F25 Loss of Control

[jayn8yy]

I am a new owner of a 1978 F25. I am hoping someone can help me out on this issue. For the first time I took the boat out of the inlet to the Atlantic. However, I noticed the boat becomes very difficult to control in the inlet and especially it seems when the current is coming from the stern. The bow starts going left to right uncontrollably as the stern swings around. The boat almost makes a 90 degree turn back and forth. It is not that fun. In fact I thought the boat was going to turn over. If someone has some advice on this or has the same problem please let me know.
Also, what speed should the boat cruise at? I am having a problem getting over 11 knots. (might be the bottom - having it cleaned next week) Thanks.

[mississsippimolly]

I own a 1974 F25 (different hull than yours). I know what you are talking about. A couple of years ago on an escape from my usual Mississippi River cruise, I circled Lake Michigan. On my last leg from St. Joe MC to Chicago. I got to run in following 6 foot swells. It wasn't much fun. Judicious use of throttle helped. Best bet I found was to stay ahead of the swells as much as practical. Before I go and blame the boat though I would suggest checking a few things out. First, is there excessive in-play in the steering system? This can be wear in the steering head or cable. At the rudder end, there is a strut mounted to a stringer, that has a ball and socket joint that holds the cable sheath in place. Is everything tight here? Is the tiller arm attached to the rudder stock tight? Is the rudder bent? Is the rudder the stock design? This is very important, mine came with an excessively tall rudder with what looks like a small cavitation plate on top. This rudder has more surface than any other 1" stock rudders I have seen. It is a special design and had the Trojan name cast into it. Perhaps yours has been replaced by your basic tornament ski boat rudder. I suspect that a 10 1/2 ft beam x 25 foot long boat is ideal in a following sea. More rudder helps a great deal. One other thought, do you have trim tabs? Where were they?

[rossjo]

Following seas can be tough in any boat..

The currents in your inlet, along with the rolls can setup an even more difficult condition.

What crurrent ondition did you have? I presume you were coming into the inlet, based on the followign seas. Was the tide running in or out?

I've been in 2 situations here in Charelston Harbor's inelt that were difficult - 1 in a 36 Hatters Convertible with corss currents, wind and a following ea. The other was in a severe tail win, cross current and a following sea in my Trojan F32.

Running ahead of the seas is generally better than wallowing, and tabs can help (or hurt) depending ont he cross urrents. I've seen inexperienced operators use too much tab and make the boat unmanageable.

I have a 26' I/O boat (Chaparral) whihc handles following seas very well, but have been in large Boston Whalers (supposed to be good) that were awful.

Try to experminet (carefully) with different settings, and maybe a bit more power.

[chucka]

I dug this up from an older post on this forum:

The F30 doesn't like following seas too well, as most boats don't. The F30 like most Trojans, has a rather scary trait if you don't know about it. It's called "Bow Steer." It's never happened to me before, as the former owner warned me beforehand. It happened to him twice. It occurs when the trim tabs are adjusted down too far, and the bow is pushed down too far at higher speeds. The bow digs in, and as soon as it leans just a little to the left or right, the whole boat will suddenly make a sharp swerving turn, and will turn sharper and faster than you could normally make a turn. If you are not hanging on, you could be thrown from your seat, or even out of the boat. The former owner, a very experienced boater, said it scared the heck out of him. I had a friend many years ago that had a Trojan F26 single screw, and he had the same thing happen to him in his F26. I have been warned not to put the trim tabs down too far at high speeds, and if the steering all of a sudden gets real light, and feels like you have power steering, it's getting ready to happen. In 8 years, I have never had a problem with "bow steer." I am aware of it, and how it can happen.

I added an oversized rudder and a 6" keel extension to my F26 to improve tracking stability. It runs much straighter, but not perfect.

Good Luck,
Chuck

[rossjo]

This "Bow Steer" is exactly what happend on my F32 - the combinationof 3-4' sfollowing seas, strong corss wind and a quarting head-current truned us sharply, thrwoing my wife to the galley floor, and giving us quite a scare.

I belive we had ben running the tabs down in the ICW due to the strong wind/waves, and we entered the harbor at lower speed and had this happen to us.

The bow is deep on my F32, and the tab-down condition must really make it bite ..

Anyway - watch those tabs - great for a head sea, but iffy in a following sea.

[jayn8yy]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. The idea of the bow steer seems to be what happened. I do have the trims tabs in the back and if I remember correctly they were all the way down. I am going to give it a shot with them neutral when going out of the inlet or with following seas. Hopefully that combined with gaining more power when the bottom is done getting cleaned will help.

Thanks again. I'll let you know - if it works.

[antares]

Trojan boats are notorious in following seas. This is because of the wide beam and the relatively flat stern. The key is to have your trim tabs fully up while keeping the boat on a plane cruising at approx 12-14 knots. Always travel slightly faster then the sea. I too experienced the "trojan roll turn". Then I contacted some friends in the US who explained what was happening.

[etpence]

Bow steer is what is happening I have a 31' and fish the gulf of mexico out of galveston tx
and our sea conditions are 3-5 ' most the time until I found the sweet spot with my trim tabs I had this problem to
once you finf the right trim it should help
Like every one has said trojans dont like a following sea
todd
31 trojan Mio Mio