Taking hook out?

[Fishfarmer77]

Hello.
First time poster here and Im hoping someone can help me figure this out.
I have a small inshore fiberglass fishing boat that has a hook built into the hull, and I'm wondering if a hook this size could really have an effect on performance. If I knew it would be a benefit to not have the hook then I would probably find a way to take it out, and I've been contemplating it for a long time, but this is something that no one has really done and I rather not go through it all if there will be no gain. Any advise about this would be much appreciated!

So, here is some info about my setup.
Currently running a 16ft Gheenoe LT25 with a 50hp honda 4 stroke (twice the HP its rated for), 3" setback jackplate, electric trim tabs, and a highly modified 3 blade semi cleaver prop. The bottom of the boat has been sanded a little which REALLY helped to get the boat to loosen up and ride a little higher on the water. Typically these boats do not handle any positive trim and porpoise over 40mph, though mine seems to be the exception. The bow likes to ride low and the boat level, so bow lifting props really cause problems. The semi cleaver I modified has so much stern lift when up high I can get to max motor trim and the boat stays level while throwing a huge rooster tail. I use the boat to fish most of the time so I need to run shallow, and currently it can run through 8-9" at full speed because the motor is up so high. Top speed I've seen is about 42mph, though I average 40mph.

So the dilemma is these boats are not designed to go fast, they are fishing boats, but many people try and get them to go fast. The issue is getting them to go past 42mph. They are not speed boats and don't have the best design to go fast, but there has been rumors of one without a hook going 48mph with 50hp, which is 5mph faster then any with a 50. The hook is only on the one step, not across the entire back section, and was apparently designed to help the boats plane out faster with the small motors. It seems the hook is keeping the boat from easily going past the 42mph mark, though at the same time the hook doesn't seem to be very significant so I just wonder if something that small can really slow a boat down 5mph. All the 50's run about the same and I would love to have a little edge over the others when we do go racing around.

The hook is not long, about 6inches wide, and I most likely can just sand it out and buy a little gel coat to cover up the glass, but I'm really not concerned with how it looks as I tend to run over oysters and the hull is pretty scratched up already.

[XstreamVking]

You have to add glass inside the hull to take that much out. If you want to experiment, take 1/8'' off and see if it works better or worse. Like it? Take off more or all. Since you have tabs it is not really that critical anyway. Just cover the bare area with some gell to seal out water.

[GregAdams]

Try more setback first.

[tunnels]

Hello.
First time poster here and Im hoping someone can help me figure this out.
I have a small inshore fiberglass fishing boat that has a hook built into the hull, and I'm wondering if a hook this size could really have an effect on performance. If I knew it would be a benefit to not have the hook then I would probably find a way to take it out, and I've been contemplating it for a long time, but this is something that no one has really done and I rather not go through it all if there will be no gain. Any advise about this would be much appreciated!

So, here is some info about my setup.
Currently running a 16ft Gheenoe LT25 with a 50hp honda 4 stroke (twice the HP its rated for), 3" setback jackplate, electric trim tabs, and a highly modified 3 blade semi cleaver prop. The bottom of the boat has been sanded a little which REALLY helped to get the boat to loosen up and ride a little higher on the water. Typically these boats do not handle any positive trim and porpoise over 40mph, though mine seems to be the exception. The bow likes to ride low and the boat level, so bow lifting props really cause problems. The semi cleaver I modified has so much stern lift when up high I can get to max motor trim and the boat stays level while throwing a huge rooster tail. I use the boat to fish most of the time so I need to run shallow, and currently it can run through 8-9" at full speed because the motor is up so high. Top speed I've seen is about 42mph, though I average 40mph.

So the dilemma is these boats are not designed to go fast, they are fishing boats, but many people try and get them to go fast. The issue is getting them to go past 42mph. They are not speed boats and don't have the best design to go fast, but there has been rumors of one without a hook going 48mph with 50hp, which is 5mph faster then any with a 50. The hook is only on the one step, not across the entire back section, and was apparently designed to help the boats plane out faster with the small motors. It seems the hook is keeping the boat from easily going past the 42mph mark, though at the same time the hook doesn't seem to be very significant so I just wonder if something that small can really slow a boat down 5mph. All the 50's run about the same and I would love to have a little edge over the others when we do go racing around.

The hook is not long, about 6inches wide, and I most likely can just sand it out and buy a little gel coat to cover up the glass, but I'm really not concerned with how it looks as I tend to run over oysters and the hull is pretty scratched up already.

that's not a hook its had wedges built onto t you would have to grind a good part of them off and rebuild it flat forward of that area !!even to the point of making it rocker instead !! but check the hull bottom panels as well and see if there are any hollows any where !!!

[tunnels]

Wedges built in are and can be a really big problem !!Its to over come a inherent design problem the boat had when the first boat was tested !!
Possibly also because the transom angle was not right and cant tuck the motor enough to get the trim down!! For what ever reason they are a curse of a thing and need to be ground off dead flat !!!
One small tunnel boat we had in a company had one wedge on one side only and was always a problem to trim level when fitted with a single motor ! even with twins one motor was trimmed different to the other to make the boat run straight and level !
So in the mold I filled the wedge and made it level and the problem immediately went away from then on !!!
The other problem is the faster the boat goes these days the more pressure that gets exerted by those wedges and the harder to trim with them !! even balancing doesnt help that much !

[tunnels]

any luck with the wedge removal?

