Admins please move if needed
Hey guys I just got this boat a few weeks ago and I’ve never experienced chine walking till now. I’ve read and done the research but I can’t seem to get the hang of it. 2023 Pheonix 819 with a 200 merc 4 stroke. Prop to pad is 3.25 manual jackplate, and power pole blades. I’ll take any advice. If someone would be willing I’d prefer to meet someone within an hour and half that has experience in a phoenix or something along those lines. I’d be willing to give you some gas money or we can even do some fishing also. I’m in Paris, Tx

You could always just slow down..... LOL.

You aren’t wrong lol but you gotta win that drag race to the first spot 😂

Best way is to learn your self.

Raise the motor 1/2 inch and see what happens. Watch RPM's, speed, water pressure. If gets better, try another half.

If gets worse first time, lower an inch (1/2 below initial) and try it.

Keep experimenting.

What speed and RPM's are you getting now?

Are you flat out, or can't get there? Are you trimmed up, or down, or can't get under control enough to decide?

I have no experience with Phoenix (Skeeter driver) except to watch them pass me. They seem to run fast.

THIS!

JR

Ditto. You'll do yourself a favor in the long run. Seen a ranger hit a wake boats wave on Grapevine. Was violent! Only thing it did was stain his pants, pride, most of his rods/reels on deck lost, and his cowling came off. It's not worth it.

OP. You will learn to drive it. I have 230 hp on an 18’8”’boat. I no longer even notice the chine walk, unless I cut the throttle real fast, then it wants to jump the stern to the side real fast. Kinda feels like when you were a kid doing skids on motorcycles and bicycles. Haha.

Just pop the wheel to the left a little bit when it starts to walk. Keep the hammer down…it will resettle.

ha ha Steez!! Yes, bump it to the left a little when it starts getting jicky. And when you decide to back out of it...DO IT SLOWLY. Like Steez said here it can get VERY squirrley quick if you have a foot throtttle and let off of it all the way.

The down trim button is your friend until you get the hang of it. Hit the throttle and trim up until it starts to walk on ya then bump the Down button once or twice to get more of the hull back down in the water. After about 600 hours behind the wheel you'll be making minor corrections on the wheel at high speed without much thought.

You do this in your car/truck already but it is so automatic you don't realize you're doing it. If you drove down the highway at 65 mph holding the wheel dead steady you would run off the road.

I'm kind of a go fast boat nut. It took me all summer to learn how to drive my first high-performance bass rig. I knocked all the water outta Lake Lavon until I learned to balance it on the ragged edge.

The soft rubber motor mounts in the new Mercs don't help ya. Its not that they want to hurt the boat's high speed handling with the soft mounts but rather they don't want the consumer to feel the vibrations from the motor through the hull. (another way of softening our society imo)

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/ATcGoNvNNC4?si=9GtF56JofOdcdIbU[/video]

BTW, you misspelled your new boat in your siggy

Pinkie, it’s getting plenty of lift and so far I’ve seen 66ish I had to trim down after that. I can trim it up quick as it’s getting on plane and it’ll ride stable for a few seconds until it hits 65mph. Mid 5,000’s on rpm.23 pitch 3 blade fury by the way. Ken thanks for noticing the signature lol cause I didn’t. I’m gonna blame autocorrect! This is the fastest boat I had so far by a little, my old charger I did 62, but it was just trim up and go.

One time I was running at full throttle and trimming up and the boat started chine walking and when that happens I usually trim down but this day I trimmed up to get more of the boat out of the water and it quit walking and my speed increased. I was surprised. It was a cool morning with very little wind.

I would also see if you can borrow other higher pitch props to experiment with to see if that helps. I run a 25pitch Fury on a 20ft Basscat with a 250 Merc.

Auto correct... Yeah right! LOL

Your boat should run about 70 once the weather cools off a bit.

I didn't realize the Phoenix boats had this problem, it might be something with the set up for sure. I rode in a PHX19 a while back and it spent most of its running time at WOT and there were no issues with chine walk. If you don't get it sorted via adjustments seat time will cure a lot of it. I used to have a bad habit of over trimming and I found out through watching you tube videos that full trim isn't where a boat performs it best a lot of times. There is a sweet spot on some boats that is below full trim. The Skeeter I currently own is the first boat I've owned that ran its best at full trim, almost to fine to the point of being boring. I don't run wide open as much as I used to I'm more into finding that sweet spot to get the best fuel mileage these days, but usually on the way back to the boat ramp to go home I've got to air it out a little. This old ZX200 with a worked prop with good water and air will put up 69.8 mph loaded but it feels like I'm driving a school bus, all my other boats that would run this fast you had to learn how to dance with them.

First thing I would do if mine is raise the motor. 1/4 - 1/2 inch.

Second thing is lots of seat time. Get out on the lake when it's calm, and push it as hard as you feel safe.

My Skeeters have always run on rails. I don't think you can make one chine walk. My last one liked to run trimmed high, way high. You can tell an old Skeeter from miles away just by the attitude. The new one, 2020 ZX200 w/200SHO, likes to run trimmed a little lower.

Speed and RPM's look close. I'd expect close to 70 at 6000 if you can get there. I'm running a 23P also.

Never driven a Phoenix, so just my gut feel based on 20 plus years of driving Skeeters.