Hello Guys to those who do not know me..my name is Mike Curtis I've worked for Earl most of my adult life...I started out being one of his engine techs when he was racing during the 70's and ended up at Triton R & D for many years testing and tweeking with Roark Summerford all the boats Roark designed for Earl at Triton...I now work for Engineering at Mercury Marine....so lets get to the action...Chine Walk boy I could right a book for you guys.. simple answer: When a Triton boat nears the 5800 rpm level or 60 mph range the boat is now just starting to run on the pad...thats where the fun begins...you know loose is fast haha,anyway,think of the steering wheel at that point just as a high wire walker uses his balance beam to keep him from falling off the wire...the steering wheel is NOW your balance beam..ALL TRITONS ARE THE FUNEST SAFEST BOATS I HAVE EVER HAD THE PLEASURE OF BEING ASSOICATED WITH..ok ..Earl goal was not to have the fastest Bass Boat on the market but the fastest Fishable tournament boat on the market...we all know that Allisons and Bullets are fast..but they are the most unforgiveng boats to the novice...I know..I've been thrown out 4 times in an Allisons ealier on in my career...I have never been thrown out of a Triton...getting back to chine walk...chine walk is the inability of the boat to stay balanced on the pad by itself...therefore many boat builders add wedge on the outside corners to add"training wheels" to the bottom so to keep a positive down pressure on the hull just as toe in works on keeping a car running straite on the road......in the case of an Allison...there is little or no wedge is on the bottom..this reduction of friction or what we call paracite drag allows the hull to be free and run the fastest..but you must NOW use the steering wheel as your only means to keep the boat standing on one foot so to speak...then there is the other end of the scale such as a Ranger where there is alot of wedge but has the most control stability but at a higher cost to speed from the increase in the parasite drag...so Earl had us, mainly Roark to hit at the middle or just above...this is why you guys see some instability above 60mph with an increase of instability in each increase mph in speed....I WILL POST HOW TO GET BEYOND THIS INSTABILITY TOMORROW C-YA! :) Mike C<br /><br />
Modified by mike curtis at 10:33 PM 12/1/2011


Modified by mike curtis at 10:41 PM 12/17/2011