Double XX Boats

[gotmuddy]

in sand/mud if my boat floats it will plane out.

[netboy]

Actually the trip through the canals was quite relaxing. When we had company we would always do a booze cruise in the evening to look at the houses. Padre Isles is one the largest waterfront communities in the US with approximately 15 miles of canals and over 5000 homes and condos.    

Sometimes we would see some interesting "sights" at night when folks forget to close their bedroom window coverings.

[Basfis]

3 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Gravity is a thing too.   A vertical section of hull does not support anything. 

Which is easier to pull under water, a fat round bobber, or a long skinny quill bobber with the same surface area ? 

Throw a stick like a spear and the whole stick goes under.   But throw it flat and it doesn't even go under at all.

It’s amazing that hydroplanes float and planes fly with Gravois physics....

We are not talking about buoyancy while in motion, that is the difference. A flat bottom has better displacement properties at rest. The tunnel works only in motion. If the discussion was floating the shallowest the flat bottom wins. 

[JamiePatterson]

3 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

.....if you ever slowed down or stopped you'd be dry docked.   THEN WHADDYA GONNA DO ?   

Absolutely, I’ve pretty much exclusively had boats (story prop tunnels) that would run shallower than they would float.
 

Read all this realizing that I’m trying to be very respectful. I understand differing opinions and all that. I sure don’t mean to be a smart butt.

 

My jet, with tunnel will run ankle deep water -Obviously this is over P gravel or sand or mud. Gigantic rocks are spooky. You get a ton of lift running over a bottom that’s smooth. The boat squeezes water between itself and the stream bed to create lots of extra lift. A phantom boulder will get you in trouble in a hurry -hence the 1/2” airboat poly bolted (650 bolts) to the bottom of my rig.

The prop driven tunnels need a little more water. I’ve seen your math Wrench, and I understand what you’re getting at. When you running the boats though, a lot of that goes out the window. I’m sorry but it’s true. I’ve been there and done it for a good 25 years. If you haven’t run a tunnel hall or run the places that I have, then I guess I can see why the concept doesn’t make sense. I don’t wanna argue, I just know what I’ve done and how I’ve had to set up boats to gain myself an advantage over your average guy who went and bought a bass tracker or whatever 😂 Actually experiencing it, versus theorizing about it are different. I can’t run a 20 foot flat bottom into my favorite duck holes if it has it got a tunnel. 
 

The main bottom of the boat, the part excluding the tunnel, is running just like a flat bottom when up on step. The tunnel definitely gives you five (or six, or whatever) bonus inches to raise your motor out of the water column. Yeah, but what about drag you might ask… You vent the leading edge of tunnel to break a little bit of the suction that it creates. The tubing runs out the back of the boat and is sucking like a vacuum cleaner when you’re zooming down the river. This is flat out truth.  It works and is fairly amazing. If you choose not to believe me that’s fine, I don’t really care. If there’s a little nugget in here that could help someone avoid having to get out and push their  boat then the last five minutes of typing this mess was worth it LOL good day gentleman 😊

 

 

[JamiePatterson]

We can start arguing about the benefits of a slick bottom aluminum boat if you guys want. They’re amazing when it comes to sliding off of stumps LOL

 

Maybe we could talk about how rounded chains turn better but create more drag. How hard chines don’t corner worth a crap but typically are faster and will carry a load better.

I could even go into how tunnels are typically around 5 mile an hour slower than a traditional boat, require a specialized prop, and usually have a crappy reverse because of it.

 

Everything is about a trade off when it comes to boat.
 

 

 

 

[Smalliebigs]

On 3/13/2021 at 7:01 PM, netboy said:

I have to disagree with this Wrench.

Previously I lived on North Padre Island on the Laguna Madre in South Texas. That is a very shallow bay system with an average depth of around 2-3 feet. To get to some of the better fishing areas I had to cross shallow areas that were less than a foot in depth. I had a 20 foot tunnel hull skiff with a Bob's Hydraulic jack plate and could run that boat over 6 inches of water on plane with the jack plate raised up.  Most all the boats down there had tunnel hulls. Once up on plane they will run way shallower than a boat with no tunnel. The tunnel shoots water up to the lower unit and when you jack the plate up it will run scary shallow. I had a 140hp Suzuki prop drive. I can only imagine what it it would do with a jet drive but jet drives wouldn't work down there because there was so much floating seagrass to clog up the intakes.

If I get a new jet boat up here it will have a tunnel. 

That’s just wrong when your talking about running a river

[Smalliebigs]

9 minutes ago, JamiePatterson said:

We can start arguing about the benefits of a slick bottom aluminum boat if you guys want. They’re amazing when it comes to sliding off of stumps LOL

 

Maybe we could talk about how rounded chains turn better but create more drag. How hard chines don’t corner worth a crap but typically are faster and will carry a load better.

I could even go into how tunnels are typically around 5 mile an hour slower than a traditional boat, require a specialized prop, and usually have a crappy reverse because of it.

 

Everything is about a trade off when it comes to boat.
 

 

 

 

Yep we agree to disagree on that one but, we are talking about apples and oranges. Running a tunnel with a jet out board will not run more shallow that a flat transom hull with a jet outboard set at the right height on the transom. Just like you have your opinions and I have mine based on many years of running rivers with jets with tunnels and without. Having a recessed intake with a tunnel leading to it is awesome though. Like I said agree to disagree lol

[netboy]

24 minutes ago, JamiePatterson said:

A phantom boulder will get you in trouble in a hurry -hence the 1/2” airboat poly bolted (650 bolts) to the bottom of my rig.

 

 

 

That stuff is incredible. Had a friend with an Air Ranger airboat that I duck hunted with a couple of times that had poly on the bottom and he could run that big rig over dry land.

[JamiePatterson]

I’ve had several airboats and loved how tough the stuff is, so I incorporated it into this boat. It’s heavy and slows the rig down though 😩

 

I’ve jumped/skidded it over a couple gravel bar humps, just to see how it’d do -and ‘cause, you know, refreshments... 🤷‍♂️ 😂😂😂

[snagged in outlet 3]

1752 flat bottom with 90 etech jet.  2” running water line.  I know it’s been shallower because I heard the gravel.  I also have Wetlander slick coat on the bottom.  It appears less than 2” because the slope of the hull is going away from the camera at the bottom.