That's a good point about the trim tabs but I'm limited by space with the motor pod and my transducer hanging off the transom. I'll ask Bruce what the max size is and see what he says. I never really thought of using iDock for anchoring but it would probably work well for drift jigging. It offers incredible control of the boat.Sweet build.
Definitely go as big as possible on fuel tank. A bigger tank actually adds flotation in a sinking with the same amount of fuel for a little extra weight. If you had a 180ga tank with 120ga of fuel, that's 60ga of air space in the tank that can not fill with water. Even if tank is full, that 60ga of gas is still lighter than 60ga of water.
The trim tabs seem way undersized. Bennett recommends more like 30x12. I've never heard anybody complain their tabs are too big and should have gone smaller.
I've heard there are now 220 lb thrust remote control trolling motors available. They really are phenomenal for drift management and also anchoring. Even if you don't install one now, planning for how it could be installed might be worth it. Edit does the iDock do anchoring?
Thanks Ray, you are a good man. I think it is unlikely to finish it completely, but may have it done enough to get some time in. One can always hope.
My SS175HW was mounted thru-hull last time and while it was phenominal at lower speeds, when speeds picked up it was intermittent. That is because on aluminum boats you require a plastic spacer between the transducer and the hull. I'd say that spacer was about 3/8" which really disturbed the water. I am planning to do what BCI mentioned above on point #4. I can't remember where I saw this pic from but it looks pretty slick. BCI with the spacer in place, I was thinking that I'd have the bracket mounted to that it was 2mm below the hull. What are your thoughts there?Well then I look forward to a report in the summer on how the iDock improves jigging.
Is there a reason not to have a thru hull transducer? I think they work much better at speed and it would remove that obstacle to bigger tabs.. If it's for side scan I have a shoot through for 2d and a transom mount for sidescan. But the transom mount is well above the hull intersection because sidescan only works at lower speed and the transducer doesn't even need to be in the water when on plane.. Maybe you could stick it under the pod?
Bennett's customer service is freaking phenomenal so might be worth asking them about other trim tab options too.
I had people checking on it every single day and actually multiple times. Nobody noticed the bilge going off unfortuantely. They were 2000 gph so they would probably only run for a few seconds to clear the water. I think what happened is that after the batteries died, the hull started taking on water. The void is huge below deck and when my retired RCMP buddy checked it at 11pm he said it looked fine. By 6am it was gone. The surveyor said that boats can hold a hell of a lot of water until they can't and then go down fast. It was tied to the dock so once it started listing to one side it was a gonner...by the house of the managers voice, I thought that someone had died. It wasn't a good feeling...
