“Trim up slightly. Trimming the drive or outboard up a bit can minimize the effects of prop torque, and this might help keep the boat on a straighter course.”
From the article, it suggests something I’ll try today. My PWC has VTS, which allows me to vary the pitch of the jet, which will push the bow up or down, so I can trim up slightly and see if that helps any.
Also, slow speed/no wake zones typically mean that one goes not faster than necessary to maintain steerageway. If you can’t steer safely at 3PMH, its O.K. to go 5MPH. This may piss off some people but hey, its the rule. That said, if the issue can be fixed with technique or trim or whatever then you need to do that.
True, but “steerageway” is a flexible idea. If you can avoid bouncing off the canal shores, shoals, & moored boats, you have steerageway. A big yacht might need to maintain canal centerline +/- 5 feet to fit, while a PWC can be +/- 30 feet & still avoid mishap.
I tested to see what helped and what didn’t help. There was no wind, current, waves, other boats, or wakes to deal with today. I ran at idle speed, meaning in forward, but with no throttle, at a steady three mph. The VTS trim started in the middle position, neither up nor down. As still as possible, I sat in the middle of the seat and balanced myself by not leaning forward or back or to either side. I was a statue with my hands glued to the handlebar.
It behaved just as I expected and wandered left and right as I constantly tried to correct it with subtle nudges, but it never went straight, even when the handlebar was pointed directly forward.
I then tried to goose the throttle a little, and it would correct itself momentarily, then go right back to how it was. If I accelerated to five mph, I had no problem holding a steady direction.
I then tried putting the trim up a little, which helped a little, but not significantly, and putting the trim even up higher made matters worse. I also tried lowering the trim, which didn’t seem to help.
I tried one last thing: to increase the speed to four mph, and it was fairly easy to keep it more or less moving forward in a straight line. I checked, and the wake I made was fairly minimal.
I think I will stick with four mph for now since it solves most of the problem, and hopefully, I won’t get in trouble for the wake I make. I think it’s just a very lightweight PWC, and I don’t weigh that much, so it is unstable at that slow speed. Case closed.
It would be a tough cop that would ping you for 4mph rather than 3
Agreed. Its meant to be flexible since a set MPH wouldn’t result in the same steering response in different vessels. Speed/wake discussions can get pretty heated in some boating forums. My rule is, “Don’t be a jerk to other boaters” even if it means slowing down when I don’t really want to.
You’ve certainly got the right idea. Lots of other boaters around here seem to think “no wake” means “anything less than full throttle.”
My point about speed vs control is for a PWC, wandering a bit does not mean you’re out of control or a hazard to others. So slow enough that you’re wandering is still “steerageway”. Having a 70-footer wandering the same amount would be a problem to itself and others.
The inconvenient thing for the rest of us is the 70-footer’s minimum wake with bare steerageway is vastly larger than the PWC’s going much faster than bare steerageway. Physics is like that.