[Fishfarmer77]

Thank you to all who replied. Okay so they are wedges, not a hook. I have been in Europe recently but am finally home and can look into taking them out. I did get a sanding block and just sand them a little and after years of running through mud and across sand bars the gel coat was pretty thin on the wedge. Whats interesting is that there does not seem to be any depression inside the boat in the bilge where the wedge is...I put a level there and its completely flat. So I might be able to just start grinding and not have to really build it up all that much. In the mean time I'm just going to get back on the water and fish a little but ill be looking into taking the wedges out in the near future. Thanks again for the help.

[transomstand]

Typically these boats do not handle any positive trim and porpoise over 40mph,

Could be the reason for the wedge.

[tunnels]

Could be the reason for the wedge.

They could also be the reason it does what it does as well !What is the rake angle of your transom ??

[rock]

Some Hydrostreams also have the wedge. On the Vector I removed them and the boat did become faster but handling at low speeds was not as friendly. Many manufacturers use small modifications to obtain desired function for overall performance sometimes sacrificing top speed capabilities a little in the process.

Rock

[tunnels]

[QUOTE=rock;2937946]Some Hydrostreams also have the wedge. On the Vector I removed them and the boat did become faster but handling at low speeds was not as friendly. Many manufacturers use small modifications to obtain desired function for overall performance sometimes sacrificing top speed capabilities a little in the process.

Rock[/QUOTEL
Like I said they are there to correct a design problem mostly and there's possibly a big difference between what you have and the original boat was like !! there are other ways now that can be used !!
Like I asked before what's the rake angle of your transom !

[Capt.Insane-o]

Some Hydrostreams also have the wedge. On the Vector I removed them and the boat did become faster but handling at low speeds was not as friendly. Many manufacturers use small modifications to obtain desired function for overall performance sometimes sacrificing top speed capabilities a little in the process.

Rock

If you put the vking pad on a vector it works well, but the ones I've driven with the stock pad flattened out have tried to kill my ass.

[GregAdams]

Wedges built in are and can be a really big problem !!Its to over come a inherent design problem the boat had when the first boat was tested !!
Possibly also because the transom angle was not right and cant tuck the motor enough to get the trim down!! For what ever reason they are a curse of a thing and need to be ground off dead flat !!!
One small tunnel boat we had in a company had one wedge on one side only and was always a problem to trim level when fitted with a single motor ! even with twins one motor was trimmed different to the other to make the boat run straight and level !
So in the mold I filled the wedge and made it level and the problem immediately went away from then on !!!
The other problem is the faster the boat goes these days the more pressure that gets exerted by those wedges and the harder to trim with them !! even balancing doesnt help that much !

There are a few high performance boatbuilders, and a few specialist tournament towboat builders that are going to be really surprised when they find out that there boats have "inherent design problems"!

[tunnels]

There are a few high performance boatbuilders, and a few specialist tournament towboat builders that are going to be really surprised when they find out that there boats have "inherent design problems"!

Ok every boat designed has some kind of problem be it minor or ever so slightly more than minor !! If you have never been involved with designers and builders on a personal level and had to help with correcting some of these issues then you need to !!its educational !! Tweaking its called!!
What you may think is nothing a designer and or the builder are looking for some way to correct it !! fitting wedges of all shapes and sizes is just a small part of what gets added sometimes .
Its a tried and proven fact that Wooden boats do not behave like glass boats ! Even real good performing wooden boats used for plugs for making fiber glass molds off they DO NOT BEHAVE THE SAME AS EACH OTHER!!, be they power boats or sail boats any size!
One designer I worked with would never make a wooden boat to try out !! we always made a throwaway plug and made the mold off that OR a glass boat off the throw away plug and turn it into a one off glass boat for testing! Its only the thickness of the glass laminate bigger than the boats made out of the glass mold !!. Same with yachts of any size used to make the occasional glass boat off the throwaway plug !!
Oh yes I have spent hours sanding and filling and filling and sanding and more filling and sanding just to get a shape right to what the designer wanted ! stepped hulls with a slight rocker when a straight edge was laid over the high points of each step (fine tuning it called) And then the testing and endless hours of tweaking once a boat hits the water !
That part I always looked forward to because we always had a top race boat guy that drove the boats and me being one of the builders ,the designer would come as well just the 3 of us .The rougher the conditions the more exciting it would get or we'd go looking for a ferry boat making a big stern wake and spend time jumping at speed and all kinds of angles And believe me that's scary !!

[tunnels]

Just a thought Have you checked the rest of the bottom of your hull ??BOTH sides!Id be looking for lumps and hollows and general waviness any where !!, hollows even a couple of mm within the last 4 to 6 feet before the transom is classed as your hook problem ! Id be looking seriously at finding a big plate for you outboard to give you heaps more control with your power trim Up and down ! Some boats need hook to perform at hi speed !!, while others like rocker !! But it depends where the high point of the rocker is placed !! If its forward and when worked in combination to no keel or Planning strip with a reasonably flat dead rise it can make your hull turn quickly and more positive ! Rocker placed further aft can raise the bow out of the water quickly when taking off and reduce wetted surface and can also make the hull turn quickly !! All and each of what appears to be a problem has its uses but it need to be controllable !! Another problem is older boats and motors were slower so repowering the 35 to 40 mph the boat did before has all of a sudden climbed to 50mph plus ! SO the boat is being asked to something it was never designed to do speed wise and could be carrying lots more junk as well and that where its located is a balancing problem !