Hey guys. I have an old Stratos that I know isn't propped correctly and I'm hoping to go through the process of testing props from some buddies boats this summer to see what might work best for me.
The question I have is about lift. I understand what bow and stern lift are, but I'm struggling to understand how we quantify each one during a test run and decide if we need more or less.
My initial thought in comparing the ride in my boat to others is to watch how far forward or back the spray is coming from the sides of the boat at top speed. For example in my boat when I'm going as fast as I can at optimal trim the spray seems to be at about at the seats, if that makes sense. So I presume that means way too much of my pad is touching water. When I ride in other boats that are tuned in better it seems like the spray is starting at the rear compartments or even further back. When I watch boat commercials on tv they make it look like 3 inches of the boat are in contact with the water and the rest is in the air. The spray seems like it's almost coming from behind the boat on those ones.
Is this the right way to be thinking about it? Ideally when you're in the driver's seat at WOT and you look to your right and straight down at the water it should be calm, and you should have to look behind you to see water spraying out to the side? Meaning in my case I have a bow lift problem because my spray is too far forward?
Hopefully I didn't make that too confusing.
What other things should be kept in mind concerning lift when testing props? I also have some mild to moderate leaning and control issues when I have a second person in the boat that I sometimes think go hand in hand with these lift issues.
The boat in question is a 99 Stratos 201PE with a 05 200 Optimax on a 6 inch Pro High Jacker. The prop is a 23p Tempest that could use a little Croxton TLC. It goes about 58 right now. I feel mid 60s should be achievable. I've got the prop to pad set at what the guys on the Stratos boards recommended. I'm going to catch hell for this, but the tach doesn't work so I don't know my RPMs. Adding a vessel view mobile to the Opti so I can get cpu RPM readouts will be the first step when I start this process.