Thread: Complex problem with my Yamaha, need some help

There are some combinations of horsepower and hull design that will never perform like other combinations of same.

If you're primary purpose is a fishing boat that handles well at a lot of different speeds,doesn't porpoise every time you let up a little

Allows you to trim the attitude of the boat easily

You might just consider trim tabs or a hydrofoil

There is a camp that believes you need to chase the performance you want at all cost and know when you hit the ramp you have the ultimate for that boat...and the other stuff is hog wash

Another camp has enough experience to know for the average fisherman with certain boats it is an easy fix and achieves the goals desired.

IN fact....I want to adjust the attitude of the bow easily with just a little trim adjustment. THAT is one of the more important aspects to me.

I am not racing anyone...I want versatility for conditions. Changing loads,weather,lake speed limits. Matter of fact some smaller lakes around here are now enforcing 35 mile an hour speed limits. I want to control the porpoising to nothing under all conditions and stay on plane at low speeds.

Doggone, thanks for the reply. I somehow missed it until just now. I'm not in the throw money at it camp. I'm in the get the best out of the boat that it can do without spending an arm and a leg camp. Trim tabs would likely have been my best option but I couldn't figure out how to use them without interfering with my Helix transducer.

For those who have followed my saga, I am happy to say that it is now OVER!

I put the jack plate back on Monday and took the boat out. I could tell no difference in how the boat handled the water and it still poropoised. I am a member of an AL deer hunting forum and there is a fishing sub forum on it. I asked those guys for recommendations on a prop shop. There isn't one locally so Huntsville was the best closest option. Three different people recommended using William Bush at Huntsville Prop Sales and Repairs. I called him and today asking to see if he had a 4 blade prop I could test out and told him I was having porpoising issues. He then asked me about 20 questions about my boat and set up. After telling him everything he wanted to know, he told me he wanted to see the prop that I was running. (Laser II) I told him I had bought it online from a prop shop in TX around 2 months ago and it was in great shape. He said he still wanted to look at it and check it, before he made any recommendations about what I needed to do. I asked him if he could look at it today and if so I'd head that way with it. He said he could, so I left work and made the 45 minute drive.

When he looked at it, he said "it looks okay, but I'm still going to check it." I walked over to his bench with him so I could watch what he was doing. He put it on a spindle and put a gauge on it to check the pitch. Turns out, one of the blades was nowhere near correct. The back edge of the blade was about 3/8" from where it should be. He put it on his block for that prop and beat on it a few minutes. Got up and polished it up and told me he wanted me to try it before we did anything else. I brought it back, put it on the boat and headed to the lake. The porpoising issue is 100% gone. The boat jumps out of the hole and the bow stays up off the water like it should. In one 2 hour fishing trip I got to run my boat on all types of water from flat to white caps. It performed fantastically in every condition.

Glad you got it figured out you would have thought the place you bought it from would have checked it something like that can be very frustrating when you buy something and expect it to be right.

Originally Posted by Javelin 180

Glad you got it figured out you would have thought the place you bought it from would have checked it something like that can be very frustrating when you buy something and expect it to be right.

No kidding. You purchase something and expect it to be as purchased. Not many of us (myself included) would ever think to check the pitch on a brand new prop. We would (and should) expect it to be correct.

Nothing is more frustrating than to have one issue, fix it, then have another issue and "assume" it is something to do with the new part you put on. You troubleshot it exactly how most of us would have done so. Great job and a great post for sure! Glad you got her fixed better than when you purchased it.

Thanks for all the replies. I've learned some things since I got the prop fixed. First is never buy a used prop online, even from a prop shop. Secondly, if your boat is using more gas than you think it should, have a good prop guy check the prop. My fuel consumption has been cut just about in half since the guy fixed that prop. I filled up (18 gallons) yesterday afternoon and drove 4-5 miles. This morning my son and I put in below the dam in Guntersville. We fished for several hours (fishing was horrible) then I asked him if he wanted to drive down river a while. He wanted to so we drove to Ditto Landing and back and we ran WOT the whole time. That's around a 30 mile round trip drive. I've still got over 1/4 tank of gas.

Just last week I mentioned to Slabprowler how horrible my fuel economy was. I seriously was getting less than 1 mpg. I know 2 stroke outboards are gas hogs but having the prop repaired has increased that to better than 2 mpg. That's still not real good but on this tank it's either been loading or unloading the boat or running hard.

Good to hear.

That one showed up Slab. Not sure why it would now but hasn't been doing so??

If you read it, it's no longer "new" so it won't be in the "New Posts" list, if you refresh.