Blueprinting bottom

[Dave Sowles]

Don't know if I should of posted this hear or in tech but hear it goes.I did the bottom 10 years ago and have it fliped over again to clean up some wear and tear.Did every thing flat and sharp last time and want to know if anyone has any tricks or ideas as long as I'm at it?I was reading some of the vector like to run a little hook to change the angle of atack and help keep the nose down and still keep the wetted surface small.Anyone got any opinions?I sent a pic from the last time I did it.

[Techno]

When it's done scratch it fore and aft on the pad with 220 git.
If you can, make a very long board. I jointed a 2x4 so it was flat, and very long. notches in the ends and wedges hold the paper. Can be made as long as you want.

[Rickracer]

This is a fairly good description of what they were supposed to be like.
http://www.hydrostream.org/ArticleArchives/HullTech.htm

But I've seen some with 36" of HOOK. I believe this is mostly caused by improper support by the trailer, and partially by the rotten cores in a lot of these, probably both in some cases. I know that flatpads do work, and I know that the original hook or wedge works. In theory, the wedge should be faster. I do know that a flatpad handles great, and rides like it's on rails. My personal preference at this point is towards the flatpad, since I've had the most (good) experience with it, but I have an original hull I'm going to be doing some experimenting with one of these days, time and money permitting.

[vector mike]

I hate to go against you on this but I removed the wedge on my Viper with great results. I've done it to my Vector too, but it hasn't seen the water yet. I also filled in the pad and sharpened the strakes on both boats. I used a 4 foot level and made sure it was flat all the way to the back.

[Rickracer]

Like I said, I kinda lean to the flat pad myself, but there may be something to having less of the hull in the water via a wedge at the rear of the pad. Time will tell....................:cool:

[vector mike]

How about the Allison pad? I was going to make my Vector pad like an Allison but it would be very difficult to keep that same shape the entire length of the pad and to keep it straight too. Their pad has a slight hump to it so it would have even less touching the water but would make it tricky to balance on rather than having the whole flat surface to balance on.

[Mark C.]

Dave -

My opinion is to keep the pad flat. It works fine just the way it is. As for modifying it like an Allison, you could do that, but I think you might be asking for trouble. Why take away what makes your boat so nice: a very fast, stable, and predictable hull?

[Dave Sowles]

I don't think I would go to the Alison pad but hadn't thought about that.Was thinking wedge if anything.I agree Mark that it works good the way it is but so did the HST.We lowered the center pad 1'' and put in a ventilated step 1/2 way up and people told us to leave it the way it was.It frees up faster and isn't as wieght sensative.I',m always willing to try something,can always change it back.How much wedge do vectors have?Right now I'm just thinking out loud.:eek:

[Rickracer]

And start about 18" ahead of the transom. I'm sure lots of folks have seen more Vectors than I have though, so hopefully more folks will chime in on this one. :cool: