Porpoising

[PaulCuddy]

Thanks for the reply. Yours looks very clean. I'll have to get a driver so I can check the AV plate height while running. My AV plate looks just below the back end of the step transom or approximately in line or a little above the initial transom/hull bottom. I have many questions. What type of tabs do you use? Where did you put the weight and how did you fit it? Mine seem like it takes along time to come over the top and plane off, but I am also use to running boats half the weight. Mine takes a slight list to port when at WOT. My motor has good compression but does have about 800 hours. I'll push it, but I don't want to beat it. Also shallow water in Moriches Bay.

[thill]

I have the 23 Excel, and I have bad bow rise also. I put my motor all the way down, too far down, in fact, and it didn't help.

But burying the trim tab DOES help. It minimizes the bow rise quite a bit, but I'm still not happy with it. I guess it's one of the quirks of this hull. I keep my fuel tank full, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I think I'm going to start storing my sinkers and jig boxes up in the cabin, and see if that helps. I shudder to think of how it's going to be when I install my kicker motor...

[thill]

Tried burying my engine, and still had the long bow rise. Trim tabs really helped minimize the lift, but I'm still not too happy with that. I keep my fuel tank full, so that probably doesn't help.

I always kept my fresh water tank empty, and I just filled it, so curious to see if that helps. Also, I'm going to start storing my big tub of trolling and deep drop sinkers up front. Can't hurt, I suppose.

[thill]

Trim tabs all the way down helps.
Full fresh water tank helps.

But the relatively long bow rise seems to be part if this hull's characteristic.

[brozzi]

I put 100 lbs in the bow and still it takes forever to plane off but i can live with that. The thing that kills me is the porpoising. The slightest chop and my boat is bouncing! While its better than it was it's not good. Amazing how this hull reacts to conditions compared to my 24 Grady White. I find i use my Grady a hell of alot more than i do the Excel and its a shame coz i like fishing out of her. Seems to need more bow weight but not sure how much more i can fit.
Yea not a great hull design i'm afraid.

[thill]

Now that is curious. My Excel 23 doesn't porpoise unless I have the motor trimmed way high.

In fact, despite the slow planing, one thing I really like about this hull is how good it is in chop. I HATED my 1988 Grady 228 in certain conditions. Same size boats, overall, but the Grady was one wet, pounding boat. When I came across this boat, I bought it in hopes that it would have a better ride. It did, so I sold the Grady:

OH.... And by the way, the Grady had a list to starboard, too, just like the Excel. But fortunately, that resolved itself once I installed the kicker motor.

It's a about the ride, because that Grady had a LOT of great features. The interior layout, transom livewell, jump seat layout, and many other things made it a great fishing boat. It was just terrible riding in certain conditions. A set of trim tabs helped a little, but I was really glad to see it go. The big thing I hate about this boat is the slow planing, but in the end, it's both faster, and better riding through the chop.

Both boats had their good points and bad points. I'm still playing with props, motor height and tabs and so on, hoping to help the planing situation. But if that's the only issue I have with the hull, I can live with it.

[brozzi]

Thanks for the reply. My Excel was a reclamation project. The transom was shot! The boat sat for a number of years uncovered so there was plenty of work to do to get it sea worthy. I changed the transom design so no water was coming over but in the process i added some weight. I also switched to a 200 H.O E-tec from a 200 hp Ocean Pro. The last thing i did was i removed the toilet in the bow. Maybe by mmaking these few changes it caused it to porpoise?
The one thing i would like you to do for me after the boating season is to measure the transom height. I have mine at 25" but there is that false stepped hull design which in my opinion causes issues with trimming. The only way i can get my 17p rebel prop to grab is to lower to the outboard so that its just about sitting on the transom. If you could do that for me i would certainly appreciate it.
Thanks


Mark

[Dark30]

Hello,
Just bought a 23 Excel WA... Experiencing the same problem of high bow rise & slow planing mostly with full fuel & 4 people. 200hp Mercury is strong with good compression. Trim tabs help but looking for more ideas? I will try to add weight to the bow...

I am running a 17p vengance... Can you tell me what props you are running?

Thanks,

[sfcretnewton]

Before I had to swap motors I went to a 4 blade and that helped a lot!

[Dark30]

Thanks... Anyone consider a hydrofoil or transom wedges?