Over Spray

I have a 81' 16' Fisher Marine Marsh Hawk. It is factory set up (no additions) and other that the motor, a 04' 50 hp Yamaha 4 stroke. It has a side console for the driver with steering. Not sure of prop size. Problem is that I get a ton of over the bow spray, over the front side spray when in slightly choppy water, say 2 feet or better chop. I have tried to adjust trim / tilt to reduce it, not much change.

The 4 stroke replaced the original Mercury 70 hp 2 stroke. The spec of each motor shows the Yamaha to be 13 lbs lighter. I was able to rid the external tilt / trim so that may be even lighter since Yamaha has it built in. I keep 12 gallons of fuel in back and 2 batteries. It does not make any difference if there are 2 people in boat or 1 other than we both get soaked. If in early morning conditions it is fine, no or very little spray. I see that some companies make a platic device to mount on the front to divert the water. It looks like it was designed for bigger boats. How would you know exactly where to put them? They must glue on so it would have to be perfect I would think. The amount of water is so bad that I really need a swimmers mask to drive the thing if the wind is excessive. Any help is appriciated.

Get some one to take a pic while you are under way, see if you can see the problem area? I`ve seen a spray rail "added on" as an after thought on larger vessels.............

The spray rail was what I found on line. Thinking about the actual problem area I am considering the width of the front of the boat and how it angles from the top to the bottom. I can get a pic but it does require another boater. Maybe getting in touch with Fisher Marine will help some.

This is what works for me.....I trim the motor out to lift the bow up and then run slower.

2ft "chop" is a lot of water for a 16ft aluminum boat to expect it to be dry.

Unless its a deep vee, you're going to have a problem with spray in 2' of chop. You can try running at 45 degrees to the waves and trimming out and slowing down. Its very important to slow down when trimmed out in chop.

If you're going too fast, you can wind up flipping the bow up into the air and over your head.

You might consider a couple of things. One would be an additional windshield or spray shield. The other would be to add a spray rail to the boat. To find what level you might need to mount it, you will need to have someone run the boat in the conditions that cause your problem and observe from a chase boat or from shore.

You want to note what part of the hull is causing the most amount of water to be tossed off as spray. This will tell you the area to mount. You'll want to go just below this point, but it should still be above the waterline.

Before mounting, take care to observe this area again under good conditions. Your water line may change as you trim in and run faster. You do not want this spray guard to cause the bow to dig in.

I agree, Catfan....

Thanks for the ideas. Bottom line I think is the boat may just have limitations that are below my expectations. It has a fairly decent v but the boat is very narrow at the water line and not a whole lot better at the top in the front. Maybe next year I can upgrade again to a larger boat!

I've run a few different metal boats and 2' of chop is a bunch. Nose into the wind and run a ways and then turn with the wind. This zig-zag pattern changes the angle of attack on the waves and you might find that it's a lot drier ride. I fixed mine by buying a fiberglass bass boat. Alum boats are nice in lots of ways, but rough water isn't one of them.