Thread: "G" and other SeaArk owners

Don My SeaArk is a XV 860 I have a 90 Yamaha Four Stroke on it. I have a 13in. X19 pitch SOLAS SS prop.....My motor is mounted in the lowest hole. I turn 5500 rpm at WOT. I also have a SE Sport 300 Hydrofoil mounted on my motor....I have used these on all my boats. Mine like every boat I have ever had leans a little to the drivers side at rest or idle speeds. But It has two Group 31 batteries on that side....It levels up with a little speed though. The only time mine has ever tried to porpoise is when I trim up too high. SeaArk used to be Monark and they are one of the oldest boat makers still in the business and one of the best. I have not had the first problem with my boat or how it performs. If I was your friend I would call Sea Ark and discuss the problem with them. 6000 rpm is putting that motor at the top of its range....he really needs a 19 pitch prop. and I think the motor should be lowered. I ordered my boat with out a motor and bought my motor separate and my dealer installed it and set it up and propped it........the guy is real good and got it right the first shot at it.

I have a ZX170 w a 90 merc on it. Mine is mounted in the lowest hole. It turns bout 5800 @ WOT. It does have a minor lean to the drivers side. Only time it porpoise is when it is trimmed too high. I bought this boat in 2000 new and only problem I ever had was paint peel after 2 years. I called seark and they didn't hesistate to repaint the whole boat. No other problems in 13 years with it and I put a lot of hrs on it. MY dad has a ZX180( I think it's 1999 he bought used w a 115 johnson on it and it responds almost identical to mine. I feel that both boats are too light on the front to handle much trim with each respective motor. I'm not sure about the new model you friend has, but I will say I have been very pleased with my seark and the customer service. I had issue with the axle in the trailer eating tires on the inside(too weak) and took it to the dealer I bought it from. They contacted Seark and Seark contacted the trailer manufacturer(Diamond city) and worked it out to replace the axles at no charge. This was 6 years after I bought it.

cant hide money G!

If it is porpoising the motor should be lowered, not raised.

If it was mine and dealer was local I'd be right back at the dealer. 15 pitch sounds way to small for a 90 on 18 ft boat and two notches way to high on Aluminum hull. Basically saying same thing G said.

Sadly, many dealers don't do much water testing after rigging a boat. If the motor is hung, the rig cranks, and the whole thing runs down the lake, they're going to call it good. Tinkering with setup is pretty much a given. I wouldn't be too upset about it. It's part of buying a new boat.

First, and just to make sure nothing funky is happening, I'd get under the boat and inspect for anything odd, like bows, hooks, blemishes or excess weld material on the bottom. This doesn't sound like the problem, but weird stuff happens when it's there. I would be happy with 6,000 rpms on the motor side and I would NOT want that to change. Lugging is way worse for an outboard than the high side of manufacturer recommended rpm ranges. You want it to hit the top of the RPM range when its lightly loaded and all he's going to do from here out is add more stuff, so you can pretty much count on that number dropping a few rpms anyway. Trim can take a lot of the porpoising out and I don't know how much motor height (not trim) affects it, as you want as much motor out of the water as possible. That being said, he could have a prop that is providing too much bow lift and causing a lot of the porpoising, in which case, a prop change could make all the difference in the world, however, I don't think a pitch change should be the first stop. I mean, you could fix it with a pitch change, but that's because the boat is going slower. Your dealer should be happy to provide your buddy with a couple of different props that he can try out to get what he wants. After that, it's time to start shifting weight around until he hits a sweet spot. If he's running a big trolling motor, he may want to find a way to move his TM batteries further forward. If none of those things work, he may want to think about trim tabs, either manual or fixed.

I moved my TM batteries to the center of my boat in a compartment for storage and rewired.....really made the boat run smoother. I'm not a 'technical boat guy' so I don't notice much small differences, except that this procedure made it run 'smoother'. My .02.

Originally Posted by cray

If it was mine and dealer was local I'd be right back at the dealer. 15 pitch sounds way to small for a 90 on 18 ft boat and two notches way to high on Aluminum hull. Basically saying same thing G said.

I am with Cray on this. If I paid a dealer 21 g for a boat HE would be the one workin on it gettin it rite.