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188 SF nose dive

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Barty

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I am having a problem with water coming over the front deck of my 188 SF when I slow down and there are people in the front seats. Happens even at slow speed. Obviously this creates a problem when fishing or just a leisurely cruise around the lake.
Any suggestions to correct the problem? (Besides moving everyone to the back)
 
Barty said:
I am having a problem with water coming over the front deck of my 188 SF when I slow down and there are people in the front seats. Happens even at slow speed. Obviously this creates a problem when fishing or just a leisurely cruise around the lake.
Any suggestions to correct the problem? (Besides moving everyone to the back)
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Assuming you don’t have water in your pontoons, other than shifting weight aft, probably not a solution out there. It’s a smaller length bi-toon. My guess is smaller and lighter motor in the back. Nature of the beast. Weight needs to be balanced to avoid that sort of thing.

OOC, is this only when hitting wakes and waves, or does it torpedo in calm flat water too? Do you have coolers or trolling motor, or other heavy items adding additional weight up front, or is it just people?
 
I think it's just make up of the 18 ft. boat. We had neighbors that had an 18 ft Sweetwater with a 70 hp. The 1st time on it the wife told my wife that you might want to put your beach bag on the seat. We quickly found out why. There was 1 passenger up front and 3 in the back. We came out of the cove and hit a little wave from a boat that went by us and water came over the front and got the entire floor wet! I was shocked! Our Tritoon would have rolled right over it no problem!
 
Watch out for the "Sand Bag " comments .
 
I had the same issue with my 20 foot Bitoon. Had to be careful about weight distribution but with a full boat it would sometimes happen. I always warned passengers that they could get wet. Upgraded to my tritoon and it’s no longer an issue. One solution that worked for me was speeding up when I saw a large wake coming. I would sometimes get some splash over but I wouldn’t nosedive. I had to try and power through it. Had to be careful about slowing down too. Accelerated quickly but slowed down very slowly.
 
Had the same thing happen on our 20SVSB this Memorial weekend. Had a full load of 10 and I thought it seemed like the front end was abnormally low when we were leaving the dock, but pressed forward anyway telling myself it was just 'different' because it wasn't just the wife & I. Should have listened to my gut... Got out of the cove, hit an average size wave at slow speed and the front end just nose dived. we've had a little water come over the front end before, but I swear I felt the back end of the boat come up this time & the pucker factor shot up! Redistributed people a bit, did a 180, and proceeded directly back to the dock to offload a few folks.

Needless to say, next time I'll pay more attention to weight capacity vs people capacity. And I won't worry about upsetting anyone by asking them to sit toward the rear. Lesson learned.
 
You could shift your COG when underway, but moving too much aft also could create some problems.

Just experiment with numbers of bodies, where they sit, where gear is located, water conditions, throttle input etc. and eventually you'll learn the tendencies of your boat and how to get the most comfortable ride.

And I won't mention sandbags, but will throw out PADS!
 
cw77 said:
Had the same thing happen on our 20SVSB this Memorial weekend. Had a full load of 10 and I thought it seemed like the front end was abnormally low when we were leaving the dock, but pressed forward anyway telling myself it was just 'different' because it wasn't just the wife & I. Should have listened to my gut... Got out of the cove, hit an average size wave at slow speed and the front end just nose dived. we've had a little water come over the front end before, but I swear I felt the back end of the boat come up this time & the pucker factor shot up! Redistributed people a bit, did a 180, and proceeded directly back to the dock to offload a few folks.

Needless to say, next time I'll pay more attention to weight capacity vs people capacity. And I won't worry about upsetting anyone by asking them to sit toward the rear. Lesson learned.
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Just remember, pay attention to max weight limit and not max people limit. My S21, is 10 people or 1337 #. When's the last time you saw 10 people with a combined weight of 1337#? Maybe a Yemen boat lift....
 
Reviving an old thread here...

In light of our nosedives when we have more than 4-6 people on, the wife & I were wondering if upgrading to a 22-23ft tritoon would help prevent that. We'd really like to comfortably take 8 normal sized humans, without worrying about going for an unplanned swim...

Thoughts/recommendations?
 
I had the same issue with a 22’ GSR with 115hp pontoon. Upgraded to tritoon 22’ with 150hp. No issues. The tritoon front does angle up which helps get it out of the water while my old pontoon plowed, but I know some people don’t like that.
 
I've always felt like our 20' SVSB seemed a bit nose heavy, but this is the first boat we've actually purchased, so weren't really thinking about that when we got it. The wife just wanted seating for friends and the rear-facing lounger. And I had permission to actually buy a boat, so... :)

Only other experience was riding with the in-laws in their 20' pontoon. And his was a fishing model, so it didn't have as much seating in the front, so I never felt like it was plowing at all. Think I can count on one hand the number of times in 15+ years that we had any water come over the front of that one.
 
I agree with the above feedback. A tritoon goes a looooong way in helping. Also, combined with a heavier/larger motor, you sit slightly lower in the back, angled upward to the front. Thus, that goes a long way too at preventing the nose dive.

The only other way to impact it really is really dialing in on weight distribution. Keep side to side balanced, and heaviest in the back. If that wont work with your current boat, then perhaps upgrading with all of our advice in mind might be necessary.
 
Good luck looking around at the boat show. Always fun looking at new, especially when considering a purchase. Hope you find something that fits your wants, and your budget. Enjoy!!!
 
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