Speedster 200 - Ride Plates / Trim Tabs

[henryb]

Just recently purchased a 2004 Speedster 200 310HP. My previous boat was a 2000 Challenger 1800 with a 210HP Mercury Sport Jet... and when I bought that boat (12 years ago)... it used to porpoise very badly, even in fairly calm water... so I immediately found some articles about a guy in Florida (aquaman1) that was making Ride Plates for that hull and it almost completely eliminated the porpoising! So I bought one, and it worked fantastic, it also helped with "bow-rise" on start offs. However, with my new boat (Speedster 200), I have not experienced such prominent porpoising on fairly calm water, it seems to ride very stable, even in fairly small chop (6 inch). From reading various peoples experiences on this forum with the Speedster 200... some people seem to have severe porpoising on anything other then glass calm water? I'm surprised that there is such different experiences with the same hull? I would like to hear peoples feedback on how or why that might be?

What I have experienced, is that the boat will begin to porpoise after riding over boat wakes or rollers back-wash from other crafts on the water ways. I then have to slow down to get the boat to flatten out and then I can speed up again. At this time of year (in Canada), there are not that many boats out on the lake, so it is mostly calm / small wind based chop.... so the ride is mostly good. But once summer rolls around next year, the situation will be much different. Now, another factor that I must mention is that I have been riding with just myself in the boat half the time and the other half with just one additional passenger. I seem to get the same experience with either a full tank of gas or almost empty as well. I have read where people experience much more severe porpoising with a full load of passengers.

Thus I have been considering installing a pair of Ride Plates / Trim Tabs. I have identified a few manufacturers that make them for this hull. Bennett makes a variety of trim tabs, I think the most basic self-leveling ST6 might be a good option as well Lenco make a similar product #15013-101. I am not looking for an actuated or automated kit, just something fixed / simple. I have also found that HighTecPerformance makes a set of Ride-Plate extensions, that mount directly under the jet pump, similar to what the Aquaman1 ride plate did on the Challenger 1800 hull. I would be very interested to hear what people on this forum have experienced with any of these products... right now, I'm leaning towards the HighTecPerformance Ride Plates.

 

[henryb]

After careful consideration of all the options and the pro's and cons of each... I decided to go with the HighTecPerformance Ride Plates, put my order in and they should be arriving later this week. I will make sure I post an update regarding the installation, and then my thoughts on their performance once they are on the boat.

It came down to how effective would each of my options be at controlling porpoising in rough water or boat wake/back-wash water, also the bow-rise on start-offs... also would I be able to keep the boat on plane at slower speeds. The other fairly important consideration, was would I be able to install some sort of steering fin (Thrust Vector or Cobra Fin)... unfortunately, with these Ride Plates, I would not be able to install either one of those products, as they would get in the way of each other (both are installed under the jet pump).

However, to address this issue, my mechanic suggested that he could adapt a steering wheel to throttle mechanism, similar to what was used on the older Challenger 1800 / 2000 boats. Literally a cable was attached from the steering wheel directly to the throttle... so that when you turned the steering wheel to full lock (either direction), it would pull the throttle just a tiny bit and blip the throttle, helping to kick the back end around. I found this to be extremely handy for slow speed maneuvering on my Challenger 1800. I'm not exactly sure on how he was going to do that on the Speedster, but he assured me it would be possible! More on that once I get some details!!!

So once I learned that this steering throttle blip is possible, then the choice for which Ride Plate / Trim Tab was easy!

 

[pug pug]

Hello. Best thing you can do is make your own trim tabs. I made mine out of stainless steel. I get on the plane a lot quicker and no porpoises anywhere. .