Over all we really enjoy our 26 Cutwater. I must admit that the performance is not as good as I expected it to be. The speed of the boat is sufficient Approx. 20KT. The real issue was the Bow ran high and with full tabs never came down. The trim tabs had to be applied all the way down all the time.
2016 Cruise and WOT performance/ no bottom paint ,Gel coat bottom
4130 -4150 RPM 19.5-20 Kt WOT full tabs
3250 RPM 12-12.5 kts Full tabs
2250 RPM 7kts Full tabs
Full to 3/4 water tank
Full to 3/4 fuel tank
2 adults on board
6 adults on board 4 in cockpit 2 in pilot house 3850 RPM 16.5 to 17 kts full tabs All I could see out of the windshield was sky.
I spent the winter adding extra equipment, building storage shelves, inverter, Catalina Magma grill , 6 hp outboard and a 8'10 aluminum RIB dinghy and a 10' paddle board. Conservative estimated extra weight 500 lbs plus the RIB hanging on the edge of the swim platform and outboard mounted on the cockpit rail 165lbs. Also I painted the bottom . Most of the additions are posted in my Album. I was concerned about running attitude of the boat and not having enough trim. I had a discussion with Ranger/Cutwater people and Bennett and looked into installing drop Fins on my existing trim tabs. I also thought that if I could take some of the negative trim away I could get the trailing edge of the tab down further. The path forward was to remove Trim tabs, Machine spacers, install between the trim ram and the tab and drill holes in the tabs to mount the drop fins. All changes were done with the thought that if any modifications compromised the handling of the boat they could be removed and be put back to original . Here are my results after two sea trials.
1st sea trial - Rib installed , outboard motor mounted in cockpit, Full water tank ,Full fuel tank, 4 days of supplies on board for a 4 day weekend of cruising, 4 adults on board, 3 in cockpit, Bottom painted.
4030 RPM 19 kts Full tabs good visibility out windshield, bow down ( I raised tabs up slightly and maintained same performance but bow started raising. I raised tabs up further and speed dropped considerably and the bow went up looking at the sky.
3250 RPM 11.5 kts full tabs bow down flatter wake then last year at this speed ( last year RIB not mounted) Raised tabs up lost a 1kt and 50 rpm bow came up
2250 RPM
2250 RPM 7kts full tabs, bow down, raised tabs up ,slight attitude change bow raised. speed didn't change.
Any speeds under 2000 RPM I run with tabs all the way up.
Sea trial 2- Rib and outboard taken off , 2 adults, 63 gallons of fuel ,full water tank, 1/2 full waste tank, all other equipment added onboard.
4130 to 4150 RPM 20.5 kts full tabs bow down , I raised up slightly bow still stayed down speed didn't change, I raised again bow started to raise but speed didn't change, I raised up slightly more bow continued to come up and lost 1kt. I can now over trim the boat , I never could do that last year. I didn't gain much more performance over last year but I did gain. Most important to me the bow is down.
3200 RPM is now my same speed as last years 3250- 12kts bow down and a real solid ride in the water. This is our cruise speed when in open water.The wake flattened out and the boat cuts through the water.
2250RPM 7.5 kts slight increase over last year
Sea conditions were temp 70 , waves 1' to 2' , wind 8 to 10 mph Lake Michigan.
WE will boat all summer and experience many different sea conditions , I keep a good log and at the end of the summer I will compare. I'm not really comparing apples to apples with the added weight, bottom paint, RIB and motor. If I didn't add the extra equipment and the RIB and motor I would not have looked into or thought of making changes. I am so far happy with the results.
Brian Brown
26 Cutwater
PORT-A-GEE
