Thread: 1996 Blazer VL100 Restoration to Crappie Chaser

First the Wedges worked like Magic! My boat planes off with less than 1/2 the bow rise than before. Porpoising is all but eliminated at slower speeds, or I can now trim out of the condition. I bought the 2 Degree Wedges from Bob's Machine Shop. Lifting forces transition perfectly now. The spray line looks best with the engine up 1-1/2 inches on the Jackplate. The prop was vented and pitched to what my Buddy says is a 21in pitch now but I'm still experiencing a bit of Bite my other 21in props don't do. So after fishing I was cruising back and hit a straight away. Turning 4800rpm I started trimming up more and the boat speed went up so I decided to trim up more. The RPM's went from 4800 to 5400, the boat kept raising out of the water till things started getting squirrely from the almost gale winds we had today. I still had a lot of throttle left and was at 52mph already. I will update again after getting use to the boat.

Ran the boat during high traffic conditions on the river here last weekend. I discovered I still had a little undesirable handling crossing multiple boat wakes at the same time. The confused seas or wakes caused me to have to slow too far down for safe handling. Today I swapped the Solas HR3-21 for a HR4-19 (really measures 23in pitch and 21in pitch respectively) and water tested in very choppy conditions. The 4 Blade's Holeshot was significantly better, mid-range cruising dramatically improved, top it out at 51mph no extra trimming or jackplate adjusting. The wind is still a huge issue here, maybe it will stop blowing sometime this Century. You can see in the picture the amount of pitch for what Solas says it is. We are using a commercial Prop gauge at my buddy's Prop Shop to measure, maybe in Taiwan the conversion table needs correcting (Solas is made in Taiwan).

Awesome

Still dialing in performance improvements. This Stingray Fin has been laying around for about 10 years. It came with a Show Order for a Poling Skiff then was not needed. Running the boat before the Fin addition was good except I thought undue strain on the Hydraulic Steering was felt at the steering wheel. That backfeed occurs when the Cavitation Plate is at the wrong angle in relation to the Plane off angle of the hull at the lifting point. With the engine weighing as much as the hull either I was going to have to add a lifting lip on the hull at the transom like you find on a Bullet or try a Hydrofoil Fin. I really don't like the newer designs and since switching to the Solas HR4 Prop corrected a lot of the weight / balance on a plane issue I bit the bullet and drilled holes and mounted the Stingray.



This fin made my project boat handle completely different. Now its on a Plane in 20ft for starters, Zero feedback torque is in the Steering Wheel now, the boat will remain on a plane at 2800rpm, I was able to raise the engine back up 3 holes, the Wedges from Bob's are no longer needed, and my top speed added a Mph. I'm starting to think Blazer added the Aft Corner Wedges in the hull originally for the same reason. I'm posting here for those who are thinking of experimenting with their boats to provide some feedback reference material. I removed the Wedges in the Hull during Blueprinting, unforeseen consequences. If I put the 90HP Yamaha 3 cylinder I have on the boat the extra lift would not be needed in my opinion. They weigh 239#'s (non-oil injected C90) the 115 Yamaha TLR weighs 358#'s.



A added bonus to moving the engine up 3 holes is the clearances needed for the Steering Ram to Jackplate Ram Head and Transom are back. When I lowered the engine and added the Wedges the Engine could be Tilted so the Steering Ram would hit the Jackplate Ram Head. Now you can see lots of clearance. The wedges moved the Ram within touching distance of the jackplate. Also the Hydraulic Steering Hose Fittings could hit the Transom Splashwell, now it clears, barely but still clears when fully Tilted.

Ever seen a guys head spin like Deliverance spinning? At first I thought it was the caffeine but I believe it is related to your post….but in all seriousness I’m fascinated by this build and your explanations. Good stuff….BTW my expertise is in the field of possums and raccoons!

Truly awesome work.

Pursuing perfection is a curse. Not being able to sit still is another. The Fins are never my first choice but they do have a purpose. When calculating Stability the Longitudinal numbers work from the Transom. Forward weights are a Positive number and Aft weights are a negative number. The original "Pads" I removed from the corners of the planing surface of the hull are on a Zero Centerline, not positive or negative. The lifting pads themselves were maybe 9 - 12 square inches total. Now the Fin is 34 inches Aft with a total "Wetted" squares inches of 40+. Averaging the original pads at 10 square inches for a easy math explanation and using 5 pounds of force per Sq/In we can calculate the lifting forces generated as 10 x 5 = 50 pounds of lifting force per Pad. 50 pounds x 2 Pads = 100 Inch/Pounds of Uplift at the Transom. The force is at Zero Inches. If your eyes have not glazed over we can continue. The faster you go the more lift.

Now the 40 square inches of surface of the Fin is 34 inches Aft. Using the same 5 pounds of force per square inch we can calculate the total Uplift force from the Fin. 40 x 5 = 200 pounds of force. Now multiply that times the distance aft 34 inches, 200 x 34 = 6800 Inch/Pounds of Uplifting Forces. Divide that by 12 and you get 566 Foot/Pounds of force. Quite a big difference.

I think my head exploded.

It is a good kind of math