I boat around the same area. It’s been kinda rough with all the tides and wind lately.

like mentioned right above. Run the tabs neutral (sometimes put the left tab down a little more to counter the torque lean. Keeps the boat straight) with drive only trimmed up a little. keeps the bow slicing through a lot. I notice the boat begins to hit harder as the drive is trimmed up more..

What?^

We run back river, middle river, hart miller, annapolis, still pond, port deposit, chestertown, Kent Narrows, etc.

. Went from a 24' to a 29' with twins. HUGE difference standing up to drive. I don't think you're doing anything wrong, its just the chop out there. somedays it's like glass, somedays you get beat up for hours. Not sure if you have bolster seats or not, but mine made a HUGE difference on my Formula 292. But yea, when really rough I have to trim the drives all down, when really REALLY rough I'll even drop the tabs and top out at 35. Usually we cruise at 42 to save fuel, but will run 66 if I want to punish my credit card.

a few more feet makes a big difference as you can span the waves. a 35 or 38 or 42 will crush them more.

You only have so much hull to span the waves. No amount of tab or trim is going to change that, although it will help some.
That sounds a lot like LOTO water and one of the reasons I went to a bigger boat over my 28 Pantera.

You need an Apache, the Chuck Norris of powerboats......

:party-smiley-004:

Throw 100 lbs up front half away between helm and bow … lock it down .. adjust as needed … you’ll be the king

Just re read and looked at your original trim and tab levels and compared to a pic of my old Pantera dash indicator.
In rough water you should be trimmed to no higher than 3 which should be level with the bottom and run tabs at 5 or more. 5 on the indicator should be level with bottom.
Like I said though, you can only span so much with a 28' hull.

Just wondering what power you are running? I had a 28 in the bay for almost 15 years and it can handle most anything. One thing i noticed is the boat likes power. I went from twin 310hp 454s to 550hp 502s. Thw way it handled the shop was night and day. At was the best boat I ever had. Thw Pantera is a hard boat to explain where thw trim should be in forums. There are so many variables. Being a custom boat and it would say one of the most custom even over brands like Cigarette. I have never seen ao many different x dimensions, emgine configurations, hull variations, etc. I too boat my new Pantera in the bay out of Gunpowder river and would love to meet up and check out your boat.

I have been boating that part of the Chesapeake for close to 30 years. Seems like this summer did get a little rough. The 28s should handle it but like others said you have to keep the speed up. Dont use a lot of tab when running with the waves. You want to keep the bow of the boat up. Use more tab when running against the wave. You want to push the boat through the waves. My dad use to run our 28 pretty hard. We broke a few coolers, one nose, couple bruised legs and arms. I have a 36 now and I still get the occasional slow down from my wife when its like a washing machine.