Hello all, searching for some tips to improve towing performance whilst towing tubes and kneeboards.
Went out yesterday, with 3 folks, and some gear, roughly equivelent to the weight rating of my boat. When i put someone in the tube, and tried to tow them, any tight turns in attempts to swing the tube, would result in chine walking and then the prop would break free and motor would over -rev wildly. Id have to chop throttle, and regain speed, then whilst in another turn it would happen again. While pulling kneeboarders, while struggling to get up on a plane, the prop would suddenly break free, and spin wildly as if in air, with the boat losing speed rapidly, this wont stop untill i chopped throttle, by then kneeboarder would be back low in the water and frustrated. The normal pitch prop i use just cruising and fishing is a 17, however it was bent badly and i never had the opportunity to try towing with it. I had a 15 laying around so i put that on, figuring with towing, it would be better to drop a size in pitch anyway. My question is, whats causing it to suddenly break free and free spin like this? Ive tried putting more weight in the back, ive tried putting more weight in the front of the boat, nothing seems to help. Weight transfer helped the chine walking but otherwise not much affected the prop issue. I do have one of those hydrofoils, wich came on the boat. I removed it as it was taking away from top speed and im not a fan of the loads it puts on the motor brackets and transom. Would this extra cavitation plate area help stop this problem? Im going back out tomorrow and i dont have the option of re-propping right now. I plan to bring as little extra gear with me as possible, but i will unfortunately have at least 1 more person with me tomorrow.
Trimming in either direction didnt have an enormous effect, except when the trim levels were so high it would ventilate/cavitate in normal conditions.
Went out yesterday, with 3 folks, and some gear, roughly equivelent to the weight rating of my boat. When i put someone in the tube, and tried to tow them, any tight turns in attempts to swing the tube, would result in chine walking and then the prop would break free and motor would over -rev wildly. Id have to chop throttle, and regain speed, then whilst in another turn it would happen again. While pulling kneeboarders, while struggling to get up on a plane, the prop would suddenly break free, and spin wildly as if in air, with the boat losing speed rapidly, this wont stop untill i chopped throttle, by then kneeboarder would be back low in the water and frustrated. The normal pitch prop i use just cruising and fishing is a 17, however it was bent badly and i never had the opportunity to try towing with it. I had a 15 laying around so i put that on, figuring with towing, it would be better to drop a size in pitch anyway. My question is, whats causing it to suddenly break free and free spin like this? Ive tried putting more weight in the back, ive tried putting more weight in the front of the boat, nothing seems to help. Weight transfer helped the chine walking but otherwise not much affected the prop issue. I do have one of those hydrofoils, wich came on the boat. I removed it as it was taking away from top speed and im not a fan of the loads it puts on the motor brackets and transom. Would this extra cavitation plate area help stop this problem? Im going back out tomorrow and i dont have the option of re-propping right now. I plan to bring as little extra gear with me as possible, but i will unfortunately have at least 1 more person with me tomorrow.
Trimming in either direction didnt have an enormous effect, except when the trim levels were so high it would ventilate/cavitate in normal conditions.