Lifting strakes

[Lunker]

Skins? Can someone clue me to what those are?

[johnathan]

Basically if you look under your boat you will see stringers and cross members.If you lay on the front of the boat with your head off the deck looking aft you can see if the structures are catching wave or dragging in the water.Of corse someone has to drive the boat.
If so you can use sheet metal or other material to cover the under side of your boat.That is called under skinning.

[playcat]

My toon is a good example - 31 feet long, with a heavy upper sundeck. Two U-shaped pontoons, but a 235 HP I/O and a duoprop that sit a fiberglass pod (not big enough to call a third toon). The engine pod provides zero lift at speed, so when I hit 20mph, the front of teh toon lifts, and speed drops! My speed increases if I trim it all the way down, because trimming up just makes the ass end sink lower.
I need a butt lift, aka lifting strakes, to get the back end of the barge to go faster. But, since i think I spun out the hub of one or both props yesterday, I'm going high and dry for awhile...I needed new props anyway!

[Ron Burgundy]

Skins? Can someone clue me to what those are?

Underskinning

[johnathan]

Ron
Is that the bottom of your Fiesta.Beautiful skinning job.With just a 50HP you are getting great performance!
Ok I see the lifting strakes it must be a PTX package or somthing.

[d18]

This is some good reading on planing a toon,
I have a 26' Lavigne with a 50 Merc 2 stroke,
right now I see 18 mph GPS, I have a 75 Etec
that I am considering to try for more speed.
I don't expect miracles but would like to see
an improvement, I am planning to skin and compare
speeds, also, my brother is an aluminum fabricator
and I think strakes would be an easy task for him,
but I want to skin first.

Ron, what speed do you see with your 50 Yammi?

[Ron Burgundy]

Sorry guys, I should have said that isn't my current 'toon...it is my future dream 'toon. This is also a 20' Fiesta, but it has a 115HP. I took these photos at a local boat show. Someday, maybe...