bow lift over a Bravo III drive.

I would agree but if he has a bravo I drive on another boat he only has to source 1 prop to try it. I also agree the 3x3 would be better than 4x4

Chris

AllDodge....wanted to see if you had any progress or if you had tried to get more weight in the back to see if that helped?

I was able to hit my best on the GPS a couple weeks ago with 3 guys in the boat and full of fuel and water. I have anchor rope not chain. It feels like its really hard to get the bow to come up, so I can imagine it being tough for you with the weight of one engine. It ran just under 51 with the drives all the way down and tabs all the way up. I brought the drives up a little and that got me to 52, then put the tabs down a touch and ironically that got me the last mph teetering just over 53. I have never run without water and full fuel so I'm not sure if it would help or hurt. Its a very awkward hull to drive I think.

Have had discussions with a sharp guy here on OSO, would use screen name but don't know if it's OK (didn't ask). Had some discussions over the phone and online since last posting. Looking into some options to try, but need to get him some numbers.

Currently running 24x4 blade prop, with only straight flat numbers. Achieving 5000 rpm at 43 mph, so 24 percent slip. Water is warming up a bit but still have not attached my go-pro camera to have a look. Friend today looked over the stern going WOT and he says the cav plate is still under the water, not a lot but still under.

Plan is to attach the camera and run again without so many folks and get vid. Then put the 26x3 blades back on and try again.