Wandering at slow speeds

MikePA

MikePA

Well-Known Member
In my Campion 542 at speeds less than say 7mph.. the boat likes to track in an ever repeating S pattern (without any input or correction). The motor and everything is perfectly still, doesn't matter if trim tabs are down or up, engine trim independent. This makes navigating narrow waterways and marinas interesting.. I read on other forums people talking about this and there's some explanations of this being caused by turbulent water flow under the hull and the interaction with the outboard leg causing this. Anyone else experience this and come up with any solutions?
 
My father in law has an 18’ deep v and it wanders all over at slow speeds as well. Full down on the tabs at 8 mile an hour made it better, but at really slow speeds the tabs don’t help much.
 
MikePA said:
Geeze, drives me nuts.
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My Bayliner 245 and my Maxum 1800 were both HORRIBLE. You actually just sent a chill down my spine thinking about it. The commander doesn't budge.
 
MikePA said:
In my Campion 542 at speeds less than say 7mph.. the boat likes to track in an ever repeating S pattern (without any input or correction). The motor and everything is perfectly still, doesn't matter if trim tabs are down or up, engine trim independent. This makes navigating narrow waterways and marinas interesting.. I read on other forums people talking about this and there's some explanations of this being caused by turbulent water flow under the hull and the interaction with the outboard leg causing this. Anyone else experience this and come up with any solutions?
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That my friend is too many beers while you out fishing lol. Just playing with you, I think it has to do with weight distribution, how the boat is loaded, smaller boat are more susceptible to this, I have the same issue while fishing alone, my fat a…. Going from one side to the other makes the boat zig zag, if I stand in the middle all good. Not sure how your boat is loaded, but I am very fussy how I load mine, less weight as possible, I don’t carry extra junk I don’t need, and try to spread the weight even. Also the small fin on your drive can be adjusted to counter that, but I never bothered messing around with it, mine sits in a weird angle from the previous owner and I just left it like that
 
I had a Malibu that did it. A buddy was onboard with me one day. He said, raise the leg a tad. I did, it stopped. Was quite an easy fix for me. Can't believe I went years zig zagging through the Nanaimo harbour. Give it a try.
 
Have you tried trimming up as far as you can? I had the same issue years ago with a campion horizon and later a Bayliner Cierra. Our Double Eagle didn't do it though. Sorry you are dealing with this it used to drive me crazy.
 
Brian Reiber said:
Have you tried trimming up as far as you can? I had the same issue years ago with a campion horizon and later a Bayliner Cierra. Our Double Eagle didn't do it though. Sorry you are dealing with this it used to drive me crazy.
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I haven't, my thought was more leg in the water, more stability, but I'll give it a try
 
MikePA said:
I haven't, my thought was more leg in the water, more stability, but I'll give it a try
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Give it a try. If I remember correctly it helped a minor amount. Trimming up will give a bit of bow lift although it will be pretty negligible at those speeds. Try and trim up as far as you can (stop just before it starts to cavitate). Hope it helps even a small amount. There may be better solutions but I never figured it out. I learned to live with it. I remember that sitting behind the wheel and trying to constantly correct it was a waste of time. I learned to accept it and just got the wheel as straight as I could and trusted the boat to eventually "come back" in line. Maddening problem, good luck.
 
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