Hey Greg Thanks for the advice on the throttle. I am going to talk to Jim some more about how to improve it. I'm still tentatively planning to go to Rockford next weekend but plans could change, depending on some variables on my end that I don't have control over. I'll have to touch bases with you on this next week. Unfortunately, my boat is up in Northern Wisconsin in the garage at the summer place and I don't plan to trailer it down here again until the end of the waterski season up there. I suspect that Bob would beat me in a race, as he has me outmotored. I'd insist on a head-start! Then, after losing, I'd be trying to buy a 300 to put on there, which would lead to marital issues ... you get the idea.... :roll: There's nothing I'd love more than to show off my pride and joy, I will certainly admit that! Even way up there in Northern Wisconsin I've enjoyed all sorts of attention, including people coming by and photographing the boat, asking about it, etc. It is a real hit at the boat landing every time it goes in and out of the water and my parents have become minor local celebrities on the lake and in the local stores, as they get lots of questions about the Hydrodyne. My dad eats it up.... :good: There's nothing I like more than attention, which is how I nearly ended up with this boat upside down last weekend during a poorly executed tail stand with too much power and a nearly empty fuel tank, while using a new Mirage 19 prop that behaves a bit differently than the Stillettos I had on there before. Anyway, that's another story... Can't post details of that stuff. I got to know the boat real quick. Lesson learned, suffice it to say. When the boat is back in IL this fall, if you get the chance and are out my way visiting your relatives, I'd love to have you stop by. So far I've only had one visitor come by from Hydrodyners and we had a great time meeting up. I'll check in with you next week on whether I can go and if so what we can bring. It is likely that if I go it will be just me and my two youngest (the twins). Best, MarkBano
Mark I appreciate your comments re bow weight and would like to try it for myself. Will do that this Australian summer as my boat is setup to allow easy testing of those theories. I have a lot of negative trim available as the transom on my boat is set about 5 degrees more than most (19 vs about 14 for most and it is an e-tec which comes with an extra 2 degrees of negative trim over most others -6 instead of -4 in the motor) and it is a bow rider so it is easy to add and move human balast. I am not sure about your little boat example though. I know what you mean with your son, but am not sure how it translates to what we are doing. The issue is the ballast is _extra_, you are not moving around something you have to carry anyway. Ballast dulls the boat down at all times, takes horsepower etc. There are only two times this matters 1. trying to get a big load on the plan and 2. trying to get maximum top speed. Unfortunately, ballast hurts both of these things. I take your point that negative trim makes the boat plow its way up and that you would prefer not to need to adjust trim. I would love to know if negative trim is worse than bow ballast as far as getting a boat on the plane. I know there is a good reason the tripple drives use up to 1000lbs ballast and I would like to understand it more. I will try to post photos of how to do the return spring tomorrow. It is really, really easy though. Just a long, light spring that is just stiff enough to comfortably pull the throttle closed to idle. If it is short, it is too stiff at higher throttle openings. The longer the better as it makes it more linear. On my old boat I had my spring on my throttle arm where the throttle cable joins on and I have the other end right at the front of the motor. On my current motor, to took it from the arm upwards to the top of the air box. My next boat goes into the mould any day, I reckon you guys might approve: http://www.matrixmarine.com.au/site/ind ... to&boat=19
Mark, Hope you will be able to make it to the show next week. I was hoping to look over some of the club boats...pick some brains..and come up with the type of contols I'm going to change over to. I am leaning towards the Livorsi dual lever and talked to their people before I went up on vacation here. They make them in different styles and will custom build them to your wants. I have that kind on my Formula, and I like them very much. Bob
Ghind That looks like a really cool boat. I'm anxious to hear more about it! You might be right on the balast issue. That's why I'm trying to get everyone's input on the idea. I'm not sure myself what the right answer is on this. If a wedge is the solution that would certainly be easier. Bob I'm hoping to get there. I'm still unclear as to how we're all going to hook up. Certainly we'll be at Greg's house but before that we'd need to exchange cell phone numbers or something. I don't know how folks would feel about exchanging cell numbers but that would be one way for people to hook up at the nationals.
Mark, I'm still up here at Karens condo on Green Lake and will be home sometime early next week. I will call you, and we can exchange cell phone numbers. Bob
Mark I don't know if I'm right, i'd be really interested to hear comments and examples especially from the twin and triple drivers that have tried wedges. The pump system sounds like a great idea if you do need ballast. Greg
Greg and all, I missed this thread because I was gone for a lot of the summer. The return spring set up is very similar to what I use. When using the spring set up it does not really matter how much play there is in the system. The springs will remove all of it. The spring set up will not correct the sensitivity of the throttle system when using a large motor with the outside the gunwale throttle which is generally used with the smaller fishing motors. The throw of these throttles is just too short for a very large motor making them overly sensitive. My boat is set up to run at minimum weight so that it will ride high and flat in the water at low speeds. This minimizes the turn around wakes at the river tournaments. The upstream turn around wakes will drift down stream and into the show course and upset the skier when she least expects it. The higher wakes will also reflect off a rock river bank like the north end of the Janesville course. A boat with minimum wake and a driver that can turn it around quickly has a distinct advantage at the north end of the Janesville course because he will arrive back in the show course before the reflected wake makes its way back into the show course. I seldom run with a full tank because with the wedge and the light motor, I don't need to and that minimizes the total weight of the boat. An observer is not required in Florida if the boat has a mirror. My boat performs best with me alone in it with about 1/2 rank of fuel. Speeds above 20 do require some positive trim and that is the advantage of an outboard. An inboard runs with a ton of negative trim at all times and that is the reason they have no top speed. My boat does require some positive trim in the high speed turns to help with the ventilating in the turns. I run my motor high to help with the pitch up issues and that will aggravate the ventilating in the turns. If the wedge is not required for a particular mission, then the trim can be adjusted to the same position that it would be with no wedge and left alone. Then you are back where you started from with no worries. The wedge is all win-win in my opinion. jim
Two more things, I have a torque shift prop here that starts out at 11 inch pitch and shifts up to as much as 26 inches. This thing will pull hard and run without over revving the motor. It is finicky and out of production for that reason. The 17.6 is a foot wider that the 18 and runs well with a 150 with the fuel tank in the back because of all the extra lift. My daughter won the nationals the first year they owned the 17.6 with a 150 and a new driver that had never driven a tournament before. They run a 75 on it now and it does everything they need to do. The 75 is a lake limitation. jim
