Driving thru chine walk
 

Got the boat ready mechanically for high speed. Got the ign tether and the life jacket. Now I need to learn how to balance the boat when it's up on the pad.

After some searching on the board I've picked up a few hints like:
Watch the bow and steer to keep it straight with quick but small corrections.
Don't trim up excessively.
Avoid boat wakes and windy days.
Try to balance the load in the boat.
Drag the tabs slightly.

Anything else?

Thx!

Pull the tabs all the way out trim the drive out until you lose speed tuck it back in a hair and drive it like a man.

Big slow left and right turns can really help just enough to load one side of the boat then when it's starts to chine do the other side. Also. What boat?

1990 29 Fountain w/twin 468's.

I've heard side-by-side BB's can make balancing on the pad a little trickier.

Do you have hydraulic steering ?

Couldn't be said any better. Fly by the seat of your pants. The only gauges I pay any attention to are oil pressure and oil temp. Rest is by feel.

I keep an eye on the fuel gauge also I have a bad habit of running out

Yep. Rebuilt both gimbals and installed ext hyd steering this year. Everything is tight.

So it's not full hydraulic ?

Don't drive it past your ability watch the guy from loto drive it like a man went to hospital and junked his ride. Be safe. Btw if you still have cable steering be carful..

The guy from Loto was driving the boat like a girl.

I chose to spend a bunch of money and do a lot of work to set my boat up so it stopped behaving badly. In the absence of that, an active restraint system such as this may be helpfull.



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Hyd all the way to the helm. Guess I should have said Full Hyd..

Everyone has their own comfort zone. I've seen a lot of people first hand as well as in videos who simply don't belong. The majority of these boating accidents I see drivers are clueless and shouldn't be in anything more than a pontoon boat with a 25 hp hanging off the back. There's more than just full hydraulic steering. I hit a dead head in Lake Huron that was submerged and ripped starboard drive completely off running about 85 in my 28' challenger. Not a real good time maintaining control. Got boat back from factory after repair and replacement and factory didn't have shift cable adjusted properly so again just south of grand haven very similar experience when drive popped out of gear at same speed. Chit can happen extremely fast but... Pushing the limits is what most of us do. Safety of others is always a top priority that's why i only bump rub rails with people who I know and like to boat alone so I don't have to hear about somebody bitshing about losing their sunglasses or spilling beer all over themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTysm-XlxKk

Experience.

Dont try to be a hero on the first several attempts and live to fight another day.

Just remember most V bottoms will not chime walk under acceleration because it is carrying the bow and has power on the prop for control. Once the boat get to top speed it can nose over and want to wonder, then you need to learn how to drive. Take your time and hold it in small bursts. Seat time alone is the only way how to learn. Also try as many props as you can, sometimes its amazing how a boat handles for prop to prop.

I hear ya. That's the purpose of my orig post, to find the safest way to expand my abilities.

but look out for the rocks,lol.sorry bb but it was too easy.

I agree with most of what you've stated in your opening post. Careful with tabs, digging them in too far can work against you too. Check where they sit at neutral on the indicators and have a look at them with the boat out of the water, make sure they are aligned the same, even with the bottom of the hull. Tab indicators are not always accurate.

Like people have already said, drive where you feel comfortable and don't worry about other boats and what they're doing. Your boat will be plenty fast and anyone who knows about boats will know that no matter what speed you're doing.

Listen to your brain, not your mates. The number of decisions per minute increase exponentially from 60 to 70, then again from 70 to 80 and so on......

RR

I went over the tabs earlier this season, they're working/indicating as they should.

Something I'm still wondering abt; should I slowly accelerate until it starts to climb up on the pad, then modulate the throttles to hold that speed or continue thru the transition then modulate the throttles once I'm on the pad?

I would like to find a speed fast enough that I would need to work the wheel to keep it balanced, but slow enough that I could chop the throttles and drop back down on the chines quickly if I got out of sync with the steering corrections.

