Air Assist Chine?

[Subliminal]

Hey folks,

As I've said before in many of my jovial posts, I just purchased an 08 Monterey 180FS.

Monterey is apparently very proud of this 'Air Assist Chine' business, which is a hull shape, right around the plane area, which directs some air under the boat and is supposed to help keep it on plane at lower speeds.

Now, I don't actually get to drive this puppy until April or May, so I was wondering...does anyone know if this Air Assist Chine business actually works, or is it strictly hype.

I searched and couldn't find hide nor hair.

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Air Assist Chine?

I'm not familiar with Monterey's claim and I'm no expert (far from it) but I fail to see how air under the chine would help a boat plane at low speeds. I would expect it to have the opposite effect. I would also expect that the boat would have to be travelling fast in order to force the air under.

There is an aluminum boat manufacturer whose name I can't recall who makes boats with some sort of a "air ride" and their claim (if I remember correctly) is that the air under the chine cushions the hull for a more comfortable ride in rough seas which sounds good in theory at least.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Air Assist Chine?

I did a quick search a found this article.

http://www.powerboating.com/pbc21-4/monterey21-4.html

It does make a short reference to what you are asking about.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Air Assist Chine?

From Scout promotional literature, bold is mine...

"An additional innovation unique to Scout is the Air-Assist hull. Steve [Potts, Scout founder] designed this unique feature specifically to combat the problem of static stability, common on small boats. With additional longitudinal buoyancy, the Air-Assist hull increases static floatation and decreases time to plane and also vastly improves overall handling characteristics. An important advantage of this design is increased fuel economy."

It would be nice if they explained exactly how this works. And although I'm not sure it's supposed to counter the same issue as Monterey, the similarity in terms has got to have some lawyer somewhere sharpening his fangs...