Ground zero. need a guru.

[naples39]

30 years of boating skills has no bearing on speeds over 50.
Running 24' vpad no trim tabs, 300 stroker.
iam chine walking or porposing or slamming.
its not the rigging.
its the driver.
iam exagerating but iam a perfectionist on the H20.
did 74mph with pro driving vessel. it may reach 80 when motor broken in.
i am getting the heeby jeebies at 60 mph and backing off.
what did you guys do to learn how to balance ?
thanks

[Smoking Joe]

Seat time and yet more seat time. With chine walking use the steering to stand the boat back up. So as it drops the starboard side jerk the steering to starboard and it will stand the boat back up on the pad. Do the same as the boat drops the port side. As the speed increases so you will get to a point where the pad will support the weight of the boat. It is all about feel. Be safe and wear a life jacket.

[HydroSkreamin]

This is such a hard skill to explain, and once you have it, you always want to go there! Remember, you are trying to keep the bow going straight. The hardest part I had when learning and when teaching is when to "start paying attention", whether you are just going over waves or if you are starting to lose pad control. As soon as the bow starts to dance back and forth or circular motion, you need to start getting control. Usually when newbies realize they have lost pad control it's too late. The best way I've learned and taught is to have someone that knows pad boats in the passenger seat, and don't immediately try to go as fast as possible, but rather go to the point of "irritation". Timing is everything, and once the hull gets rocking too far, you have to either quickly get control, or back down to a reasonable speed and take another run at it. Usually you have 3 or 4 oscillations to get a handle on it, then it gets increases magnitude and you have to slow down and start over.

I went out about a month ago with my buddy in his Outerlimits and went through this, and he's an airplane pilot. He just didn't know the difference between wave reaction to the hull and the hull trying to generate pad lift. The bow tells all, and rhythm is everything. Power steering boats need less input than non, as you generally are trying to drive in an arc to the left with a single. If your buddy can ride along side with you and give gentle tugs on the wheel for correction when needed, and you are holding on too, you will learn when and how much quicker than on your own. My buddy actually got it and lost it and regained it, and the grin on his face was priceless. He called me the next time he had the boat out and said he had an understanding and new appreciation for his boat.

Hope this helps. Good luck, use your head, and wear your lifejacket and tether.

[Li'l Toy]

Joe--

Hey, I drive a boat with training wheels now, but from my Vandal days isn't it to steer port as the boat starts dropping to starboard?

[pyro]

It comes like second-nature after a while. You won't even realize you're doing it.

On my boat, I feel for the left side about to rise up, and tug the wheel left to pull it back down to level. If you don't tug hard enough, it quickly rises again. If you tug too hard, it pitches right and bounces back.

The trick is to arrest the movement BEFORE it occurs. You have to predict how the hull is going to walk, and make the correction ahead of it to keep it level, rather than reacting late once it's already getting away from you.

[whipper]

All of the above and balancing the hull even if you add counter weight will help also. It doesnt matter how hard to try if the hull is heavier on one side its going to make learning this skill even tougher.

Practice makes perfect so ya seat time on calm water. That way your not contending with other boats on the water and wakes or wind also. There should be lots of good write ups on hear already to look up and theres some pretty good videos also. The movements on the wheel are generally smaller than one thinks of at the time. Think riding a bike. The first time ever you are counter steering like crazy at a slow speed. Then as you get better you use your body and everything else to balance the two wheels straight,even with no hands!! Its kinda like that. One day you'll just get it and never forget it. You'll always start were ya left off. So find time to go out with your safety gear on early in the morning and practice. youll get it. Every one of use with vee hulls over 70mph had to learn this.

One more thing. It generally starts around 65mph or so. So if your to 70 and chine walking back out slow down to 40 or 50 and try again. Keep trying until you can transit from 50 to 75mph with out chine walking and hold it at 70+ for as long as you can. Point is if your walking her your not going to recover so why waist time in practice just back off and try again. always back out slow never to fast. Trim down bump bump at a time then slow off on the foot. Be safe have fun. You will wonder what took you so long to get it after ya got it!! It just clicks one day. Might take 10 practice days for a couple hours each morning? Just keep at it.

[naples39]

All of the above and balancing the hull even if you add counter weight will help also. It doesnt matter how hard to try if the hull is heavier on one side its going to make learning this skill even tougher.

