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was wanting to put a pad on a boat , wanted to see what you guys thoughts are on it, i hear it will make you a lot faster but the boat will ride like ass and handle bad how true is this??? .... good, bad any info is good thanks

The word “pad” is actually a pretty general term when applied to a boat hull. There are actually a number of different things that are called “pads” by various manufacturers. I’ve seen flat pads, convex pads, pads with a small amount of deadrise to them, etc. What the term does refer to is an area that is right down the keel of a boat and is designed to get the hull (generally) up and riding on it.

Why would you do this? Properly designed pads raise the hull up out of the water at speed to decrease wetted area and drag to increase speed. Does it work? Yes – if done correctly. Does it cause a boat to ride like a floor jack? Sometimes, but not always. A well designed hull takes many things into account and if you work a pad, steps, notched transoms, etc. into account properly, it’s a great feature.

So can you add a pad to a hull? Well, I’ve always said that with enough time and money, you can do almost anything. Would I recommend it? No way. There are simply too many variables to take into account for most folks to add one.

Great explanation and I completely agree. I have one on my 37 Thunder and it works very well but I would never tear into a boat to "add" a pad.

Thanks for the kind words. My Progression 22 has a pad too and it really climbs up and rides on it. In rough water though, the variable deadrise 24 degree hull cuts through snot quite nicely. I simply cannot imagine attempting to add one without a degree in Hydrodynamics.

My old boat had a v-shaped pad. Look at pic2 and you can see that when up on the pad, the chines where out of the water at speed. It took a proper setup and some seat time to make it work. The boat was fast for size/power and handled great.

Would I try to build my own pad.....NO.

I am just curious but, wouldn't it be possible and more feasible to bring the strakes down 1/2 inch which thereby increases the width by 3/4 to 1 inch?

What boat are you talking about? You may see some gains from raising your x dim. I would not attempt to add a pad, unless you are a boat designer you may do more harm than good.

+1.

Remember, a pad and lifting strakes are there for related, but different reasons. ALso remeber that a hull has many different features designed to work in unison to provide a desired result. Seemingly small changes can have major effects (positive and negative) on performance and handling. Manufacturers (and racers) spend many long hours fine tuning the numerous variables. For most high performance boats, there's very little the average owner is going to do to a hull that's going to significantly improve performance. Power and setup, that's another story.

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a buddy of mine just put one on his 34 Fountain race boat and he says it awesome. my boat is strip so i was thinking i could just get the same guy that did his to do mine, i heard it makes a heavy boat feel light in the water.

Fountains come with a pad. In fact that was Reggie's claim to fame for a while when he first started out - a pad keel with a notched transom. (Then he added steps later on.) I'm not sure what your friend did to improve a Fountain race hull, but it had all of the above right from the factory.

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All Fountains do not come with pads nether of the Fountains he races came with a pad. He had to do some work to the bottom of his hull so he said he went aread and put the pad on it to.

Which boat was or is his cause probably 99% of Fountains out there have a pad?

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this is the one he put the pad on

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This is the other one he's not the owner of this one but he throttles it, and i did not see a pad on this one either.

Remember, one of the reasons for adding a pad to a classic (no steps) v-hull was to get it up and riding on the pad. With the advent of ventilated bottoms (stepped bottoms), manufacturers learned some hard lessons about the back half of their hulls. Many early stepped hulls were simply "too well ventilated" and would spin out with little or no warning.

Reggie Fountain went through many generations of steps before arriving at today's designs. These newer hulls do not rely on a pad to get speed, but instead the aeration provided by the steps. Hence, a classic pad on a stepped hull is generally not desirable. Could you add one and gain some speed? Maybe. Could you also totally screw up the handling? Maybe.

I actually have that degree in hydrodynamics (Master's), and am a practicing Naval Architect. I have done plenty of tank and full scale test work, and am sort of handy with composites, and would not venture to try to put a pad on my own Cigarette, although the thought has crossed my mind before.

The problem is that all the mathematics in the world don't really help here. It really comes down to fine details, and you really just have to do a lot of testing to get it right. Without the experience with the particular hull, you are going to end up investing a lot before you get it right. Your pad might end up adding hook to the hull, which might end up costing you more speed than it gains. Also the interaction between the pad and the spray rails might become and issue.

Many of the Fountains with pads have to have trim tab ram spacers to limit how far you can raise them so that they don't chinewalk. That tells me that even they didn't get it quite right.

I'd estimate getting a pad on properly, fairing, prepping and painting would wind up costing thousands in epoxy, glass, filler, primer, and paints, x however many iterations until you got it right, plus 50-100 hours of crappy work under the boat unless you could de-rig it to at least turn it on its side. I say keep your day job, and spend the $20k on some superchargers.

Also, there is the consideration that if your boat is ever involved in any kind of accident where the boat's handling or steering ability is a factor, and it comes up that the hull has been modified, that is going to cause you a lot more trouble with insurance than just having some big motors.