Do I need to lose weight ?

[Colin K]

Hello Happy Summer all,

I was lifted out recently cleaned the bottom of my Corniche to an inch of its life and applied three coats of semi hard Antifoul. Four coats of Trilux to the props and rudders. I did have to straighten some tiny tiny dings to the edges of three blades but when finished they all looked good and symetrical.
We packed for our ten days on board and I am wondering (and hoping) that I have overloaded her as we could not get on the plane, She gets to about 2800 rpm (both engines the same) and leaves an impressive smoke screen behind. It was not a great problem last week as the weather and sea state was pants! We have over the Winter taken out the generator from the Lazarette as we do not use it and it is broke so a next winter project. I had it in my mind that anything that we load her up with would not be more than the genny but I wonder?
The audit of what we loaded up for the hols goes like this :-

Two diving cylinders demand valves weight belts etc etc. Packed in the forward bilge
Kayak 4 man same forward bilge
wine and beer for two weeks forward bilge/store about 50l.
Food amidships/forward store


Normal kit

Avon 3.1m rib with 15hp o/b. Always been in davits
Tools to cope with most problems, rear lazarette
Twin tub washer lazarette
Extra fridge full of lifes essentials (beer/wine) @ 50l Lazarette. :very_drunk:
Also found an extra anchor 14 kg which ive brought home.
Full water tank 295l
Full fuel tanks 682l
16 year old daughters make up bag.

In a week or so I am going to unload her of the holiday stuff run the water tank low and she will only have half full fuel tanks and give her another go at high revs.
I wonder if there could be any other lines of thought?

Cheers, Col.

 

[Niffler]

We loaded up with 6 weeks food and drink with plans to just buy the fresh stuff en route and had a noticeable list to port. Five weeks later we're level again and need to go shopping! Basically don't underestimate how much weight you can pack into a boat - we displace 12 tonnes so it takes a lot to alter our trim and we still managed it!

 

[Colin K]

We loaded up with 6 weeks food and drink with plans to just buy the fresh stuff en route and had a noticeable list to port. Five weeks later we're level again and need to go shopping! Basically don't underestimate how much weight you can pack into a boat - we displace 12 tonnes so it takes a lot to alter our trim and we still managed it!

Yes indeed we did three pontoon trolly runs with the food and beer/wine.

Oo forgot to say engines are TAMD 200 hp shaft drive. Done 580 hrs each.

Cheers, Colin.

 

[Bandit]

What is the boat ?

I see two by 200hp what age? Outdrives or shaft?

I assume she used to easily get on the plane last season and the season before with this kind of weight?

You say recently lifted, bottom clean and recoated, when?

Assuming she used to easily plane with this kind of weight, being devils advocate, the likely culprits are: a dirty bottom, slipping bushes on outdrive boats, un noticed water in the bilge, turbocharger problems or possibly dirty fuel ( fuel flow constriction)?

 

[dj43]

I would drain the water tank and remove the rib and try again, we normally cruise with water tanks fairly empty,

 

[Sailorsam101]

You should be able to get on the plane with five adults onboard and full tanks.

All you list above is no more than five adults and full tanks so something else is going on here I'd say.

My Targa 33 gets on the plane with 9 adults and full fuel onboard.

 

[Colin K]

What is the boat ?

I see two by 200hp what age? Outdrives or shaft?

I assume she used to easily get on the plane last season and the season before with this kind of weight?

You say recently lifted, bottom clean and recoated, when?

Assuming she used to easily plane with this kind of weight, being devils advocate, the likely culprits are: a dirty bottom, slipping bushes on outdrive boats, un noticed water in the bilge, turbocharger problems or possibly dirty fuel ( fuel flow constriction)?

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
As mentioned she is a corniche (Fairline). 1989 but very low hours (I think) at 850 ish hours?

I bought her last year so yes she went on the plane but it was a bit of a new experience! To be honest we have added and added a few luxuries as you do.

Recently lifted and me antifouling was a matter of four days before our cruise so I hope she would be clean.

Shaft drive as said before and both engines getting grumpy at the same time suggests a generic problem rather than an individial engine one? Or I may be a bit thick?

The engines pur away like sewing machines otherwise.

Thanks for your pointers.

 

[Colin K]

You should be able to get on the plane with five adults onboard and full tanks.

All you list above is no more than five adults and full tanks so something else is going on here I'd say.

My Targa 33 gets on the plane with 9 adults and full fuel onboard.

Thanks, Yup I agree we are one ageing old git (me) my petite wife my 16 year old daughter (with make up bag) 9 year old lad and a Novascotia duck tolling retriever (dog). Searching for reasons as simple as poss ha ha

Cheers, Col

 

[Seastoke]

Y fill water tanks r u going the dessert

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Some stupid questions. Do you have trim tabs, do you know they work and were they fully down? Have you ever filled fuel and water tanks before and managed to get on the plane?

Agree with the others. Empty the water tank, leave the Avon tied to the pontoon and try again. If that doesn't work I'd be tempted to lift the boat again, scrape off the Trimax off the props and bring them up nice and shiny again because only then are they working at max efficiency

One things for sure and that is that its not doing the engines any good to be labouring at hump speed with smoke pouring out the back. If it was me I'd want to be finding out now what was the cause rather than leaving it

 

[Colin K]

Y fill water tanks r u going the dessert

You are quite right and we have promised a bit more forward planning so we do not have any more on board than necessary.
We subtley carry more now than we have before as instead of stopping filling when the guage reads full we fill until it comes out of the pee thing! Recon a good ten gallons extra ooops.
Just enough for tea/coffee when we are going to another marina and 1/4 tank per night at anchor we have measured.
Cheers, Colin.

