Bow heavy

[scott5019]

I have a question about my Alumacraft 195 Tournament Pro. I recently purchased this boat and while driving it, it seems to be a little bow heavy. I have a Minn Kota Maxxum bow mounted trolling motor and 2 batteries in the front of the boat. While driving, I've noticed that the spray from the bottom of the boat starts somewhere between the drivers seat and bow. Is this just normal with this style of boat? I have a Mercury 150 hp XR6 for my main motor and a Mercury 9.9 four stroke kicker. The prop that I have on is a (aluminum) 19 degree pitch. I have ridden in Lund ProVs with the same amount of horsepower, and the bows rode much higher than with the Alumacraft. I am very pleased with the quality and the features with this boat. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Scott

[Kevin]

Sounds like a prop-pitch issue. Iwould have the boat "proped out" by a qualified dealer. Are you trimming fully? You may want to try the new oil coating sold by Overtons. It applies to the bottom of the boat and decreases water resistence by reducing the drag. My water spray moved back about 2 feet after applying this. Good luck!!
-Kevin

[REW]

If; you are properly trimmed on your motor - i.e. trim the motor out, until the boat porpoises, or until the motor caviatates, and then trim in a touch - and still have a bow heavy problem, simply move some weight to the back of the boat and see if the boat responds.

Temporarily disconnect the trolling motor and place it on the floor next to the transom. Test.
If not enough - temporarily disconnect the trolling motor batteries, and retest.

If you find that the boat handles the way that you want it to, you have verified that you indeed have a bow heavy problem.

If you do have this problem, you might find that you can get some relief, by moving to a different "high rake" prop - that is designed for a very agressive bow lift.

If you are unwilling to do this, you might think or experiment with the height of the motor. Often the height of the motor can make a significant difference in the overall performance of a boat. Many folks have posted excellent overall results by using a high performance prop, and raising the motor to at least the 3rd hole up off the transom. You need to take this one step at a time and see what helps and see what hurts. All boat / motor / prop / load combinations are different, and what might work for one rig, fails totally for a different rig.

If you do find that in your first test - that moving the batteries to the back of the boat - (leaving the trolling motor on the front of the boat) solved your problem; you might consider a permenant move of the trolling motor batteries to the back of the boat.
Depending on the design of the transom storage area - a boat of your size, generally has adequate room in the back of the boat to store the additional batteries. Just insure that you run nice heavy wire from the back of the boat (6 or 4 gauge) to the front - to preclude voltage drop.

The movement of 120 lbs of battery from the bow of the boat - to the transom of the boat will make a very significant shift in the center of gravity of the boat. I would suspect that this shold move the balance point of the boat back at least 4 feet for your particular rig.

Good luck -
You have a great rig - enjoy it.

Take care

REW

[scott5019]

Thanks for the help. Being rather new to walleye fishing, I haven't had much experience setting up a boat. I do have another question....about kicker motors. I have a 9.9 Mercury 4 stroke (tiller model) and I was wondering what would be the best way to hook this up to my main motor for steering. I purchased a connecting rod from Cabelas, but I'm not sure on how hook it up. The kicker motor has a loop type bracket on the front and I was thinking of drilling a hole through this to fasten the connecting rod to this. Has anyone had any luck with this set up?

Scott

[cisco]

I don't know how old you are, but I learned a long time ago to hire folks to do what they know how to do, even tho I might "save" some $$ by doing it myself. Over the past 40+ years (translated to mean most of my adult life) I've paid a lot of people to undo what I did and then do it right.

No insult intended. Just an old guy trying to help.