jackplate

Ok, supposedly there are no stupid questions, however I beg to differ! Here goes nothing; how do I know if I need a jackplate? I have a 16' Smokercraft with a short transom and a 15 hp Mercury with a short shaft. The cavitation plate looks even with the bottom of the boat. On the side of the motor there is a knob with 3 settings and the motor itself has 3 different tilt settings,so that's 9 different settings total. I know that tilting the motor up quite a ways takes away from your speed, but when I'm in shallow water I don't need to go very fast anyway. How do I know if I need a jackplate? I always figured short transom, short shaft motor, but now I'm not sure. I could build one, but without a hydraulic in seems kind of pointless. You can't change motor height on the fly so it seems like a pain in the ***. Could someone starighten me out please.

Your boat will be fine without a jack plate.
But if you want to hi performance your boat than go for it. You'll probably gain some speed & on plane run through shallower water.Just make sure your getting good water pressure to your motor.

Im just subscribing so i can fallow this. I was wondering pretty much the same thing.

With a 15 hp, I'm not sure how much " high performance" I'm gonna get! Thanks though

You'll be surprised, i gained 1.5 mph with the jack plate, for my boat that is a huge number.

Tilt your motor up some in shallow water and go. I know and I may get flack but in my exp. Hydrolic Jac plates are used and really shine in boats with tunnel.And fast boats wanting to go faster..They have become a FAD and are usefull in some applications.Sound like your motor is in about the right place.. move it a hole or 2 and try...What little you gain with a 15hp W/Jack Plate will not be what you loose in CASH ..

the downside of Jack plates
1 extra weight
2 with setback more weight farther back
3 Most older Boat Transoms are not built for the stresses a Jack plate /esp at upper weights and HP 4 People Jac the motor up so high they loose water to cool engine and burn them up ...(Happens All too often) most people won't admit it though..
5 On mostly flat bottems they want to skid around when jacked up
I am not a Jac Plate hater I Have 2 Boats with them one boat its a real asset ,one boat that I am re-building has had one but when I put it back together it will be without a jack plate..It was bought used with a Jac (CMC) and I used it for years ..Dependable but performance suffered (I blamed it on Jac plate once I took it off I weighed it), 50# (scale is double checked) and had 5" setback.The boat is a TIN slight v flat bottem with tunnel and pontoons with 50 hp .Rebuilding;transom cracks and leaks due carpeted treated bunks in bottem all welded up now..Got her carpet removed and shiney inside and outside ready to paint outside and Ultra Tuff inside ..Waiting on weather to get right cva34