SeaKeeper Ride on C 24: Anyone done it yet?

[Edmund]

Today added 75 gallons of fuel, the most extreme "almost empty to almost full" addition of fuel I've done since owning the boat. Normally I just put 30-40 gallons in from time to time.

I was caught off guard by how much the handling changed. I guess 500 pounds almost added to a light, narrow boat with a sharp V - that's to be expected. The SKR was "learning' the new handling too it appeared.

 

[Submariner]

Today added 75 gallons of fuel, the most extreme "almost empty to almost full" addition of fuel I've done since owning the boat. Normally I just put 30-40 gallons in from time to time.

I was caught off guard by how much the handling changed. I guess 500 pounds almost added to a light, narrow boat with a sharp V - that's to be expected. The SKR was "learning' the new handling too it appeared.

What's the boat like when you bring 3 guests on board? I'd bet you'll see similar results.
This is why I do my prop/performance testing with all our stuff onboard, and my tanks mostly full.

You're previous note indicated that you're at 54-5500 rpm, but were able to get to 5600. Through all my prop testing I've learned that the faster the boat is going, the higher up engine trim must be. I get used to 2-3 bars as that's general cruising. But at WOT, my engine trim is much higher.

On our SE Alaska trip, before we left, I had Autoglide calibrated. It ran my tabs in auto mode just fine. First couple days of the trip, my mpg was extremely poor. I looked at my trim tabs, both were extended at 100%. The boat pitch was like, +3 degrees, it's normally around 0 or +1 degree. We had too much weight in the boat, in the stern, thus, even with the trim tabs fully deployed, the bow couldn't come down to "normal", so autoglide kept trying. I manually adjusted the tabs, then set a "favorites" to override the default calibration and all was well after that.

WInd matters too. I can feel the difference in handling (and see performance suffer) when I point my bow into 15 knots of wind gusts.

Weight easily makes a big difference on handling on our trailerable boats.

 

[Edmund]

What's the boat like when you bring 3 guests on board? I'd bet you'll see similar results.
This is why I do my prop/performance testing with all our stuff onboard, and my tanks mostly full.

You're previous note indicated that you're at 54-5500 rpm, but were able to get to 5600. Through all my prop testing I've learned that the faster the boat is going, the higher up engine trim must be. I get used to 2-3 bars as that's general cruising. But at WOT, my engine trim is much higher.

On our SE Alaska trip, before we left, I had Autoglide calibrated. It ran my tabs in auto mode just fine. First couple days of the trip, my mpg was extremely poor. I looked at my trim tabs, both were extended at 100%. The boat pitch was like, +3 degrees, it's normally around 0 or +1 degree. We had too much weight in the boat, in the stern, thus, even with the trim tabs fully deployed, the bow couldn't come down to "normal", so autoglide kept trying. I manually adjusted the tabs, then set a "favorites" to override the default calibration and all was well after that.

WInd matters too. I can feel the difference in handling (and see performance suffer) when I point my bow into 15 knots of wind gusts.

Weight easily makes a big difference on handling on our trailerable boats.

Makes sense, and while I knew weight matters on a light boat, with a deep v relatively....I was a little surprised by matter of degree. As a rule, we rarely have more than two on board, and it's a cool/cold weather day boat in our usage, so not much gear. Thus our biggest variable is fuel, and since I like it to handle mostly the same way, I normally throw in 30-35 gallons or so on a regular basis, staying in the one quarter to one half full range. Adding 75 was a new experience in weight shifting at one time. The handling feel was more impacted than speed it seems.

Still playing around with the trim versus the SKR master settings....and my boat does not have trim indicator so it's all by feel and memory and sound. I'm going to add trim indicator soon, as it needs to be pulled for bottom paint and so on anyway.