hydro shield?

[cdavisdb]

Just a thought. The 25, being so sharp, is quite sensitive to the amount of weight you put in it. My mpg and speed/rpms at 7 lbs vacumn go way down when I'm loaded heavy vs a light load. Maybe it can be sensitive to weight in other ways. Sounds like your canyon runs are a heavy load. Could this be related to the handling issue? Again, does it do it just as bad with a light load?

[Capt.Nate]

Mine also has 2, 45 gallon tanks midship that stay full.

I played around with my motor trim today and it really changes the way it turns along with efficiency. Had it trimmed up higher than typical and seemed to free up the wheel more and level out the turns. I'll fiddle with it more when the winds die down.

[cdavisdb]

Mine likes weight in the bow,smoother slightly faster ride, but I wouldn't say it rides bow high. Normally rides flatter than most boats I've owned. usually don't use significant tabs. I tend to use more tabs late in a long trip when the water supply stored far forward is exhausted. Really notice a heavy passenger moving forward when the bow is light. When I'm loaded heavy, I've got somewhere around 300 lbs aft of the transum, between kicker, jerry cans of fuel, platform and stored dive gear plus about 200 lbs of water weight and grocerys as far forward as I can get them. . Light load most of that is gone, but there is still 200 lbs aft of the transum. That really should not be all that different from the weight distribution with full fuel of your rig. I'm thinking there is some connection between your boats tendency to lean all the time and the bow up thing. Not sure what that could be, but neither match my experiance. Motor trim, motor height, lifting prop, trim tab, something weird? How slow will yours stay on a plain? It should go down to around 13 mph, tabs and trim down.

[badhabit]

thanks for the reply. the bow rides higher on this boat than any I owned besides my 34 hatteras. the boat was able to make small turns without falling over to bad with my son up front so we are thinking about putting 400lbs up front, we just hate putting so much weight on the boat. even with the bow a little higher than I think it should be we walked away from a 25 grady white in 2 to 3 foot chop the other day.

[cdavisdb]

The ride of the 25, going fast in slop is just hard to believe. A Grady trying to keep up would be way out of its class.

There is something not right about how your boat is set up. I know what you mean about smaller Hatterases tendency to point their bow at the sky. Your 25 definitely should not do that, ever, ten times more so when it loaded like you described. If something was forcing the bow too high, you would be running on a small portion of a very sharp hull, far back toward the stern. That would make it unstable and might well require constant attention to the tabs. it would probably also mean that the hull would fall off a plane at a relatively high speed, something like 17 knots. Can you post some pics of the stern of the boat, showing exactly how the motor is mounted, normal engine trim for running, prop used, tab position, etc? Pics of the boat running?

The boat should track like it is on rails, even when it is pretty rough. Does it?

[gofastsandman]

Originally Posted by cdavisdb

The ride of the 25, going fast in slop is just hard to believe. A Grady trying to keep up would be way out of its class.

There is something not right about how your boat is set up. I know what you mean about smaller Hatterases tendency to point their bow at the sky. Your 25 definitely should not do that, ever, ten times more so when it loaded like you described. If something was forcing the bow too high, you would be running on a small portion of a very sharp hull, far back toward the stern. That would make it unstable and might well require constant attention to the tabs. it would probably also mean that the hull would fall off a plane at a relatively high speed, something like 17 knots. Can you post some pics of the stern of the boat, showing exactly how the motor is mounted, normal engine trim for running, prop used, tab position, etc? Pics of the boat running?

The boat should track like it is on rails, even when it is pretty rough. Does it?

Troll?

[badhabit]

I will take some pictures within the next few days and the next time we take it fishing I will try to take a video of it running. in anything but glass conditions we run with the tabs all the way down. I would not say the boat ran on rails but when we hit a big wave and I am sure it is going to slam it just sits back down nice and soft.

[badhabit]

gofast, I am not a troll if that is what you are saying. we found this boat this summer because some one on c s c posted that one was for sale on ct craigs list.

[gofastsandman]

Do you have previous owners contact info?

[Fr. Frank]

Original question was about the HydroShield. No, this amazing device will not help the tendency of the 25 to want to bank like a fighter jet in the slightest turn. But yours sounds like it's gone from being nimble to being downright twitchy. One is fun, the other gives you a tired set of Kegel and gluteus muscles.

I think several people here are on the right track with addressing the CG, both vertically and longitudinally. If you run with just a couple of degrees of down tabs on both sides it will help tremendously. Even when the hull leans/banks in a turn, it will quickly return to upright when the vessel is once again going straight. How many degrees of tabs you'll need to run you'll have to figure out on your own.

The only 25' I've ever worked on and had to block up was a twin stern-drive model, and with full fuel it had a longitudinal balance point about a foot behind the cabin aft bulkhead. It did have ballast bars below the cabin floor. We ended up putting two keel blocks under here plus two Brownell stands.

By contrast, my current '71 Seafari 20' with 140hp sterndrive balances fore and aft just 8' forward of the transom with no fuel. (I've never blocked it with fuel in the tank).