When you run your boat in some wave action, I'd be very curious if you
can effect how the boat enters waves and whether you have any spray or
residual pounding. Or if you can change and smooth out the pounding
in say 6 to 18" of wave action.

Where I run my Ranger over in Narragansett Bay, it can turn from flat
calm to 1 foot in a hurry. My Ranger, I readily admit, does not run
very well in that kind of wave action and it's a slow ride back
without taking a beating at speed.

Tom - sorry for the delay - just got back in town. We're not going to
the bay this weekend - forecast in 60's and possible rain but
hopefully I can try that next weekend and let you know. I've had it in
similar chop so far and it rides pretty smooth and dry. I've dropped
the trim tabs and smoothed the ride but haven't tried affecting it
with the jack plate but that's something else to experiment with. So
far I've only piddled with it to affect the time to get on plane and
the effect on speed. I'll try it and let you know if it makes any
difference. Take care.

Tom..............

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 17:27:02 GMT, (Tom)
wrote:


When you run your boat in some wave action, I'd be very curious if you
can effect how the boat enters waves and whether you have any spray or
residual pounding. Or if you can change and smooth out the pounding
in say 6 to 18" of wave action.

Where I run my Ranger over in Narragansett Bay, it can turn from flat
calm to 1 foot in a hurry. My Ranger, I readily admit, does not run
very well in that kind of wave action and it's a slow ride back
without taking a beating at speed.

Tom - sorry for the delay - just got back in town. We're not going to
the bay this weekend - forecast in 60's and possible rain but
hopefully I can try that next weekend and let you know. I've had it in
similar chop so far and it rides pretty smooth and dry. I've dropped
the trim tabs and smoothed the ride but haven't tried affecting it
with the jack plate but that's something else to experiment with. So
far I've only piddled with it to affect the time to get on plane and
the effect on speed. I'll try it and let you know if it makes any
difference. Take care.

10-4

Later,

Tom

When you run your boat in some wave action, I'd be very curious if you
can effect how the boat enters waves and whether you have any spray or
residual pounding. Or if you can change and smooth out the pounding
in say 6 to 18" of wave action.

Where I run my Ranger over in Narragansett Bay, it can turn from flat
calm to 1 foot in a hurry. My Ranger, I readily admit, does not run
very well in that kind of wave action and it's a slow ride back
without taking a beating at speed.

The jack plate didn't work very well for me, but I'd be curious if it
works well for you in that regard.

It would help resolve a long standing debate. :)

Tom - just got back from the bay but didn't get a chance to try out
the jack plate in any chop - not much wind and very little chop. Did
get to try shallow water a couple of times. Got into just about a foot
and a half of water - raised the jack plate and lowered the trim tabs
and shot onto plane - no problems. Then I got into less than a foot of
water and that was a different story - managed to remove quite a bit
of paint from the lower unit and dug a new channel for future
navigation. I always thought the red buoys were supposed to be on your
right when returning to port - apparently this doesn't hold true for
orange buoys as someone placed them on the left side of the channel
(so much for my assumption that they were faded red) :-). Anyway - I
was pleased with the performance in shallow water - have to go out of
town next weekend so it will be a couple of weeks before I put her
back in the water but I'll keep your request in mind if it gets
choppy. Take care.

Tom...........

On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:19:55 GMT, (Tom)
wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

Then I got into less than a foot of
water and that was a different story - managed to remove quite a bit
of paint from the lower unit and dug a new channel for future
navigation. I always thought the red buoys were supposed to be on your
right when returning to port - apparently this doesn't hold true for
orange buoys as someone placed them on the left side of the channel
(so much for my assumption that they were faded red)

Thanks for the report - I'm not sure I'd want to run full throttle in
a foot of water, but hey...

As to navigation, I got a kick out of that story. Back in the day
when I worked on the rigs in the Gulf, I used to fish around Venice,
LA in the canals and bayous that twisted and turned all over the
place. For about the first three or four trips, I'd always end up on
a sand bar when rounding a turn. It wasn't until I figured out that
you need to turn WIDE on a turn that I had a solid run out to a
fishing camp that the company owned. :)

Anyway, it looks like I'm selling my Ranger - got a good offer for it
and I've only lost $1,000 over the four years I've owned it. I'm not
going to put a jack plate on it now. :)

I think the new boat will have a jack plate though - different type of
boat though.

Enjoy that Sea Pro - sound like a great boat.

Later,

Tom

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:20:07 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:


Put that jack plate through it's paces and report back.

I'd be really interested in how that does in snarky wave action.

Later,

Tom

Tom,
I've added some hours to the boat and have really enjoyed it.
Last weekend I ran it for a few days with some customers at Port
O'Conner Texas in some pretty nasty conditions (25 gusting to 40) and
it handled real well. Tried adjusting the jack plate but could see no
difference in handling - I think its use is limited to prop adjustment
for getting on plane in shallow water. I've adjusted it while underway
and it seems to vary the RPM's but has little effect on speed. It does
make me feel more comfortable loading the boat on the trailer as I can
raise the engine and not worry about chewing up the prop on the ramp
(don't ask how I know this can happen). The trim tabs help a lot in
rough water as you can hold the bow down for a smoother ride. Ride in
rough water was comfortable but we did take on some spray in crosswind
(not sure there is a boat made that won't get you wet with 25-40
crosswinds though) but rode dry when headed into or away from the
wind. Weight really makes a difference. With my wife and I and 1/2 -
3/4 tank of fuel I can bust 60 mph. With 5 fat boys and full fuel we
barely could make 50 (this was in the inter coastal - not open bay
with that wind). Finally got the rear seat installed last week (SeaPro
had them on backorder for several months) and it came in handy this
past weekend with my wifes aunt, uncle, son and daughter-in-law -
almost turns it into a runabout. Haven't been offshore yet - hope to
get some reasonably calm seas soon but it should do fine based on the
performance in the bay under pretty rough conditions. As you can tell
- I'm real pleased with the boat so far. It appears to be a pretty
good compromise for the kind of use my wife and I wanted it for.
Looking forward to a lot more use this summer.

On Tue, 10 May 2005 14:25:06 GMT, (Tom)
wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

Looking forward to a lot more use this summer.

And that's all you can ask.

Thanks for the update - that's about what I figured it would do based
on my experience with jack plates.

Have fun and enjoy it.

Later,

Tom