Planing ? - 38 Baja Special
 

Hey there...new to the website, hello!

Here it goes:

New to the offshore/speed boat scene. I grew up driving a cruiser, specifically a 28' Carver. So, driving a faster boat is different. My question is how should I take off in my 38 Special? My carver (dont know if this is right), but I just pinned it until it planed, then I settled the throttle down, but when I actual have a bit of power behind me, it seems a bit different.

Should I just hit it? Or should I go slower?

Being new, I took it slow, and sometimes it seemed to slip or not grab. But I think that was due to me being a baby and not running the boat. Creeping over the wave crest was nto being achieved. I talked to a couple people and they said, just drop the hammer in these boats --- they are go fast boats, so just go.

What are your thoughts? I think I should just drop it to 4500+rpms or so out of the hole, then run it around 3500, which is cruising speed for my boat.

Any suggestions?

Drives tucked in, ease her up slow

Hmmm, that makes me wonder - was I driving wrong or was something off with my boat?

Oh, forgot to state, I just bought this boat and only took it out 3 or 4 times in two weekends in September. Granted, burnt through a bunch of gas, hehe.

What props are you running? It may be propped more for top speed. You may have to add a touch of tab.

My smaller 29 Outlaw runs 23 Mirages and pulls hard out of the hole.

What power and drives? Personally, I tuck the drives underneath the boat, negative tab, and ease up out of the hole to extend the life of drives. Once on plane begin trimming the boat and set your tabs to accommodate the existing water conditions and habits of the boat.

Just tuck the drives in and put the tabs down, put the hammers down and let out drives and raise the tabs as the conditions allow. No need to trim all out and have the boat porpoise all over the place. If it's calm conditions, then air the sucker out. Just don't be a tough guy though, if at any time you don't feel 100% in control, pull back. Good luck bro and safe boating

Like everyone said, drives tucked all the way, tabs down all the way.

I easy it up because I only have B1's, don't want to break them.

As it rolls over I start to bring tabs and drive up (drives out, tabs up), but I have both trim switches on my throttle so it is easy.

What motor and drives do you have?

Throttle up to 3000rpm's drives tucked and tabs down when it starts to roll over on plane lift tabs and start raising drives to optimum trim when you feel hull free up. The rest is learning curve basically by the seat of your pants.

You can push the throttle to WOT when getting up on plane, but it is very hard on the outdrives and will shorten their life. It is much better to gradually push the throttles forward. I don't mean to take 30 seconds, but don't hammer them like you are trying to pull a skier out of the water either.

Not trying to be a stick in the mud here, but if this is your first go-fast, and you start out with a 38, well that's a bit of a handfull. Seeing what little info you give and you don't even know how to get her on plane, it does sound like you've bitten off a tad too much. This boat has nothing in common with your Carver, so you're more or less starting from scratch. Thankfully there are ways of dealing with this, we all had to learn it some way at one point. Most start out in small stuff though, go up step by step and learn that way. Is there anyone around you, you boat with, that has any powerboat experience, that can show you? I'd highly suggest you contact Tres Martins performance boat school, it'll make you enjoy your boat a lot more, and it will be safer for everybody, including yourself. Also, you will not only learn about driving your boat, you will also learn about setup, hull designs, props, general boating stuff ect. You won't of course gain years of experience from a weekend course, but you will gain a ton of very usefull knowledge, and that will make you a fast learner + your insurance might drop quite a bit too. These boats are not "toys", they can do strange and funny things at different speeds, in different conditions. Some of these things will happen fast and hurt you bad. A 38' powerboat does take some experience to drive fast and safe.

Enjoy your boat, and stay safe. Congrats.