new guy with qeustion on motor mounting height?

im pretty new to boats and outboards and recently got a 16/36 in a trade. it has an old 1964 johnson 9.5on it and i finally took it to the lake this past weekend. the first trip out i had myself and 2 other people in it and according to gps it ran 10.5 mph. the next day i took it out by myself and it would not plane out with no weight in the front, with just me in it gps said 9.5 mph. my buddy was there in his boat and he sat a big heavy cooler on the front deck of my boat and it was enough to get it up to 11.5 mph. i started reading some threads here and saw discussions about motor height and where the cavitation plate should be in relation to the bottom of boat, i measured mine and its 2 and 3/8 inches below the bottom of boat the way its currently mounted. would raising the motor help my situation any? thanks for any help

on that small of a motor raising the motor height wont make hardly any diffrence at all. your problem is most likly it not getting up on plane with only you in the rear of the boat and it "plowing" too much water, did you have the motor trimmed all the way down?

I agree, the boat was definitely not on plane, the front 6 or so feet wasn't even touching water at wide open throttle. I wasn't sure if it could be fixed with motor height or adding weight.the best I can tell the motor is trimmed all the way down.

I believe you would gain more by adjusting the angle of the lower end/ prop entering the water (trim) then you will see by changing the height of your motor

By trimming up or down? The motor is on the lowest trim setting now.