Joe Parsons wrote:

More of that dang boating stuff here...

As I've put a number of hours on "Her Idea" (a Four Winns 195 Sundowner with
4.3L OMC Cobra), I'm coming to realize that there's quite an art to trimming the
drive (not the trim tabs, which I don't have) for conditions. I should mention
that I have one of those funky rubber "wings" bolted to the outdrive.

I've been coming out of the hole (lightly loaded) with the drive all the way
down, then bringing it up until the RPMs increase to the max (typically from
3800 to 4200) then bringing the throttle back to 4000 for cruise.

If there's much of a chop, or a lot of wakes, I've been bringing the bow back
down a bit to reduce pounding.

This seems to work reasonably well. Is there anything else I should be
considering?

Joe Parsons



I used to start off with the drive all the way down and then trim up
until the prop would ventilate and then trim back down a little. I
recently replaced my propeller with a nice stainless steel one and it
WON'T ventilate. So now I trim up until the bow gets a little "bouncy"
and then trim back down a little. My stinkin' trim gage doesn't work
anymore so I can't use that. It's hard to trim it right if the water's
rough.