Practice makes perfect so ya seat time on calm water. That way your not contending with other boats on the water and wakes or wind also. There should be lots of good write ups on hear already to look up and theres some pretty good videos also. The movements on the wheel are generally smaller than one thinks of at the time. Think riding a bike. The first time ever you are counter steering like crazy at a slow speed. Then as you get better you use your body and everything else to balance the two wheels straight,even with no hands!! Its kinda like that. One day you'll just get it and never forget it. You'll always start were ya left off. So find time to go out with your safety gear on early in the morning and practice. youll get it. Every one of use with vee hulls over 70mph had to learn this.

One more thing. It generally starts around 65mph or so. So if your to 70 and chine walking back out slow down to 40 or 50 and try again. Keep trying until you can transit from 50 to 75mph with out chine walking and hold it at 70+ for as long as you can. Point is if your walking her your not going to recover so why waist time in practice just back off and try again. always back out slow never to fast. Trim down bump bump at a time then slow off on the foot. Be safe have fun. You will wonder what took you so long to get it after ya got it!! It just clicks one day. Might take 10 practice days for a couple hours each morning? Just keep at it.

Really helpful and supportive feedbacks from you guys. Really appreciated

[naples39]

Thanks alot for the support and good tips
it is one of those things that is all consuming

[Mr. Demeanor]

My boat is a tunnel but I had never driven a small fast boat before and just the way a small boat moves around a lot freaked me out for awhile. What at first felt to me like near death I now know is just the way the boat runs and its actually very forgiving. Just keep sneaking up on it and one day it will feel great. Like first riding a bike.

[Coupe427]

If your on the heavier side add weight to the opposite side of the boat. It helps tremendously. I'm 260lbs and without the weight my boat leans a good bit and constantly tries to fall off the pad. By adding 50lbs to the opposite side of the boat, as close to the side as I could get it, now makes for a flat running boat and much less input required to keep it running.

This is a video from some prop testing yesterday. When its up and running you will see the steering cylinder move slightly side to side. This is the type of action you are looking for. You will just have to learn when to apply them.

[Sonik]

Here's an old video of me with the old 2.0 liter. I never realized I moved around so much, or provided much steering input until I watched myself. It's also a good tool to go back and analyze later as you're learning. Good advice all around here.

http://youtu.be/VKyo1-idIuM

[whipper]

This is a very good video also narration starts around 2min mark. He lets go on purpose to show how the boat starts to get walking when you dont do anything. http://s88.photobucket.com/user/bigh...tml?sort=3&o=0

In this one its me with the camera facing the wheel. you can see how little the movements are at speed. I think when your learning i know I had a tendency to OVER correct. its very small movements as you can see. Thats with a properly balanced hull as mentioned about the counter weight above. You can see me shift my weight to the left slightly as Im driving on the first pass because I was trying to get it just right. You will feel that sorta stuff right away after you get it. Also I lifted my hand up to adjust my visor. I actually only did this to show how ballanced things are that I can drive her with one hand. :] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sglrin_6Bw

[naples39]

Thats wheel time for sure to bring it to the brink and pull out
QUOTE=whipper;2661805]This is a very good video also narration starts around 2min mark. He lets go on purpose to show how the boat starts to get walking when you dont do anything. http://s88.photobucket.com/user/bigh...tml?sort=3&o=0

In this one its me with the camera facing the wheel. you can see how little the movements are at speed. I think when your learning i know I had a tendency to OVER correct. its very small movements as you can see. Thats with a properly balanced hull as mentioned about the counter weight above. You can see me shift my weight to the left slightly as Im drivThatsing on the first pass because I was trying to get it just right. You will feel that sorta stuff right away after you get it. Also I lifted my hand up to adjust my visor. I actually only did this to show how ballanced things are that I can drive her with one hand. :] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sglrin_6Bw[/QUOTE]

[HStream1]

The best way to master balancing a boat is get behind a boat making wake (speed doesn't matter) and practice balancing the boat on the wake. Master that and chine walk is a breeze to control.

[tlwjkw]

Just courious. Has anyone asked what kind of "vpad" boat this is? It may have a "bayliner bottom". Ya know, what some call a "rocker" bottom.............Sure would make tha learnin' curve kinda long.