Jack plates and hydrofoils

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huntinfool

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I took my 1860 tracker to the bay for a Blast and Cast Men's Ministry duck hunt. While on plane I could run in 18" to maybe a foot of water. However I could not get up on plane from a dead stop.
I do not have a tunnel.
I have a 90hp Force with a 3 blade prop.
I know that I can add a 4 blade and that should help me with hole shot.
What I'm curious about is a jack plate and a hydrofoil ( whale tail or what ever name you want to call them).
Will a jack plate work even though I don't have a tunnel?
Will a hydrofoil help also or in conjunction with a jack plate? I really want to be able to run a bit skinnier than what I'm able to right now. More importantly i want to be able to get up in less water. Any advice appreciated.
 
Jack plate might help. Depends on your current setup. Typically you can raise the motor about 1/2 to 3/4" for every inch of setback, which will help in several ways.

If you went with a 4 blade prop, you get more "stern lift", and a side effect of the 4th blade is more "bite"...meaning you can run the motor higher. So that lets the jackplate raise the motor up a little more before it starts to "blow out" (blow-out is when the motor revs, makes lots of noise, but you're not going anywhere....a.k.a. "ventilation" ).

The hydrofoil will sometimes help get it on plane. If it's all set up right, once it's on plane, the foil is out of the water and it does nothing from that point. With a jack plate, and possibly a 4 blade prop, that thing should run pretty shallow and hold planing speed at a lower RPM, which I personally find handy in flooded timber and also on a shallow river where I don't need to run wide open, yet I can't drop off of plane or the motor drags the bottom.

the thing to look out for is water pressure for the cooling system. Some motors have the water inlets for the water pump higher than others, and can't run real high on the transom. Most of the bass boat guru's put a low water pickup on their motor so that they can run the prop literally half out of the water for less drag and generally speaking more speed. Same can be done for smaller motors but then you get into the "is this little motor worth doing all the work" type deal. Keep in mind that most of the performance bass boat guys are dealing with $50,000+ boats, so putting $2,000 into a few "mods" is pocket change. I did it on a 90hp just do say I did it but the entire boat wasn't worth what I was doing with the motor and jack plate. It was, well...junk. Just well-tuned junk.
 
I'm sure I can scrounge up a jack plate somewhere. I can locate a 4 blade prop too. (I might have one) I'm sure I can make a hydrofoil. I've heard of the low water pick ups, but never seen one. I guess I should look into that. I'm not too concerned with cost, as this is my one and only boat, I want it to do, what I want it to do. So if I need to invest, I'm OK with that.

Thanks for the info.
Anyone else?
 
I'll try and get a motor down pic tonight, but I'm sure it will be dark.
I want to say when I set it up it might have been a hole too low. ( can't remember) but its been working great, however that would probably help some too.
 

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Here are a couple of different pics. Some to see the height and some to see the holes.
 

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I don’t think a jack plate will “help you get on plane” however it will let you run shallow, and a drawback to the low water pickup is that they have a tendency to suck up a lot of mud since the water pick up is moved to the lower front of the lower unit. A hydro foil might help get you on plane better but really you just need to idle into deeper water before you throttle up, it is a lot better for the grass flat too.

If you decide to go that route, please post back how well it worked, thanks.
 
I have never tried it and don't know how well it works but read somewhere if your foot is not on the bottom, you could start off slow in a tight circle, bringing your boat up on its side raising the foot off the bottom, gradually increase your speed until you are on plane. Guess that would be for emergencies.
 
I'm thinking a new prop & a jack plate will do you the most good but you'll need a tach and the max weight you're hauling. Call around to a couple prop shops and tell them your issue and see what they say.
 
Something you might try the next time you have a buddy along is have him sit on the front deck at hole shot. Could be something simple as moving batteries forward. Had a bay boat rigged for batteries either in the rear hatch,or in the center console. Made quite a bit of difference moving them forward. Didn't launch any faster,just flatter. A four blade should also help it jump up flat.

Jackplates never have helped my holeshot,just topend.
 
If you can I'd try moving some weight forward first. If that doesn't help go to the prop next..I've heard good and bad about the jackplate. And no idea about a whale tail.
 