 

[Colin K]

Some stupid questions. Do you have trim tabs, do you know they work and were they fully down? Have you ever filled fuel and water tanks before and managed to get on the plane?

Agree with the others. Empty the water tank, leave the Avon tied to the pontoon and try again. If that doesn't work I'd be tempted to lift the boat again, scrape off the Trimax off the props and bring them up nice and shiny again because only then are they working at max efficiency

One things for sure and that is that its not doing the engines any good to be labouring at hump speed with smoke pouring out the back. If it was me I'd want to be finding out now what was the cause rather than leaving it

Hello,
Thanks for the reply. Yes have trim tabs and tried with them up and down. I think she was wanting to hop up when they were down. Must confess they are new to me so i must read up on where they should be when!
Yes had her on the plane before def with full fuel and nearly full water (we get a bit more in now filling it till o/flow.
I must confess I did slap a lot of trilux on the props they were heavily barnacled up when I lifted out.
As soon as its clear she is not going on the plane (about 20 secs or so) I throttle back and potter around comfotably at 1600 rpm 9 kts or so and the engines pur along lovely. You are quite right we will get to the bottom of it. A week tomorrow we are on board for four days so play time.

Appreciate your points, Cheers, Colin.

 

[Seastoke]

Wot engines do u hav and wot speed did u get before at wot revs

 

[Colin K]

Wot engines do u hav and wot speed did u get before at wot revs

Hi,
They are TAMD41a's. Shaft drive four bladed props. From memory she did about 24kts at 3600rpm or there abouts. I must start making notes it all helps at these moments.

Cheers, Col.

 

[Colin K]

Wot engines do u hav and wot speed did u get before at wot revs

You rotter you have made me look at a video to see if I could see the dash whilst on the plane. Now I want to go down to the boat this weekend and sort her out ha ha....
And yup I think I can see 24kts at 3,400rpm. I think she tops out at 3600rpm.

Cheers, Col.

 

[oldgit]

Sea state ?

 

[Colin K]

Sea state ?

Hi,
Sea last week when we gave her a go was flat calm (wife on board she likes flat calm). Interestingly a chap moored near me says with full tanks and fully loaded he has to find a wave to give his boat a hop onto the plane. Sounds a bit odd but hey ho.

Cheers, Col

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Hello,
Thanks for the reply. Yes have trim tabs and tried with them up and down. I think she was wanting to hop up when they were down. Must confess they are new to me so i must read up on where they should be when!

Its not rocket science Put them fully down as you try to get on the plane because they help lift the stern out of the water. When you are on the plane experiment with different positions of the tabs at various engine rpm to try to get the optimum speed. Generally speaking once you are on the plane the faster you go the less tabs you will need. The second function of the trim tabs is to level the boat from side to side if the boat is unequally loaded or leans to one side in a beam wind (this happens because you have to steer into the wind to keep the boat on course). The third function of the trim tabs is to push the bow down when you are punching into a head sea to get the sharpest point of the hull at the bow to impact with the waves

 

[Colin K]

Hello,
After a couple of weekends on board unloading any junk,my diving cylinders empty water tank half fuel fuel she sits a good couple of inches higher.
Weather on the East coast has been pants so we have no been able to get out however last night I got out to sea and once past Languard point opened her up. Still disaster and still foxed.
She revs to 2750 revs (both engines) and thats as high as she will go. Tried trim tabs up/down which lifted the bow but no change in speed. I was alone on board so could nit check actual position under load. Engines smoke a lot not enough to stain the stern but not right. They sound ok and at lower revs in fact sound like sewing machines lovely.
So I am moving along the possible causes! Its not my beer/wine stash or my daughters make up bag. My thoughts are moving to a couple of things.

End of last year we made friends with a sand bank. Have I damaged the props, I was lifted out last month to antifoul so hull is clean and I painted the props with lots of trilux. (Was on previously) I set up a jig of timber around the props and turned them checking the distance of each blade to the fixed point both front and back, There were no dings bends and each blade 2x4 blades total eight blades were the same distance from my fixed point, worst was the thickness of paint different. Is this basic method checking them loo low tech and is it fractions of mm you check for. I guess if the answer to this is yes then its another lift and send them off to steel developments or simular ?

Closing up this morning I did notice that the air cleaners look a bit dirty. They are 50 hours old been in 11 months. Is this worth checking.

Other than that I am foxed so wondered if anyone has any thoughts.

Cheers, Colin.

 

[Colin K]

Hello,
Its amazing how the months pass by and I have not been on board since Oct aaah. Determined to get the old tub plane worthy this Summer I have started to look at my engines and start from basics. Before closing her up for winter I got out in flat water clean props and bottom. Engines TAMD41b's 200hp. 800 odd hrs. Stbd engine max revs 3250 rpm and the port one 2700 rpm lots of black smoke
Plan is full service change the Racon primaries from 10 micron back to 30 micron (as suggested by VP in another old thread) then retest her. If that does not cure her then lift out and send off the props for checking.
Air cleaner out I reached in and span the turbo which after a tiny bit of resistance spins great. Has just a bit of surface soot on the vanes but no oil. Not sure if thats normal?
Not being an air cleaner expert I wonder if this is particularly bad? Changing it of course!

Cheers. Colin.