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.

I don't disagree with any of that, but.....that boat probably is not that fast. I think a smaller boat running the same speeds is far more dangerous.

As far getting on plane, I'm with Irishtornado, I try to keep the RPM's below 3K until I get on plane and set my trim and tabs.

I had a 38 and the Bravo props will cavitate a bit when taking off. I switched to Revolution 4 props and removed cavitation. No need to put tabs down. Just keep below 3000 rpm and it will get on plane rather quickly.

Walter I have a 38 fountain sport cruiser like yours big and heavy. The rest of the guys got it right start out slow, on mine I can hear a difference in the exhaust noise starts to growl. Then I increase throttle. If I try and hammer throttles from the start props will cavatate (spin) then I have to start all over. This can also happen if the water conditions are rough making it harder to get on plain.

Where did you buy your boat from? We bought a 42' Wellcraft Eagle (1986 offshore style, not the newer cruiser style) from FL and brought it up to MI. The boat was propped all wrong for fresh water and it was a bear to get on plane. We messed around with about 5 sets of wheels and settled on a set of three blade mirage props 2 pitch sizes down.

Getting on plane still wasn't easy, drives in, tabs down, put it at around 2200-2500 and eased it up to about 3200 and let the boat catch up with the props. Occasionally it would "blow out" and more or less free spin the props and we'd have to start all over. There was no "WOT" planing on that boat, it just wouldn't happen.

After it was on plane it drove great. You could accelerate the boat as fast as you wanted and it handled awesome, it was just getting it on plane that was a b!tch.

I had a 38 Special and they are a easy and fun boat to drive once you get use to it.... I found it was very easy to maneuver around the docks and I could dock just about anywhere!

As for planning off.. I always took it slow. Drives tucked in, tabs were usually neutral or a tic down. I'd give it about 1/2 or 3/4 throttle and let it bring its self up on plane. Once there trim it out a little and then you can bring the throttle up more if you want. I ran my tabs most of the time at netural and just used them to help with the balance of the boat.. If you bury the tabs then the boat is going to bow steer when you hit every wave.
Mine had 1.36 Bravo's with 19p 3 blade Mirage props. I found this was a unusual set up but it worked well. I never broke a drive in the 6 years I owned it. It had carbed 502 mags and ran 58mph (One time I saw just over 60mph on my gps), not crazy fast but a great Lake of the Ozarks boat!

Have Fun!!

No need to go WFO getting on plane. Take it easy and enjoy saving gas money and long drive life. Really cool boat, the room in those special's are unreal.

I bring mine up gently too.
Drives completely in, tabs at about almost half down, and start with half to a little more throttle. As she begins to roll over I increase power just a tad and thumb my drives out just a little bit. If I try to much throttle the props slip easily. Once up and moving on plane I take the tabs up completely, get my drives up a little bit more, get to my cruising speed of choice and then pull my drives out until I feel the sweet spot of a little more speed at the rpm. I'm then going a bit faster and if I don't feel level I tab to level up. Once there we're cruising and it's just more throttle and a typically bit more out on the drives to get to top speed. I suck way to much fuel to stay at that speed for very long though.

Congrats on your boat!!!
We enjoy heavy boats compared to many on the board.
DON'T come up hard on the throttles the boat is to heavy.
It's hard on your drives and you'll spin props, wjb21town is correct let your boat speed catch up to the prop speed.
You've got an awesome user friendly big party ride.
Post some pic's for us.

See ya,
Kelly

Everyone is spot on about about easing on plane. The tabs help quite a bit.

Hammering the throttles out of the hole is like pulling a pin on a hand grenade and waiting for the greande to explode. Using this practice, its only a matter of time before something explodes.

My previous 42, always used tabs to come on plane. Made things easier. The 45 doesnt require any, she comes right up, and I ease her up. Very little bow rise too.

Experiment with tab position when comming on plane, you will find what works best. Rougher water, all the way down usually works best. Props make a tremendous difference too.