Now, on to something that I find curious. Why the jackplate on a 21
foot bay boat?

I have a 20 foot 200 C Ranger

http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG

Good looking rig

that has a good running solid performing FICHT which had a jackplate
on it when I purchased it. I got rid of it after about a month -
totally useless.. If you are looking for shallow water operations,
that's that the trolling motor is for - in particular if you have the
24 volt. You probably had a jackplate on that Cajun and that's
probably useful in that application, but on a bay boat?

The bay where we bought our place is very shallow and most boats use
hydraulic jack plates to raise the engine to motor out of shallows and
get on plane without digging so much mud. Once on plane you can lower
the engine back to running depth. Supposedly this boat will get on
plane in about 18 - 20" of water - jack plate and trim tabs are
supposed to reduce that by 4-6" - we'll soon see if that's true. Never
had one on the Cajun nor needed it. Toledo Bend is a pretty deep lake
for the most part and a set depth worked fine for me. I guess you
could optimize your speed but it went plenty fast for me.

And while I'm on the subject, don't buy a Motoguide Great White series
trolling motor. Mercury does not support Motoguide in any sense of
the word, they violate warranty terms and the new digital control
boards are prone to fail - it's a horrible design. Almost as bad as
the older switched design. Buy a MinnKota Riptide series instead.

Glad to know that - I'll keep that in mind when I get ready.

Nice boat though.

Thanks - looking forward to getting it wet.

Later,

Tom

On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 02:30:32 GMT, (Tom)
wrote:


~~ snippage ~~

The bay where we bought our place is very shallow and most boats use
hydraulic jack plates to raise the engine to motor out of shallows and
get on plane without digging so much mud. Once on plane you can lower
the engine back to running depth. Supposedly this boat will get on
plane in about 18 - 20" of water - jack plate and trim tabs are
supposed to reduce that by 4-6" - we'll soon see if that's true. Never
had one on the Cajun nor needed it. Toledo Bend is a pretty deep lake
for the most part and a set depth worked fine for me. I guess you
could optimize your speed but it went plenty fast for me.

The Ranger won't do that. I need at least a couple of feet. That may
be due to the set back design of the transom.

I'd still be very wary of trying to run a boat at speed in that kind
of water.

As to getting wet - trust me, you will get wet in these type boats.
It's a fact of life that bay boat producers don't want to admit. :)

Have fun. Let us know how that jack plate deal works out.

Later,

Tom

This is an unmoderated group.

The content is determined by the participants, (in actual practice).

There is a constant stream of folks who never post anything about
boats, but simply complain that others do not post enough about boats
or don't post exclusively about boats.

This is a rough neighborhood. Even when you post on topic expect to be
insulted, flamed, and worse. (I've just been called on the carpet for
"misleading the group about the length of the boat" when I stated the
260 Defiance had an LOA of 26 feet)...

If you're looking for highly regulated, polite, adult discussion try
boatered.com (be prepared to be spammed by the moderator), or
thehulltruth.com (where there is almost as much political BS as here,
but because of the difference in format it is segregated into its own
section of the site).

Otherwise, what sort of boating topic would you like to discuss? It
won't happen unless you start the ball rolling. :-)

Scott,

I just found a home for these missplaces political junkies.

With over 35,000 news groups there should be a home out there somewhere for
them.

I found it................'alt.politics' .................. 67,600
posts...................have at it boys.

I know why they are here, they are not even noticed there..........sad.

I they would leave we could get back to 'rec.boats' and have a great
newsgroup again.

We could start 'rec.boats.no.politics.please'.

--
Bill Kiene
Small boat lover


"Scott Gardner" wrote in message
news:C%qNd.104814$Jk5.60761@lakeread01...

This is a boat newsgroup not politics, so can we keep the discussion to
boats only please?

Oh, come on. After all these years, doesn't anybody get it yet? Rec.boats
is not just for talk about boats. Its for boaters to get together to talk
about whatever boaters talk about - and that could be anything. Here
you'll find the same conversations you might partake in at the dock, at a
raftup or especially around the yacht club bar in the winter. Lighten up,
plug in your sense of humor and enjoy!

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."



Scott Gardner wrote:

This is a boat newsgroup not politics, so can we keep the discussion to
boats only please?