jpclear

Many boats have been built over the years with a "factory hook" to provide what the builders felt would be the best overall performance/handling characteristics, but I've yet to see a competition V hull with one. By removing my hook (was quite severe) and raising my "X" dim. I picked up over 10 MPH. I had hit a wall before that and adding power did practically nothing. I would say that if you want to go faster, you'll have to X the hook and compensate for other factors with tab and drive trim. --- Jer

outlaw1971

the power is original 502 mpi, drive ratio 1.5 and the speed just seems pathetic for the boat with that much power and as I said no rpm change between 26' labbed bravo and 15 mirage, both can only hit 4600 on a good day being overtrimmed. It's hard to tell from your avitar but it just seems as though the boat plows as well as having the front get a bit unstable as it approaches 70. That is deffinately attributed to the bow being too low at a high rate of speed.

martiniboat

My hook measured approx. 9/16"(in the middle) when holding a 48" level against the hull extending forward from the transom. There was no way my additional power would overcome this until it was removed. I saw an easy 15mph gain but I also replaced the gelcoat which was extremely 'chipped'. All of this was done while the Martini was flipped upside down. I removed every last trace of the original gelcoat. After filling the hook and fairing the rest of the bottom it immediately became apparent that I would require a quicker, easier way to smooth the very large surface area I was staring at.

I took a generic Makita belt sander and modified/extended it to accept a 4"x 48" belt (actually an 8"x 48" belt that I tore in half) that really made short work of leveling that hull. When she 'hooked' up you better make sure you were hanging on! It never burnt out that motor either, kudos to Makita!

While undertaking a project that size it really made you become a thrift mizer with the fairing/ fiberglass application. Sloppy/ damn-the-torpedoes application=more work, Very little excess=less work. All in all I'm not sure I would peel a bottom again. It's a huge undertaking. (at least the way I did it) Here's a picture of the next project, my Corsa. I just pulled it inside for the winter. Something I'll work on inbetween tab/custom project building this winter.

P.S. Thankfully, the bottom of the Corsa is straight.


Brian Kamrath

outlaw1971

JP,

Where was your hook. Was it intentionally built into the hull and you took it out or was it a manufacturing issue.
Mine is like a wedge that is right under each trim tab running about 10" in from the transom between the outer chine and the outer strake on both sides. Looks like it was put there intntionally but for the life of me i can't figure out why

JaayTeee

This may sound kind of
"elementary", but have you
check to see if the throttle
plates are full open at wide open throttle ?

Do you store alot of junk (coolers, anchors
porta pottie, etc) up front ?

You can see in the larger picture,
the water is breaking in the front, just
after the inner strake ends, which is
at the rear third of the boat.
And the base of the K planes ( the area
of the wedge) is out of the water.

It gets kind of squirrely up on top,
but I attribute it to being that it's riding on
less of the hull surface.

Has fuel pressure and timing been checked ?


jt

outlaw1971

JT,

The throttle plates are fully open, I do have an anchor and chain and have a small cooler. In all that may be adding 60 pounds, certainly not enough to affect the speed by that much. Fuel pressure, timing, new plugs, distibuto caps, allignment, everything has been checked and is perfect.

I can't get a clear look at the picture you have. Can you email it to me at [email protected].

Remember, you are also running quite a bit more horsepower than me with the 500's and that may attribute to you being higher out of the water as well, thereby not touching the wedge. Every picture i have of my boat has the wetted surface far ahead of the wedge and as i said the trim tabs have no affect unless i nail them more than half way, well past the affect of the "wedge"

Budman

I have a 1988 Baja Force235 that also has the hooks like you described. Another board member, BadDog, also has a Force235 with the same hooks, so it looks like Baja has been doing this for some time. It may have been done to help planing and prevent porpoising on boats that were equipped with lower HP. Mine came out with a 350 Mag originally. BadDog is considering the removal of his - I'm looking forward to seeing his results, as mine may be coming off as well.

jpclear

My situation was with an old '77 Martini hull. The hook was probably 2/3 manufactured, 1/3 bad trailer support. It involved the last 3 to 3.5 ft. of the boat and was present to some degree from keel th chine. Went through all "MARTINIBOAT" did and more to fix. Baja probably did yours to help the average powerplant get on plane quicker and make it easier for the average guy to run without playing with drive and tab trim. Sounds like your little "wedge" will come off easy. I'd say "DO IT!" --- Jer

mats

Budman,

I also have a 1988 Baja 235 Force, where are the hooks located? The hull looks straight to me.

Budman

Hooks or "wedges" are on the strakes right behind the trim tabs. Some have said that these are out of the water when the boat is on plane, but I think that they are at least seeing "soft water", i.e. heavy spray. BadDog says that they were actually added after the boat was popped from the mold, in which case they would probably be easy to take off.