Aluminum hull question

I am new to boating. Have a brand new aluminum fish and ski 17 ft. With 115 hp. I wanted a light trailerable boat since my car is not big.

My question is, does it hurt the hull to go through wakeboat wakes (1-2ft.) at speed. It seems the boat really pounds and rattles when I do this. My guess is it’s not good for it with the wood under structure and walk through windshield. My brother says don’t worry, but common sense says I’m destroying it.

Any experience? I kind of want to baby it, but also want some fun.

Thanks.

Ask your brother to buy-in 1/2 on the boat. Then ask the
question again and see if you get the same answer.

It’s your boat, drive it like you want.

If sounds like it’s hitting hard, it’s hitting hard.

The more you drive it the more you’ll be comfortable with it and know the boat and your own limitations.

But I wouldn’t be afraid to give er a lil more than you think it can do now, if a boat can’t handle 12″ of wake better to sink it now.

What am I missing here. Isn’t an aluminum fishing boat capable of a 115 hp motor designed and built to take a pounding through some rough water? Of course it’s going to sound hard.

New boater, new boat, being cautious isn’t the worse thing in the world. Common sense goes a long ways. Take your time and get use to the capabilities of both yourself and the boat.

It hurts your berries more than the boat. That’s reason enough for me to avoid it.

The boats are built to handle way more than we can. If you drive for your comfort you will be driving multitudes below the boats capabilities.

Dutchboy wrote:

New boater, new boat, being cautious isn’t the worse thing in the world. Common sense goes a long ways. Take your time and get use to the capabilities of both yourself and the boat.

Well said!

Waves and big wakes will knock things loose. You’ll get experience both in driving and learning boat repairs. Case in point, I did some wiring last year on my new to me 17′ aluminum boat. Everything was great until I smacked it around one day this season is solid waves. Turns out not all the nuts were as tight as I thought.

Did I need to push that hard that day, probably not. However I got to know my boat better.

patk wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
New boater, new boat, being cautious isn’t the worse thing in the world. Common sense goes a long ways. Take your time and get use to the capabilities of both yourself and the boat.

Well said!

Waves and big wakes will knock things loose. You’ll get experience both in driving and learning boat repairs. Case in point, I did some wiring last year on my new to me 17′ aluminum boat. Everything was great until I smacked it around one day this season is solid waves. Turns out not all the nuts were as tight as I thought.

Did I need to push that hard that day, probably not. However I got to know my boat better.

I wouldn’t recommend pounding the boat just for fun, but times you get out in heavier waves 5-10 miles from where you started…you can decide if you want to spend the next several hours idling back or let the boat do what it is designed and built for. Just pointing out that a boat like that should be able to take some punishment without falling to pieces.

Drive your boat however you want.

Sometimes it’s kinda fun pounding er hard, and other times when $hit hits the fan for weather you need to.

That’s a solid aluminum hull with no rivets that can come loose. I don’t think you will hurt anything. Enjoy your new boat.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

I wouldn’t recommend pounding the boat just for fun, but times you get out in heavier waves 5-10 miles from where you started…you can decide if you want to spend the next several hours idling back or let the boat do what it is designed and built for. Just pointing out that a boat like that should be able to take some punishment without falling to pieces.

Drive your boat however you want.

That is how I try to roll, taking it easy whenever possible because sometimes you don’t have a choice. Often I’ll push it at tacking the shortest amount possible and sometimes that creates a terrible pounding when the bow gets blown off angle even just a little bit. With tacking that original 10 mile ride can turn into 15 miles or more. It can turn a 15 minute boat ride into an hour of trying to get back in under those conditions while trying to baby the boat.

Ted wrote:

I am new to boating. Have a brand new aluminum fish and ski 17 ft. With 115 hp. I wanted a light trailerable boat since my car is not big.

My question is, does it hurt the hull to go through wakeboat wakes (1-2ft.) at speed. It seems the boat really pounds and rattles when I do this. My guess is it’s not good for it with the wood under structure and walk through windshield. My brother says don’t worry, but common sense says I’m destroying it.

Any experience? I kind of want to baby it, but also want some fun.

Thanks.

Tuma wrote:

That’s a solid aluminum hull with no rivets that can come loose. I don’t think you will hurt anything. Enjoy your new boat.

How do you know what hull he is running? All I got was aluminum walk thru with a 115.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

I wouldn’t recommend pounding the boat just for fun, but times you get out in heavier waves 5-10 miles from where you started…

Sorry if I misled. My intent was trying to point out to a new boat owner that testing what your boat can do in whitecaps is not always a bad thing.

I’m not on big water at our cabin(Gull) and finally had some rougher conditions. Figured it was better to learn and practice on my local lake before I’m on Mille Lacs or Rainy when a storm kicks up. The wire that came loose was from my new MK DC charger so I knew I didn’t do that step as well as I should have.

biggill wrote:

It hurts your berries more than the boat. That’s reason enough for me to avoid it.

Yup. It only takes one time to sit on em during a wave…

Dutchboy wrote:

How do you know what hull he is running? All I got was aluminum walk thru with a 115.

Good point. When he said fish and ski & ^ the Lowe fish and ski series aluminum boats just popped into my head.

It’s a Mirrocraft Dual Impact. 17’6″ riveted hull.

here is a picture of a friend of a friends brand new 65k aluminum boat after he hit a wave going too fast. The windshield is destroyed and the hull is all dented to hell too. as of yet the manufacturer is saying its his fault even though the advertisement video for the boat he bought shows them getting about 5 ft of air in 5 ft waves lol. by all accounts this person drives his boats way too hard so not saying he didn’t have it coming.

As others have said go at your own speed. if you like to baby your boat go for it. Personally I do and I never regret getting to shore 20 minutes later then the next guy.

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This thread brings to mind the term “pounded hard and put away wet”

I say find the capabilities of yourself and the boat. Drive it responsibly and figure out what you and the boat can do. No need to go full out all the time, but there is also no need to baby it either. When your teeth are rattling that means other things are rattling as well, and likely to break prematurely. Not saying the hull or the boat in particular, but bilge pumps, motors, trolling motors, fish finders, etc, may eventually fail at the most inopportune moment and chances of it happening because you were “poundin’ ‘er hard” are good.

Munchy said what I was trying to say. Thanks

nhamm wrote:

Sometimes it’s kinda fun pounding er hard, and other times when $hit hits the fan for weather you need to.

We still talking about the boat?

I dont intentionally beat any of my equipment whether it be auto, boat, sled, quad, etc etc. The payback is reliability when I need it. And resale.

Go whatever speed you feel comfortable with, but there are things that you can do to take some of the punishment out of hitting them.
1) Try and head directly into them if possible.
2) Trim your motor down so the bow/keel will slice through it vs hit the hull farther back where the hull is much more flat. Doing that you will notice some slapping, but if the bow is low then it will carve through it much better.

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the honesty. No easy answer other than common sense.

Crappie, I thought that was a single console when I first saw the pic. Maybe because I nearly broke my neck looking at it.