Porpoising

[Ol Man]

Slammer and I were set to go out last night. We put the boat in the water and took off for parts unknown. The boat would no sooner get up on plane and it would start porpoising to the point I thought we were going to become a submarine. Absolutely nothing has been changed (to my knowledge) since the last time we had it out. It's a 17 foot tracker with a 115hp merc. Any thoughts?

[Backwater]

It was sabotage. Must have been one of those jealous BOC members you consistantly out-fish. So how long of a list of suspects would that be?

[TOPS]

My 70 hores was doing that a couple years ago. It turned to be that the Prop had spun and was not getting full power to the Prop. Which made it porpois.Well anyway I put a new prop on and it stopped.

[catseeman]

My 16 ft smokercraft did that. I had to much weight in the front of boat. I make m 250lb cousin sit in the back of the boat. He had brought about 50lbs of tackle with him.

[Bubbakat]

Try to mimick the same conditions and then change the weight around.

[catrod]

Trim the motor down.

[sgt_rob]

Mine only does that when I need More weight in the front. I must run with two anchors sitting on the casting deck. My motor is trimmed all the way down.

[Bobpaul]

Rob, have you tried putting a dolphin/hydrofoil on your engine. They work for that condition.

Ol Man, maybe the engine has just lost a little bit of power, or possible weight distribution, or any of the other reasons mentioned. Cover all the bases.

[sgt_rob]

And mess up the Metrosexual look of my jon boat? Are you kidding?

[Gabowman]

It probably a weight problem. Usually when mine does that I need to trim the motor down pushing the front end of the boat more in the water.

[navigator]

I have one of those hydrofoil things and I love it.
With it you can stop with the boat trimmed up and take off with it already trimmed.

Now it does dig a pretty good bit on takeoff if you dont trim mind you :-)

It is also prety much out of the water on plane at WOT so you get very little loss of top end speed.

[zappaf19]

Mine does that if my trim is to high. Just a thought.
Bill

[JAYNC]

My boat used to do it a lot because I have a heavy engine on it. Once I put a nice hydrofoil on it, it stopped porpoising and rides better and turns better. It is also faster because it raises the boat out of the water more.