Shallow Channel Access

joc0623

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I recently purchased a lake home as well as a 2019 Bennington 23SX SSBXP tritoon with the SPS package (25" tubes). Our boat slip has access to the lake through a shallow channel from a small harbor area (see pic). The channel depth into/out of the harbor runs anywhere from 18-25' throughout. With a draft of approx 13" the tritoon will float in the channel with no issues but running the motor (even trimmed up) is not ideal as it stirs up sediment that I hate to have being circulated through the motor. I'd like to just keep the motor off and trimmed up and use a trolling motor to pull the boat through to get us to deeper water. Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on a good reasonably priced trolling motor. I am a newbie to boating so I'm open to any and all thoughts / suggestions!
 

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Keep a eye on your impeller ,you may want to change it more often than is recommended
 
How do your neighbors handle this? Have any of them had engine problems as a result? With engine trimmed up and slow speed I wouldn’t think that much sediment gets stirred up.
how long of a ride in the channel till reach deep water?
 
Even though my motor is much smaller, a props a prop. At idle speed I’ve gone as shallow as 12” or so without stirring up sediment. I’ve trimmed my motor up to be safe in the mud flats, but at low rpm I’ve had no issues.
 
How do your neighbors handle this? Have any of them had engine problems as a result? With engine trimmed up and slow speed I wouldn’t think that much sediment gets stirred up.
how long of a ride in the channel till reach deep water?
Thanks for the response Link. Still new to neighborhood so not sure how they typically handle this. Most others have v-hulls which makes getting thru channel tough until it is periodically dredged. Maybe it’s part of learning process but I was stirring up water. May try and moving thru even slower. Channel distance is approx 150 yds.
 
how about adding a trolling motor?
 
I have a trolling motor on mine and while not for the same purpose as your needs, it would do the job. Me doing the fabrication and install my setup was around $3k.
 

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Well, first you gotta get yourself a striped shirt...


gondola.jpg



Seriously though, if that's all you need it for (short distance and little wind) then a 12v motor with 54 lbs. thrust will work. Minn Kota and Motorguide are the two most common brands but there are others. You would need to do some measuring from your deck height to get an idea of what shaft length to buy.

If it were me, I'd be talking to the neighbors first to see how they handle it before spending any money.
 
Even though my motor is much smaller, a props a prop. At idle speed I’ve gone as shallow as 12” or so without stirring up sediment. I’ve trimmed my motor up to be safe in the mud flats, but at low rpm I’ve had no issues.
I agree. We have one shallow channel (shorter distance though) to an attached lake and have also never had a problem.
 
I agree. We have one shallow channel (shorter distance though) to an attached lake and have also never had a problem.
Sounds good. What was your average channel depth?
 
Take one for the team and run through the channel zero trim. You'll get it dredged in no time!

A TM just for navigating your dockage seems like an excess amount of money and wiring , not to mention it will forever be taking up bow space.

Maybe look into the engine-mounted trollers which may save space. The video below doesnt seem to be a current offering by MK (they currently have three lesser-powered variants) but gets the point across. Mounted properly it appears to not create additional drag once on plane.

 
I have to get well into the tilt in order to get out of the bay where our boat sits without hitting bottom. As long as the motor is “pissing”, you are fine. As previously mentioned, if you are getting a lot of sediment churn, change your impeller more often.
 
I have the alarm on my depth finder set to go off at 2 feet - it frequently goes off unless I manage to stay centered. Skeg would drag in the mostly sand bottom most seasons (there is silt also) if I don’t trim it up. The channel is less than 40 feet wide - mostly very shallow. Usually between 18-30 inches depending on rain or snowfall season. Since I’ve had the lake house (2007) we have (about 25 of us) have actually hand dredged the channel with shovels and buckets wearing boots and waders. It had been done previously the same way. I had a bowrider before the pontoon and there was a season that I couldn’t/wouldn’t take it through there. That small lake is the last one of 5 attached so we don’t have to go through the channel if we don’t want to.
 
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I used to dock one of my boats inside a shallow channel - 10' wide and maybe 2' deep in the middle. There were always newbies blowing through either at no or little trim, and way too many revs, almost throwing rooster tails. I was grateful for them unwittingly clearing things out :cool:
 
You can always use one of these..... Seriously just trim up and go slow........Screenshot_20210117-182555.png
 
I agree. We have one shallow channel (shorter distance though) to an attached lake and have also never had a problem.
I have a trolling motor on mine and while not for the same purpose as your needs, it would do the job. Me doing the fabrication and install my setup was around $3k.
Thanks. Kind of the direction I'm leaning. Looking to see what's available at a little lower cost.
Take one for the team and run through the channel zero trim. You'll get it dredged in no time!

A TM just for navigating your dockage seems like an excess amount of money and wiring , not to mention it will forever be taking up bow space.

Maybe look into the engine-mounted trollers which may save space. The video below doesnt seem to be a current offering by MK (they currently have three lesser-powered variants) but gets the point across. Mounted properly it appears to not create additional drag once on plane.

Thanks for the comments. May be missing something but looks like the engine trollers run with main motor trimmed down which would still result in skeg/propeller running into/thru channel bottom. No?
 
Thanks for the comments. May be missing something but looks like the engine trollers run with main motor trimmed down which would still result in skeg/propeller running into/thru channel bottom. No?

That's what I would assume as well, but it appeared in your original post blowing silt and ingesting into the motor was the main concern. If dragging the skeg is also a concern I agree this probably wouldnt work.

What does a basic dredge cost? If you're going to potentially put out $2-3k installed on a TM, why not explore having all the property owners chip in $1k and have a semi-permanent solution? I'm guessing a "true" dredge moving many tons or cubic yards of material would be an exorbitant cost, but how about one of those guys that drive piles, running his backhoe and scraping a path out to the main lake? Similar to SwiftM's situation, a little mechanical effort might be all it takes. This could be a ridiculous idea, but trying to think outside the box given other owners have the same issue.
 
That's what I would assume as well, but it appeared in your original post blowing silt and ingesting into the motor was the main concern. If dragging the skeg is also a concern I agree this probably wouldnt work.

What does a basic dredge cost? If you're going to potentially put out $2-3k installed on a TM, why not explore having all the property owners chip in $1k and have a semi-permanent solution? I'm guessing a "true" dredge moving many tons or cubic yards of material would be an exorbitant cost, but how about one of those guys that drive piles, running his backhoe and scraping a path out to the main lake? Similar to SwiftM's situation, a little mechanical effort might be all it takes. This could be a ridiculous idea, but trying to think outside the box given other owners have the same issue.
Yea, sorry, prob wasn't fully clear on what the problem is in the channel. As noted initially we are new to this subdivision and I know they did pay upwards of $25K to have it dredged about 18 mths ago. From what I hear it helped initially but with each spring storm it has gradually silted up again in spots. The property owners association board is trying to develop a schedule to dredge every year but always have those in the subdivision who don't want to pay for it (those with no boat slips in the harbor). We'll see but I'm hopeful. The TM is a sure way to solve the problem but as mentioned by someone earlier it's gonna take up space on the bow deck which I'd rather not do but there are always seem to be trade-offs with any solution. Thanks.
 
Joel, like several have mentioned above, before I went to the trouble and expense of adding a trolling motor, I'd trim it right up and take it as slow as possible and see what happens. Again, as long as the engine is peeing you should be fine. Let us know how you end up resolving this.
 
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