Quote:
Originally Posted by strick
. . . Another thing that I plan on doing is mounting the bracket a couple inches lower then I did on the last boat.
Since I do not have the gumption to go thru tearing out the floor and raising the stringers on little red I will need every inch of flotation I can get. I do plan on routing the scuppers out the stern and my only concern is that if I mount the bracket too low it may interfere with the scuppers. I'm gonna have to take a chance there. I dont think that I am going to put trim tabs on this little boat. I have them on the 20sf and never use them. That boat handles perfectly the way it is set up. Little Red will have 3 batteries in the forward consel area...a trolling motor on the bow and the weight of it's passengers more forward then the 20sf so I'm hoping it will still self bail and jump up on plane easily....well see 
strick |
Strick, I agree, that swim platform does look a little high on your 20. Don mounted my bracket and the height is just about perfect for diving use, as you can see in first picture below. The waterline is just about at the top edge of the green paint, and the boat was fully loaded in this picture with gas and a couple of coolers full of ice, beer and gear for a 5 day cruise on the St. Johns River. This was in fresh water, so it'll float a little higher in salt water. It is self bailing at the dock with no one aboard, with the deck about 1" above the water, and my boat is all original. (Don't remember what year your Sceptre is, but Potter raised the deck a couple inches on later models; if the little wells around the scuppers are about 1" deep, that's the original design. The wells are 2-3" deep on later models.) Here are some reference dimensions that might give you some ideas for mounting height:
As you can see in second pic, the bottom of swim platform is even with the top of bootstripe. The top of bootstripe is 7.75" above the chine, as measured along the side of the transom. Bottom of bracket is 4" above keel. Bootstripe is 2" tall and the gel coat colored stripe below it is 3/4" tall, so bottom of platform is about 2" above the water at aft edge of platform. With 1-2 average size folks in back of boat, the platform is touching water and it's easy to pull yourself out of water onto platform without using the ladder. The line I've tied between the towing eyes helps with that. I used one of Don's rigging kits to run all the rigging down into the flotation tub and then into the transom. As shown in last pic, I think this makes for a much neater job and makes it easier to walk across the platform w/o the rigging in the way!
As for boat trim/balance, I would think having 3 batteries up front in the Sceptre should approximate the weight I have forward with the cabin, door & bulkhead, and almost 10 gallons of water in the galley seat and portapottie. My motor weighs 433 lbs and bracket setback is 30", so the trim on that Sceptre should be similar if you go with the 140 Zuke.
I use my tabs a lot for side-to-side trim tweaks, but you can do the same by moving bodies/gear around. Motor trim has a big effect on running angle so I mostly use it rather than tabs to trim the bow up or down. You could always add the short Volvo tabs later if you decided if you need them. Hope this helps. Denny