Earlier this season I got well into the chine walk zone, started getting out of whack, chopped the throttles and still had a wild ride for the next 10 seconds or so. I'd really like to not repeat that performance.

I'm sure I'll get it down before long. It's just like removing the training wheels from your first bike,,, except you can't crash!


Cool video Boatally. Was that on Travis?

Some of us dont have much experience at slow speed driving and suck at it.

You'll be fine. Just air it as mentioned by black baja. Tabs all the way up and keep trimming up until the boat gets nice and freed up. You'll feel it. You'll probably have about a 3 foot plus rooster. Just keep you fingers on your drive switches in which case you are nearing another boat wake or rough water until you get more seat time in. Some prefer to get the drives where the boat feels best and use tabs to level out or tuck the bow in. How fast you running? I wouldn't concern myself about driving through the chine walk deal. Drive the boat the way if feels best. All boats respond and handle differently.

Prev owner said it would do 83-84 mph in fresh water (89 in salt). He had installed an aftermarket speedo but it's still the pitot type.
Recently installed a GPS chartplotter. Found the speedo to be reading low by abt 4 mph when running ~40 mph.
Up around 60 the match got closer (2-3 mph). I think around 80 it's going to be pretty close. I've never got the boat above 80 mph. Chine walk starts at abt 74 mph.

I didn't see a gain going from fresh to salt.

As for how to run it I have a 32 with steps and HP500EFI motors. It may be a little like your straight bottom. Couple of things:

1) 32's will chine walk if the tabs are above level. They put stops on a lot of them.
2) I have tried everything and going higher then level doesn't get you any more speed for whatever reason.
3) if it starts to walk on you do not chop throttles, that chit will get you in trouble. Best thing is just bump your tab down and it will smooth it out or pull back smoothly.
4) if it really is a high 80's boat you are putting out some power. Should be fun.

That was recorded in Wisconsin before I moved here..
It was a 21' Checkmate with 600hp. Ran 86 MPH.. was one FUN, chinewalking handful.

I used to run it by starting with the drive trimmed all the way in, hit WOT, then slowly bump the trim up until it started to get out of control..
Eventually I added a Stern Jack and did some prop work and got it to settle down enough to stay in it as long as I wanted..
Travis was WAY too rough for it, couldn't hardly keep it on the water ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...allyinsane.jpg

P.S. You heading to the poker run this weekend ?
Weather permitting, I'll be out in my new boat...

Doug

yes there is something else. If you want to learn and take your skill set up, take the Tres Martin class. Great program.

Sounds like your top speed is more than the hull can handle. You might want to look at optimizing the length of the inter strakes.

Wildman_grafix: Prev owner thru in 2 sets of "salt" props. That may have something to do with the salt speeds he quoted me.

Mine has the tab stops. I was told NOT to remove them.
Not so sure I could reach the trim tabs button when it's in a full on chine walk. It can get pretty violent.
I've been told dropping the tabs or trimming down at high speed can cause bow steer and possibly a spin-out, so I've only been using the throttles to stop the walking.
It's a fun boat alright. It still scares me sometimes, but that's a probably a good thing.

Boatally; Love that shot of your old Checkmate. Bet that was a really fun boat in the right conditions. Between all the cruisers and wake boats on the weekends, Lake Travis can get pretty rough. For pure driving enjoyment, I prefer going out on week days.
Looks like I won't be making the poker run. Got family commitments that can't be broken. Still planning a fall run however.
Your new Velocity looks REALLY sharp! Have you decided if you're installing the monster eng?

I've heard nothing but good things abt the Tres Martin class. Hopefully I can make that happen before long.

"Sounds like your top speed is more that the hull can handle. You might want to look at optimizing the length of the inter strakes."
This sounds like a big project considering I've never done any kind of bottom mod before.

its going to take quite a bit of power to run a 29 no step, high 80's plus some pretty big balls, these are great 70mph boats, decent 75 with caution, 80, better have your stuff together and all the planets aligned, everything effects how it will drive on any given day, good luck and be safe...

