Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

OK- I am new to boating of all kinds. I just got a "new to me" pontoon - and I have a question about performance... I apologize if it gets wordy.

The boat is a 1993 24' Grumman with an 88HP Evinrude 2 stroke on it.

I have been dragging the kids around on a tube our first few trips out- What I am noticing is when I try to turn real sharp- It sounds like the prop is coming out of the water and I lose speed. Sometimes its worse than others. When I first noticed it, I just chalked it up to "this big thing isn't made to do sharp turns" and did not really worry about it. But a couple of times yesterday it did it while I was going straight. Same thing, going along and it sounded like the propeller came up out of the water, and lost speed. I had to slow all the way down to but as soon as I got below "wake" speed I it the gas and it took back off. It's almost like something caused an air pocket around the prop????

I know this thing isn't going to corner like a ski boat, but just wanted to make sure that it sounds normal???

Any info is appreciated!!!

Regards,

Jason

Yes, its called cavitation. Its not necessarily a problem, just comes with the territory to a point. Maybe post a photo of the motor so we can look at whether it is mounted too high.

x2 What Cycleman said.

Also, if it was winde (there were some descent waves on the lake) then you may not have any problem at all, just that the waves caused your prop to cavitate. Give us a little more info, and a picture of the back of the boat, so we can see how high/low your engine is sitting, compared to the rest of the boat.

You can do a few things, load the stern a little heavier by moving people, coolers, ect to the back. Try lowering the motor on the transom. If you have trim pins, set them lower or hyd trim, drop it before turning. Or, the kids won't like it, but just go straight!
Try some of these ideas out and let us know if they work.

Thanks for the info- I will definitely try out these ideas... I will be going back up Wednesday- I will get some photo's then and put them on. The lake I go to is ALWAYS choppy and rough... so may be just something I have to deal with-

Be back in a couple of days!!!