Jack plates are mostly for top end. A foil will get you plane faster and keep you on plane at slower speeds. A foil is more beneficial if you have power tilt and trim. a 4 blade prop will give you a better hole shot. If it were me i'd try a foil first simply cause it's cheaper than a new prop or jack plate. just my 2 cents
 
I do have tilt and trim.
I also have two batteries under the front deck. Plus I have the anchor forward of that ( I know, not much weight)
I only have the starting battery and motor at the rear.
Storage is forward of the console, and live well/baitwell is in the console.

At the time I had walked back to the boat while the guys picked up the dekes. I was by myself. Then I finally got them and all the decoys. I had ALL gear on the front deck and had both men up front. That still wasn't enough.
I think a 4 blade prop and foil may be the easiest.
I'm only looking at the jack plate to raise the motor and not have it so deep in. That would allow me to keep the skeg off the bottom. And possibly not have the back end of the boat dive down so much while trying to get on plane. I wouldn't really need the jack plate that much after that, although having it to tinker with and see if I can optimize my top end wouldn't hurt my feelings.

If I've got the water pick ups underwater, that's about as high up as I can go with out a low water pick up. Even for a short bit.
 
A jack plate does help in slow speed shallow water because it will raise the motor up off the bottom, the prop will be more behind the transom but you are going slow anyway and you don’t have to tilt the motor at a high angle to keep it off the bottom. Tilting the motor up to clear the bottom only makes the problem worse. It won’t help you get on plane though. Charger25 is right on, IMO.
 
Agreed.
But with the motor up, and the boat moving forward with out dragging the bottom, I think I can get moving enough to get on plane.

I think.
 
Had a mini jacker on my little Grumman 1542 for a little bit. Yamaha 4 stroke 25 hp. Also ran a 11" 4 blade prop, no foil. No power tilt unless you call kicking the motor in reverse with the tilt unlocked "power tilt".

Reason I did it was because I sometimes run a river that is real wide, but a foot deep, or less, in a lot of places. Was dragging bottom sometimes. Rock/gravel bottom (no sand or mud or logs to speak of).

First thing I noticed with the jack plate was that I was able to lift the motor about 3 1/2", roughly, from "even" with the bottom. This helped immensely. Found a local guy who had a 4 blade Solas 11" that fit my motor, bough it, and that helped a lot too. Was able to get it out of the hole quicker. If it had power tilt, it'd be a little easier to deal with but it doesn't and I am not going to spend a ton of money on one that does. The 4 blade prop slows it down a hair, like about 1 mph, but I got that back-and then some-with the jack plate. On rougher water when the boat was "riding" the tops of the wake, I could occasionally look back and see about 1/4 of the prop blade tips in a blur, out of the water. It never blew out to speak of. One time when the GF and I were riding around and she was sitting in the very front of the boat (on the nose) and I had the motor tilted up to the first shallow water position and tried to plane it off.

Sold the boat, with the mini-jacker. If my current boat/trailer would fit in the garage with a CMC PT&T, I'd have one, but I don't' even have an inch to spare now much less 5 1/2".

Ran a foil on my old fiberglass boat. They work if everything's set up correctly. Out of the hole a little faster, little more stable when just barely on plane but that's all I really noticed. Took it off for a while to try it. Put a 17" 4 blade Solas on it and really couldn't tell any difference between that setup and the old Turbo 18" 3 blade SS with the foil. But I did lose a couple MPH. No jack plate. Tried one, in an attempt to drag race a friend's boat (which was bigger and 110 more HP)....3 blade 21" Turbo with a lot of rake and the JP helped a ton. Almost 6 mph improvement. 59.7 mph on a little 16' boat with a 1980's 90hp Mariner. And to end that deal, the reason I got rid of it (well one of the major reasons) was because I was running wide open down river headed to the ramp about 49-50 mph...to beat a barge and passed up a log that was, probably 3 foot diameter maybe 15' long, just barely under the surface, just caught a glimpse of it as I passed by it, no more than about 2 foot from the side of the boat. If I'd have hit that thing...not sure I'd be here to talk about it.
 
That's very helpful, thanks.
The hunt I was on, there were several boats there that were my size or smaller. They had JP and were able to get up in skinny water much easier. Mostly because they were able to raise the motor enough to get the skeg out of the mud/sand. They could get the boat moving and slowly increase the power so that they were moving pretty good and then hammer down and jump right up. Most had a foil and a 4 blade prop, but not all. I'm going to try it.
 
Is this a low water pick up? I saw this while working in a trailer today.
View attachment 1
 

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