I have a friend who posed a question to me and I fully admit I did not know how to answer so I am requesting some help from you guys. He purchased a new boat, went through the motor break in and is finally able to run at WOT fully trimmed out. At WOT fully trimmed it starts to chine walk and was throwing a tall rooster tail, so he thought maybe it was because the boat was too light since he hadn't put anything in the boat other than himself and gas.

He went home, took a few days and got everything loaded and got it ready to tournament fish basically. Went back out, and while the additional weight did help some it still produced the same result but the chine walk wasn't as bad but still there and still throwing a pretty good sized rooster tail. He did some research and found where maybe it is due to the motor height (he has a manual jack plate). He checked and it did seem the motor was high in comparison to most others. He dropped it 2 pins or 2 notches, went back out and the chine walk was gone at WOT and fully trimmed. However, he lost about 150 rpm (from 5950 to 5800) and 2-3 mph (from 71.5/72 to 68.5/69).

He sent the prop to his prop guy and had it balanced, cupped, blue printed. Raised the motor to almost where it was originally, but says it is approximately 1/8" below the original setting, put the prop back on and went out for a test run. The prop did make a difference, he was able to get to exactly 6000 rpm and around 74mph however at WOT and fully trimmed it started to chine walk again.

I assume, as does he, that the obvious answer is to start dropping the motor again slowly until the chine walk stops at WOT. Is that the correct line of thinking? Also However, I had a question myself, even if the motor height is the likely answer, are there situations where chine walk is, or can be, the result of a bad or uneven hull or something?

what brand boat? If it's a Triton, that's just what they do.

Its over trimmed for that plate height and water conditions.

There is no way to get max performance with out a adj jack plate.

Not motor height I would think he needs more seat time. In the boat, at that speed in some boats not all you got tho start driving the boat meaning minor adjustments of the wheel

To some extent any boat that will really run will chine walk. When someone says their boat won't chine walk that basically means they are not pushing it to the edge and getting every last MPH out of it.

If you want to keep a boat from walking, you can typically just slow down--trim down will usually straighten everything back up. Fast boats run on a very small pad. Chine walking is a result of the boat falling off that small pad and then getting back up on it. You can learn to keep the boat on the pad by making very small corrections---or you can just slow down.

Or a Stratos....

Just slow down, easier on everthing.

That's not fun though

This, once you learn to make the corrections you can drive right thru it.

the really experienced boat guys will tell you that you aren't going fast enough if your boat isn't chine walking. For me, 72 and no walk is plenty fast for me.

If you want speed go buy a Alison with Mercury 300 R on it, seems 6,000 rpm is too much.

Knowing what type of boat, motor and prop you're talking about would really help. Different hulls have different quirks. The most obvious thing to check, is if there is any slack in the steering? Assuming it's hydraulic steering, it may not have been bled correctly. Even though it's new, it's it could have been missed. Mine is rock solid above 74 mph, but then again, that's only when it's on the trailer...

Great info so far, thanks guys. I like learning this stuff too as I haven't experienced this in the skeeters I have owned.

He bought the new FXR 21, but has owned skeeters before like me. I also have an FXR 21 and I have adjusted my motor height a little also but I haven't experienced chine walk and I am running 74 mph at 5900 rpm.

I started reading this Chine Walking and learned a lot as well. What many are saying is true, motor height or just learning to drive through it will help. I know from experience not all boats are the same even if it is the same boat.

Bryan O', when you say slack, I am asking because again I admit I don't know, you actually mean that when running WOT you can turn the steering wheel a little before it grabs right? I am asking because this has got me wanting to take mine out again when I can and pay more attention to little details like this even though I am not experiencing chine walking. Because if I can tweak little things like weight distribution or motor height to get the optimal performance out of the boat I might play around with that.

Small left bumps on the wheel ,,seat time

Regarding steering slack, (with Sea Star steering) the motor should move with just a small movement of the steering wheel. Easy to check on the trailer. If it has too much turn before the motor moves, it indicates that there is still air in the steering system. The slack reverses under load - when running, and the motor moves even though you're not turning the steering wheel. A little slack is normal, but if there is excess slack, it will result in the hull moving around at speed - chine walking.

I still suspect that everything is fine, and that all that is needed is seat time. Those are pretty impressive numbers for a Skeeter. I certainly can't get there