New Double Eagle Boat

On my old Double Eagle 17.5 I put a gas tank up front 12 gallon I think, it made a huge difference.Last summer I was sitting on Noels deck at Renfrew and a fellow from Port Alberni docked,he had a 185 and I noticed he had trim tabs I went down to investigate and he swore by them,but I have a friend in Nanamio who has a 185 and he said that he didnt need them.I am wondering if Walleyes is right,Iam going to phone Nanamio and find out what prop hes got.And if he moved his batterys up front.If I find anything out I will post.Thanks again for all the help and suggestions guys,I want to do this right. DAN
 
now this might be a dumb sugestion, as i have never tried em but what about those fins you see mounted on motors, they are supposed to help get you on plane quicker, they might only be for smaller motors not sure
good luck doh
 
Trim tabs not only allow you to trim the attitude of your boat but they also increase the line length of the hull giving more efficient cruise speed.I can gain up to 3 m.p.h. on my g.p.s. once I find the right setting.
 
I've got the older 18'6 double eagle with an I/O and volvo drive. The boat came with bennett trim tabs. It's the first boat I've had with trim tabs and I can say now that any boat I own in the future will absolutely have trim tabs on it as well. They give you the ability to control the ride of your boat in all types of seas and with different weight displacements. Personally, I highly recommend them.
 
I have the 185 double eagle with trim tabs, as big as I could get on her and I wouldn't be without them, I can run approx 15 mph on plane for those rough days. I ran it before trim tabs and after amd would recomend them highly.
 
I have heard from other boaters with 18-19 ft boats and trim tabs they have had their plane speed reduce from 24-25 mph to 15-16 mph. I feel better hearing the same from fellow Double Eagle owners before spending the bucks on them... thanks. I only have about 10-12 inches from my leg of my kicker to the edge of the transom so I am looking at Bennett M80s (they will just fit).
 
Like doh said earlier try puting on one of those dol fins they do work I used to have on on my old boat but I made mine out of 1/4 alumn and got it bend down on the trailing edge aot cheaper than trim tabs and its worth a try.


good luck Wolf
 
quote:Originally posted by salmon9

Sounds like a few of us have Double Eagle 185s. Purchased mine in late 2006 and is a 2004 with a 150hp Yamaha HPDI and an 8hp Yamaha 4S. Boat has pedistal seats. Been fishing and running around a fair bit this winter and is solid in rough water, comfortable, fast and fuel efficient. Couldn't be happier with the boat.

Thinking of putting Bennett M80 trim tabs on it as I find it falls of a plane around 24 mph and I want to be able to keep it on a plane at slower speeds (when it's rough out and I'm in a heading sea). Anyone one out there using trim tabs on their 185?
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Salmon I have the bennett tabs on my 185 they work great on the boat and really keeps the bow down when heading into swells or a big chop.
 
Thanks for everyone's response. I plan to purchase tabs, just measuring up the stern and planning my install.
 
Tried the dol fins and they helped but not near as much as the trim tabs. You can get longer tabs if you want to stay narrower which I did. As far as slowing a boat down you can lift them so they are flat which cannot slow your boat. You won't even think about adding weight to the front when you get your trim tabs on. Hope you enjoy your double as much as I do.
 
Something I plan on doing is installing the trimtab indicator kit.Bennet has a system that shows the position of your tabs on the sceen of your G.P.S. :)
 
Hey Brisco,

I have a trim indicator for my outboard on my Merc Smartguage and have to say that I loved the "idea" of it but after the fun of looking at it the first few days I never use it. As your trim position(outboard or tabs) changes based on how the boat is loaded and with water/wind conditions it's different all the time so the guage doesn't help much as you need to use the boat orientation and engine spray pattern to actually get trimmed right anyways.

I'd put the $$$ towards something more useful(or fun)

BMAC - hopefully somebody with a double eagle gets back to you. One of our boats is a 20' heavy guage welded aluminum soft top(not a DE) with a 115 Opti on and it had no problems getting up on plane with four on board. We had to put an aftermarket dolphin on to make it plane easier/slower with six or with lot's of dive gear so I think don't think you'd have any problems with 4 on an 18.5 and a 115 but a HUGE amount depends on the hull design so hopefully someone with a DE responds. Have a look at a fuel injected Merc Opti vs a 4 stroke, the extra weight right out at the back of the boat DOES make a difference on a smaller boat... and the Opti's are a pretty well know, well tested technology (okay the 4 stroke loving crowd can start bashing me now, but the wieght numbers are absolutes)
 
BMAC the numbers I was given for a yamaha 150 4 stroke on a 185 Double Eagle were 50 plus mph ,for a 115 I was told about 10 mph slower,this was with 4 people on board.Remember this was sales talk.I have no reason to doubt them, 3 seperate dealers told me that,On my 17.5 with a 130 yamaha 2 stroke it will go 49 mph off of my gps,plenty fast enough for me, Parker Marine changed the prop before I took delivery of it Rob said that it was well over 50 mph and he didnt like the feel of the boat at that speed.This time I went with the 150 4 stroke for the extra money,I just HATE being under powered,hope that helps. DAN
 
Hey BMAC,

I'm not sure if the Yamaha has an equivelent feature but the SmartGuage for my Merc Opti has a electronic troll control feature which lets me digitally set the RPM in +-10 RPM increments. I could NOT live without this feature for salmon fishing as the main throttle is not sensitive enough to let me hit exact trolling speeds. If you are going to troll with a 115 you'll be a lot happier withan electronic throttle control capability of some sort. My slowest troll speed on the main engine in that boat is just over 1mph at 650rpm, but your boat would be lighter so you'd go faster, but still probably under 2mph so no problem for trolling....
 
The 150 hp Yamaha HPDI 2 stroke will push my 185 Double Eagle at Wide Open Trottle on a calm day with one other person on boat, downriggers, full tank, gear at around 50-52 mph per the GPS. I cruise around 30-32 mph on calm days at approx 3500 rpm. I think the benefit of the power is the lower rpms when cruising. If you are consistently traveling any distance go with the 150 hp. I think the fuel usage with higher rpms for the 115 hp would be about the same as the 150 hp.
 
As i have been running these boats now for the last 12 summers and have tried all of the motors on them I would definatly get as much power as possable allowable we run the 90 4 stroke yammys on the new 17.8 double eagles and personally way to small top speed 29 mph WOT on gps I think the 115 would have been better but it all comes down to $$$$$$$$ for lodge boats but they are a great boat.


Good luck Wolf
 
Well its time for the ornaments for the boat. Does anyone know anything about SI-TEX electronics.Good bad ? I saw them at the boat show and I could actually see the screens.Also furano sounders I have heard that they are good, are they,and does anyone use a particular model.Thanks DAN
 
Dan, feel free to send me an email. Sounds like we have similiar boats and I have a Sitex colour map 6 and a colour sounder that came with my boat when I purchased it. I can send you more info and photos if you like. Also check out the Hull Truth website; those guys seem to put lots of money in their boats but have lots of good info (check out their section on electronics). Search the info on this site on electronics as well.
 
As far as electronics go after looking at all the marine gps setups, I went out and bought a laptop, installed chart view and hooked up a gps reciever . Now I can see everything on the 15 inch screen.
Had to make a stand for it but now I have all my tides and fishing logs handy. Happy fishing.
 
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