Re: tri-hull
The way a tri-hull rides depends on its design. You will hear that tri-hulls all ride bad, are slow, and heavy. There is a degree of truth to that, but these statements usuually come from those who have limited experience with the design, and only regurgitate information that they heard from someone else.<br /><br />The way the boat rides, even as a tri-hull, depends on the amount of deadrise the bottom of the hull has, and the size of the outer sponsons. Deadrise is the amount of V the hull bottom has, the sponsons are those outer parts of the bottom on each side. The less V the bottom has, the rougher it will ride. I looked at your hull, and it appeares that it has a pretty shallow V to it, so it is going to have a moderatly rough ride to it. Also, the ride depends on how you drive the boat. Just running wide open and slamming through is not what you do with this hull design. Run speeds that are more reasonable and do not hit swells or chop head on, and it will ride reasonable. The advantage this hull design has over other designs is stability. It is very difficult to have instability while in motion or at rest. It can turn harder at faster speeds as well. At rest, it is rock solid, very little tipping, which is good for fishing.<br /><br />If you click my link and read through, you will see what can be done with a tri-hull. My boat was manufactured in Minnesota and was geared towards the rougher water. Because mine has a lot of V to its bottom, it rides as good as a V hull at speed, but handles better in turns.<br /><br />One downside to tri-hulls is weight and wetted surface. There is more fiberglass in the construction, and during the time period these were made, they used more material. You end up with a strong hull, but it is a heavy hull. Also, there is more wetted surface, which equals more drag. Wat this all means is you need more power to make up for the drag and weight. I have 125 horsepower on a 17 foot tri-hull, and I am pretty happy if I break mid 30s in miles per hour. This same motor on a V hull of similar length would get me well into the 40s. That is okay with me, as I am not out to break speed records.<br /><br />You have not mentioned what outboard motor you have, if any. I will recommend 150+ horsepower for that size hull, anything less may make it too slow, especially if you are running on Lake Erie, you want to be able to get out of the weather quick. Like I said, click my link, it describes my tri-hull rebuild. Good luck...
Thats the year my Dad got out. USS Klondike AR-?<br /><br />To post a pic try clicking the image tag, then copy the url into the box, this should happen...<br /><br /><br />