What I did was buy a twin button that is right on the throttle, pretty easy to wire up. Then you have drive and trim right at your hand, pretty nice and cheap. I got mine from livorsi I think.

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Well true but maybe I wasn't clear. First not the drives. What I meant is just "bump" the tabs, I mean its not much, you don't want to do anything drastic. That's why I said don't just "chop" the throttles, you are in effect dropping the bow into the water hard when you do that. Back off easy. Maybe that is what you are doing and I took it wrong. Again mine is a step hull so a bit different and a little longer but if I did that I think I would go swimming.:(

A twin engine fountain should not chine walk . Check trim indicaters to make sure the trim is right at wot possition. If it porposes use trim tabs to kill it . You may gave to trim pretty high to get it to stop moving around . Sometimes fuel slosh causes problems . Check drive alignment too. Mine does not like the dtives trimmed down

Supposed to rain Saturday and the Rusty Rudder has a "country" band, so I may just skip it as well...

Give me a shout when you do head out.. want to put some hours on this boat yet this fall...

I'll install my 555 eventually.. As soon as I get tired of reliability, fuel economy, and feel like listening to my wife complain that the drive is broke.. LOL
My new boat DOES handle great though.. was able to run WOT at the roughest part of the lake on a holiday weekend and it didn't scare me at all so DEFINATELY needs more HP...

Doug

I REALLY need to add the trim switches to the throttles. I still have the steering wheel mounted drive trim switch. Ever since I switched to full hyd steering, I keep having to unwind the coiled cord from around the steering wheel. It's getting real irritating.

In regards to chopping the throttles when it starts getting out of shape, I'm guilty. I don't take them all the way to idle, but I do bring them back to abt 1/2 throttle real quick. I didn't notice the bow dropping down hard, but you're right, it probably did. Maybe the twin BBC 29 being such a tail heavy boat helps a little in that regard? I've experimented with the tabs early on and learned the faster you go, the less tab you need.

I'm a little confused abt this.
Are you saying I should be at a certain trim indication value at WOT (like 4, 4 1/2 or 5)?

Will do. I'll shoot you a PM next week when I'll have a better idea of my schedule.

BTW; I live abt 10 mins from Jones Bros park.. Sure is nice to have a full lake again :boat:

When boat is on trailer just check to confirm your indicators are within reason. Meaning when your indicators are at X both drives are equal to one another. As far as amount of trim the boat likes at various speeds you will be the judge of that. At cruising speeds if you have to much trim the boat will likely porpus so just bump them down a tad til it goes away. Also make note where your trim tab indicators are at in relavance to when the tabs are even/parallel with the boat bottom. Then you can easily adjust from there depending on weight distribution etc. Example if boat rides lower on the port side then put the left tab down slightly to compensate.

your drive indicator might say 4 on both but it's possible for the indicator to be wrong. One could be at 3 but is says 4.. Just make sure the drives are at the exact same trim at wot.. ( on the trailer) .. One drive higher than the other will make a chine walk

I got ya. I set up the trim indicators after replacing the cables. Got some help from the guys on the Fountain forum. They are dead on along with the tabs. The boat is sorted out, it's all on me now.

Thx for all the replies guys. This thread has been a good learning experience for me and hopefully will help out the next guy who is in a similar situation. The vast majority of my boating involves my wife and young daughter so speeds stay below 60 at all times. I've got lots of experience at trying to make the ride smooth and keep the screaming from the back to a min, but very little seat time at 70+. I've been a boat owner since 1992, but I'm going considerably faster now than I ever have before. After abt 70 mph things change dramatically in a 27 ft V-bottom. It's literally a new level of boating, that requires a new level of skill. I think a few solo "test runs" are in order soon,, before something blows up.