Thread:

Cavitation plates

I have a friend who has quite a bit of marine knowledge. He suggested I put plates on my boat as it will make it faster and smoother in rough water. It is a Rogers Super Cyclone 18ft. In all the pictures I have seen of these boats I have never seen any plates. Any thoughts or comments on this?

Thanks,

Rob

Originally Posted by 76 Bonneville

What's your current setup? Do you have a ride plate/shoe? What kind of HP do you have. We are currently running 93 MPH with a ride plate and it handles great.

Not sure what you mean by current set up. Its a 454 which I just rebuilt and fired two days ago. Its the origional engine that came in the boat. It has a Berkely jet with a B impellar that was rebuilt by Harmon Marine a couple of years ago. It doesn't have but a few hours on it.

Originally Posted by jetboatperformance

Just curious if your expirienceing an issue of some sort or trying to resolve a problem ? I have a boat for example that were in process of developing a plate system for in an attempt to resolve a specific handling problem Tom

Nothing really that isn't characteristic ( from what I understand and have experienced) of the old shallow vee boats. Great in smooth water but almost useless in anything else. My friend explained to me with a ride plate it will keep the nose slicing through the water instead of the back pushing through and causing the dreaded bounce in rough water. I was caught once on Lake Mead in pretty rough water. I left the camp site for the harbor 30 minutes before the others with their boats. All newer with deeper hulls. I was lucky to maintain 15 mph and that the boat or me didn't break in half. They all passed me up and were enjoying a cold one by the time I got in.

Originally Posted by 76 Bonneville

What's your current setup? Do you have a ride plate/shoe? What kind of HP do you have. We are currently running 93 MPH with a ride plate and it handles great.

Not sure on the horsepower. I would think it is a solid 500+. It's now .030 over with 10 to 1, balanced, rectangular port heads with some port massaging. Comp 278 marine (jet) cam with roller rockers, Weiand Team G manifold with spacer and 850 Holley DP, Rewarder headers, and recurved HEI ignition.

Originally Posted by wolfie

It's the hull that causes that. If you have a shallow V, you're going to have a rough ride in bad water. Those type of hulls will never ride well in rough water.
That being said, if you're running a trim device, trimming the bow down will accomplish what you're trying to do with cav plates for a lot cheaper.
The best thing is to pick your day and time.

Last I checked a trim unit for my boat was around 700 for manual control and 900 for electric control. Putting plates on the back would be more than that?