Bumpy rides and speed on plane.

[trader0817]

So my family has a 9 month old and a 4yr old, I’m really careful with the baby on the boat. I’m in a very busy ICW and bay with some massive boats and a Navy of overweight under powered rental pontoons. I’m standing probably 80% of the time looking for wakes and waves. I slow way down to cross wakes which helps out a lot, for normal sized boats/wakes I bring it back to 20 ish, (my boat is 24ft, so I got some hull and length on you) biggest concern is not having the babies head bouncing all around.

If I’m crossing a big wake from a cruiser/big center consul/off shore boat, I slow down to off plane speeds, and kick in a little throttle a second or so before hitting their wake, it’s gets the bow up enough so it doesn’t get stuffed and cuts the waves a little bit to keep us from rocking all around.

I did cross the wake of 70ft+ plus off shore boat going opposite direction, they were throwing a big wake, I had the throttles to the stops going about 50mph running from a storm, do not recommend. It would have been a lot more fun if I was in someone else’s boat and not my brand new boat worrying about damage after we got airborne a few times. (Kids/wife were not with me for that one, I would probably be dead)

Thanks! Describing in details how you handle the different scenarios is very helpful to me. I’m in FL too but I’ve been trying to ride in most non-busy areas until I have some more experience. I have a very big county lake just 10 minutes from me, which of course doesn’t allow speeding, so I’ve used it to learn the boat’s behaviour in different circumstances and for fishing haha. One day I did some speeding because it was after hours and I was the only one out there at around 7:30PM and I wanted to test it out. Then, a few days ago we went to the Bay Area on Gulf to Bay Blvd (on the Tampa side) and it was nice but yesterday we were riding on the Clearwater side of the bridge and it was awesome!! The boat ramp is on the Tampa side but we really wanted to try the Clearwater area because it has a beach right there, so we gave up the ramp for the beach —we have a 5 and 2 year old it was better for them too. I had to do some due diligence first because no boat was being launched from that side. However, they were launching tons of Jet Skis, I was like hey if you can launch your Jet Skis, I bet I can launch my Jet Boat! Hahaha

And effectively, I was able to launch it (one more big plus for our Jet Boats!!) and had an awesome time with the fam, we would anchor for sometime and then just stay on the beach. Since I’m new to this and I already had a bad experience with tons of weeds getting stuck on the intake ( I had no idea at that time how careful I have to be with everything that can get into the impeller) and there were weeds in there I talked to the Jet Skiers and all of them were like you’ll be completely fine here. And I figured because I didn’t see any of them having any issues. So we only started the engine at about 4’ of water and yeah no issues there with the weeds at the bottom. There were probably 3-5 Jet Skis at any given time on the water but because it is so big there, we all had plenty of space. I did have some issues with some small floating seaweeds, but it was very nice to just jump on the water, go to the intake and take them out (I was never try anything like this in my lake full of alligators ). Sometime we were cruising and sometimes enjoying the speed of the boat, and it was a lot of fun —especially that I wasn’t the only one going so fast as opposed to the other side of the bridge.

BTW, I’ve heard/read airborne are a lot of fun! (I figure you said so because of your 9 month old —totally understandable)

Thanks again!

 

[trader0817]

I haven't read all the replies but the bow (front seats) is the roughest place to set. So you mite have the kids sitting in stern over engines. As that will probably be the smoothest ride.

Perfect! I’ll try that. So if most or all of all of the weight is in the back is better?
It make sense so the bow can raise easier and then comedown. I’ll keep it in mind!

 

[fireflymedic]

Perfect! I’ll try that. So if most or all of all of the weight is in the back is better?
It make sense so the bow can raise easier and then comedown. I’ll keep it in mind!

As long as your boat is not porpoisesing. Bow (front of boat) bouncing several times after hitting wave. If that is the case wait in front may help settling down the extra bounces. But I wouldn't use kids as ballast lol. Back seats most always will be smoothest ride on small boats.

 

[fireflymedic]

Thank you so much!! This is very help. While I couldn’t reply yesterday, I did get to read it and apply all tips received from you and most others. My ride yesterday was a lot smoother than before and waves sometimes were about 3-4 inches high, which were bigger that the last time. But with all of your tips, I was to handle it much better. I’m looking into the trim tabs for my boat.

I’m going to update my profile but in the meantime I live in FL in the Tampa Bay Area. I’ll be mostly boating in lakes, the Bay Area, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.

As of this post it’s been mainly lakes and the Bay Area.

All of your tips have been super helpful and can already feel an smoother ride.

@Dean P
Here is pic of my bow, do have a V bow:
View attachment 129043

View attachment 129048

Your boat does have a V. But its not a deep v hull most center console made for blue water (ocean cruising) have. Deep v's cut through waves better and usually have that 90 degree lip at rail to keep inside from getting splashed. But we have more compartment space so trade offs gor everything.

 

[trader0817]

As long as your boat is not porpoisesing. Bow (front of boat) bouncing several times after hitting wave. If that is the case wait in front may help settling down the extra bounces. But I wouldn't use kids as ballast lol. Back seats most always will be smoothest ride on small boats.

Thanks! Lol yeah that make sense

 

[trader0817]

Your boat does have a V. But its not a deep v hull most center console made for blue water (ocean cruising) have. Deep v's cut through waves better and usually have that 90 degree lip at rail to keep inside from getting splashed. But we have more compartment space so trade offs gor everything.

Got you.
Totally! Haha
Thanks!

 

[Dean P]

Perfect! I’ll try that. So if most or all of all of the weight is in the back is better?
It make sense so the bow can raise easier and then comedown. I’ll keep it in mind!

This is especially import with jet boats. At idle speed, you want more weight in the back than in the bow/front. Reason being that too much in the front lifts the back up slightly and reduces the depth of your guides and or bucket(s). At idle speed the more guide and jet in the water the better.