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!