Shallow water running question.

I have a small 16ft skiff with a tunnel. No jack plate installed, cupped prop, 50hp. My hole shot is great, the skeg will start to drag in anything less then 6 inches.

The boat planes easily and at low speeds, but i have to maintain a higher speed to really trim the motor up to gain extra prop clearence. I want to run in 3 inches of water and still maintain a slow speed, around 12-15mph.

My instinct is telling me to get a mini jack plate, move battery from rear of boat to the center, install a 4 bladed cupped prop.

What do u guys think?

yes. tunnel without a jack plate is a obstacle.

Just a little more...
Your goal is to get the prop above the bottom of the hull. Very doable.

1. Hydraulic jack plate, I would highly recommend the 4" bobs.
2. Compression plate. Don't confuse with a foil. You're trapping the water coming out of the tunnel and directing it to the prop. There's several on the market, hydro blatser, shawing, boatright are a few.
3. Step n trims. Helps a lot to prevent porpoising when you're at elevated prop height.
4. Flats cupped prop.
What you'll learn, three inches with a prop gets pretty dicey, water doesn't compress, so you'll feel your boat lift up, and when it does, you'll know you're running pretty close to your limit. And that limit is when you suck the tunnel dry. That's not much fun.

But, when you can run really shallow, navigating gets easy. Knowing you can run in 3" you know a wave can only be 1/2 water depth, so a 2" wave is in 4" of water. You'll also learn if it's a dark bottom, press on, and you need to only look for white sand to avoid.

Now all that good advice is only for running through, stopping and starting again is a whole different discussion.

suppose i was picking up a south bay 160 tomorrow...lol...have always wanted a scooter ever since we fished several years ago...i cant seem to post a pic, dang it!
anyway, i always appreciate/enjoy reading your info on scooters, and i've spent about a year looking at chiquitas, and almost grabbed one until i got on it (too small at 14.5ft) and then somehow stumbled upon the sb160 (16ft) and will be down in so padre area picking it up (driving down right after school)
and, no, SHE doesn't know about it...probably tell her after i sell the century 180 (which is, btw, far superior for fishing than any bass boat)
SHE thinks i'm just making a quick fishing run...gotta be back to take her to work wed night, lol
yes, i like to live dangerously sometimes...

Thanks Pat for the info exactly what I was looking for.

For that size rig you'd be fine with a static jp.. but if you can swing the funds, sure get the hydraulic. You're ok with the 3 blade prop, that part is fine.

Bill,

Southbays are nice rigs. I own a cougar marine genesis composite. Very light boat, the hull, motor, battery basically "dry weight" is 619lbs. Draft is 4-5 inches, working on weight distribution atm because I am a big guy.

My next rig is going to be the challenger or southbay. I like fish for bass and love storage so leaning towards challenger.

Tell him Mike from San Antonio said hi

will do!

i wanted something smaller than my century 1801, but larger than the chiquita...sb160 fits the bill perfectly, and has some storage (not that i need much, really)

According to the builder the boat should be able to run 3 inches, this requires trimming the motor pretty high though. I measured how high i'd have to trim it to get the prop above hull line. Then I took the boat out and ran it, I can trim it that high at fast speed, but anything below 24mph the bow rises high and the aft digs deeper into the water. Do you think trim tabs would eliminate this? I will be adding a trolling motor to the front, that is about 50lbs on the nose. I have a front livewell, I can use as ballast if weight is need on the bow.

So trying to plane shallow and maintain a slow speed is my goal. The builder recommended moving batteries from aft of boat to the console, putting the weight basically about centerline of the boat if not slightly in front of center line. I am a big guy, I weigh 315, so I know that is hindering performance. I am losing weight thank the Lord and plan to continue doing so till I reach 210. So that should help.

I have a cupped SS 15 pitch 3 bladed prop, I have the compression plate. I think haveing a electric jack plate will give me some set back and of course vertical height. Sorry about blabbering so much, lol

hey, i'm learning too!

Trim tabs will be your saving grace on a skiff.

If you really want to run thin you can look at low water or remote pickups and a cupped cleaver style prop.

You can run the prop shaft even or above the top of the tunnel.

Going to start with a jackplate and tabs first. That should get me where I need to be. I'll report back once I get it rigged.

Careful “a little” more gets sort of addicting.
My tunnel prop rigs could run pretty thin but not quite thin enough. So now the jet that can run through inch and a half but dang that airboat just ran fifty yards through marsh grass to get to that back lake. Dang it.

Pat that is really interesting. I didn't know you ran a jet, I always heard that jets get clogged from all the floating grass and they weren't practical for the coast. Who made your boat! Details I want details!

drove 5 hours to harlengen last night, got up to check the scooter, and it looked like (excrement deleted), and i decided i wouldnt buy it, and drove up this morning... heck...

Jet will clog up after the mother in law visits the latrine IF you leave it stock.

We pull the grates out and put a welding rod about 1/4” under the impeller, turns it into a weedeater. I can run through 2” matted up grass. Now I can suck up the occasional oyster shell that’ll shut me down but I can just bash it into pieces and it shoots out.

There’s a couple dozen hulls like mine running around built in San Marcos and homebuilt registered.
1/4” welded aluminum it’s a tank.

Terry Oldham’s jet can run a little skinnier than mine, his tunnel is a little smaller and stays full in less than an inch. What that means is you can just go wherever you want all you need to look for is that oil slick shoal water. If there’s a ripple you’re good to go.

Now there’s compromises. Jets don’t like a lot of weight.
They hate rough water.
Turn? Forgetaboutit

Was it a used rig?

Pat,

Man I could think of alot of uses for your boat. Thanks for sharing.

Boat was 2013 at dealership

Soutbay 16 right? I saw that one, its blue I think. Saw it from a distance not up close. Was it ragged out?

yes, unfortunately...i wouldnt/didnt purchase it...if it was right, it would be in my driveway right now...you know how you can tell when all the good has been used up? that's that boat, imho... i would rather just buy new, i think...

Yeah I know exactly what you are talking about. That's why I went new. Couldn't afford a southbay, but I could afford a Genesis. I didn't get all the electronics, figured I'd add them later, slowly as I could afford. So far I have been out 10 times in Baffin Bay and am very happy with it. I just love skiffs, fished them all my life and I have no complaints with this one.

I liked their boats and builds pretty good. I couldn’t deal with the egos.

I had a motor, trailer, everything but a hull. They wouldn’t sell me a boat.

That doesn't make much sense now does it? Good thing is you got that sweet aluminum hull, so maybe the Lord was working things out for ya. They sure are proud of their rigs and not afraid to let you know it . Beside that I found him a blast to work with. It was their process of laying the hull, the materials and the price that hooked me. Service after the sale has been outstanding. My next rig will probably be through them again....Shallow sports is really catching my eye as is the Majek RFL. So many boats to own, so little time to play with them.

Yeah it baffles me still. I had a sack of cash but didn’t want me rigging my own boat out. Certainly wasn’t my first or twentieth and would have done it better than they could.

Dunno but two weeks later I got this scooter and for where we fish it’s a better rig anyway.

very interesting thread i run a 18 ft. red fish line and rarely hit water i feel nervous in,but on the way back in from up north at s. padre recently i suddenly felt the brakes come on hard!looked down and we were sitting on the sand in 2 inches of water!!we stepped out moved the boat about 5 feet and took off again with no problem .funny because i ran that same line the two previous days with no problem-- funny what the wind and tides can do!!

Those RFL are nice rigs and sure can run skinny.