Good morning!
Wondering if some of you can shed some light on the root cause of this issue for me. I've got a '66 Corson runabout that I hung a 60hp Mercury on last fall (the 45 horse that it had on it didn't have quite enough 'oomph' with a load in the boat). It now tops out around 30mph and gets onto plane much faster, and most importantly will actually get up on plane with 4 people in it, even in choppy water. The engine has power tilt/trim as well, which is nice.
The problem that I'm running into is that when it's up on plane and you max out the throttle it will lean to the left. Not a lot, maybe 10-15 degrees depending on the weight distribution on a given day. The boat planes perfectly level at anything less than full throttle, anywhere from 12-25ish mph (according to the GPS), and if you go to full throttle from a dead stop it doesn't start to lean until you're up on plane and moving along pretty quickly (over 20mph).
I've been told that it's torque from the prop, that the zinc fin is crooked or bent, that the skeg is bent, that the motor is mounted off-center, that it's mounted too low, that it's mounted too high, that the stringers are rotten and are letting the hull flex, that the weight isn't distributed correctly, that I need a set of hydrofoil fins for the motor, etc.
I've tried:
1) Moving the fuel tanks to the starboard side (the battery is already over there), moving passengers around, etc and it still does it.
2) I had a set of Doel hydrofoil fins on the motor as well, so I tried removing them to see if they were the cause, or a contributing factor, but it didn't have any noticeable effect. (although I did pick up 1-2 mph at the top end)
3) I've checked and rechecked the motor to make sure it's centered (it is) and level (it is), and that it doesn't have any bent parts (it doesn't). The zinc fin thing is also straight and pointed true.
4) I pulled the plywood floor out and checked the stringers to see if they've gone bad, but the bilges were dry, the fiberglass around the stringers is in good shape and the stringers themselves are completely dry all the way along their length (I did plug the bore holes with epoxy after I was done to make sure they didn't become a problem in the future)
5) I've tried adjusting the trim in & out while on plane at full throttle, and it does have a 1-2 degree effect but doesn't actually correct the lean
I'd like to be able to fix this without adding a set of trim tabs, but I'd also like to go full speed/full throttle without looking like I've got Vince Wilfork in the passenger seat. I'm also hesitant to just throw a set of trim tabs at it in case I'm just masking a bigger problem. Can anybody out there tell me what the reason for this lean might be? Sorry if it's a simple answer that I'm missing; this is my first powerboat and I've only had it for about a year so I'm still learning. I tried searching the forum but didn't find any definite answers in other threads.
Wondering if some of you can shed some light on the root cause of this issue for me. I've got a '66 Corson runabout that I hung a 60hp Mercury on last fall (the 45 horse that it had on it didn't have quite enough 'oomph' with a load in the boat). It now tops out around 30mph and gets onto plane much faster, and most importantly will actually get up on plane with 4 people in it, even in choppy water. The engine has power tilt/trim as well, which is nice.
The problem that I'm running into is that when it's up on plane and you max out the throttle it will lean to the left. Not a lot, maybe 10-15 degrees depending on the weight distribution on a given day. The boat planes perfectly level at anything less than full throttle, anywhere from 12-25ish mph (according to the GPS), and if you go to full throttle from a dead stop it doesn't start to lean until you're up on plane and moving along pretty quickly (over 20mph).
I've been told that it's torque from the prop, that the zinc fin is crooked or bent, that the skeg is bent, that the motor is mounted off-center, that it's mounted too low, that it's mounted too high, that the stringers are rotten and are letting the hull flex, that the weight isn't distributed correctly, that I need a set of hydrofoil fins for the motor, etc.
I've tried:
1) Moving the fuel tanks to the starboard side (the battery is already over there), moving passengers around, etc and it still does it.
2) I had a set of Doel hydrofoil fins on the motor as well, so I tried removing them to see if they were the cause, or a contributing factor, but it didn't have any noticeable effect. (although I did pick up 1-2 mph at the top end)
3) I've checked and rechecked the motor to make sure it's centered (it is) and level (it is), and that it doesn't have any bent parts (it doesn't). The zinc fin thing is also straight and pointed true.
4) I pulled the plywood floor out and checked the stringers to see if they've gone bad, but the bilges were dry, the fiberglass around the stringers is in good shape and the stringers themselves are completely dry all the way along their length (I did plug the bore holes with epoxy after I was done to make sure they didn't become a problem in the future)
5) I've tried adjusting the trim in & out while on plane at full throttle, and it does have a 1-2 degree effect but doesn't actually correct the lean
I'd like to be able to fix this without adding a set of trim tabs, but I'd also like to go full speed/full throttle without looking like I've got Vince Wilfork in the passenger seat. I'm also hesitant to just throw a set of trim tabs at it in case I'm just masking a bigger problem. Can anybody out there tell me what the reason for this lean might be? Sorry if it's a simple answer that I'm missing; this is my first powerboat and I've only had it for about a year so I'm still learning. I tried searching the forum but didn't find any definite answers in other threads.
