Broaching

Mullaking · Post by **Mullaking** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:40 pm

There are a few different versions of what broaching actually is but the type I am referring to is when you are travelling in a following sea and as a swell comes up behind you the boat seems to try to turn sideways and feels like its going to tip over. I have had a few suggestions how to prevent it but the "expert" boating guides/videos etc dont seem to cover it.
A few years ago while returning to port from an offshore trip in an 18 ft extreme craft with 5 people on board (including my pregnant wife) we were under the effect of a following sea and about 28-30knot winds. We must have broached 20-30 times and there were a few occasions when I swear we were going to roll.
When I purchased my new railcraft I was told in reply to a direct question that these boats dont broach.
My question is do all boats broach, is it driver error and what,if anything, can be done?

On the way back into the harbour from Charles point the other day we had a following sea and about 15 knot wind. We broached a couple of times leading me to think either I cant drive (possible) or I was lied to about the trailcraft not broaching.

Any info on where to get good advice about this would be much appreciated.

landlocked · Post by **landlocked** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:29 pm

the way i used to deal with it was trim the nose up a bit and power on.
if the wave has you going faster than the motor is pushing you then you have no control of the steering and thats when you broach, well thats what i think . scary in the big stuff.

Timbo · Post by **Timbo** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:44 pm

From my experiance you summed it up well landlocked. In seas like that you have to be on and off the power all the time.

Daisy · Post by **Daisy** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:53 pm

Up until recently (last 4 years) trailcraft boats in my experience were notorious broachers. I only say recently because I haven't anything to do with one since. A work buddy and fishing mate of mine had a Profish (somewhere around the 4.7 size I can't remember exactly) and we tried everything with that boat including trimming, powering on, packing the motor higher on the transom, and then even modifying transom to make motor sit lower. We could not make that boat behave even in a moderate following sea

. I've heard this from other people and there are others that are very happy with they're Trailies (they are certainly a well built solid boat).If I was you I'd contact Trailcraft Aust (94378000) and tell 'em all about it.
When the seas are up and you're being pushed along by the water it's all up to the hull as there is no steerage. I've been in some horrendous following seas in a mates Haines 6.5 mt Patriot

and it goes the way you point it no broaching whatsoever. I hope this doesn't come across as preaching or being a pinhead just conveying my experience.

Cheers Daisy

Mullaking · Post by **Mullaking** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:34 pm

Ironically I was planning to buy a haines but they seem a little bit too over optioned to me. What I mean is if I had a live kicking Mack bleeding from the gills in my traily I wouldnt give it a second thaught co I just grab the deck wash and give it a quick rinse. In a new Haines I would feel the same as if the fish was chucked into the front seat of my car. Too much soft stuff and plastic.
I chose ali over fibreglass cos I will be beaching quite a bit and ali hulls are far more resilient to that sort of treatment.

Faulksy · Post by **Faulksy** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:05 pm

Its an awful feeling when it happens. We hired a econocat one time and it only had a single small diesel motor. We ended up in a Big following sea and it was not much fun, I put it down at the time to being under powered and in a cat, as a mate of mine had previously told me of a cat he owned that rolled in a big sea. I dont have any answers for you but Im sure that some one here should have some advice. I think that some hulls are more prone to it than others but have never heard trailcraft specificaly mentioned.

shonky1 · Post by **shonky1** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:04 pm

Before my current boat I had a Pacific 23' this boat just loved to broach in a following sea, it got very scarry at times. I feel as others have said, its in the hull design. the Pacific was a blunt nosed almost no "V" hull and used to float all over the place coming off a wave, one thing that made the hull behave better was adding a fin to the motor, trim it up, putting plenty of weight in the boat and most importantly go a lot faster than the following swell. My current boat has a very sharp entry and a deep "V", it doesnt suffer from broaching at all. The only thing it does do because of the sharp entry is roll a bit in a cross/following sea, I put this down to not a lot of surface area to push the hull back level.

Night Stalker · Post by **Night Stalker** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:13 pm

As mentioned earlier this can be caused by the trim of the motor. Ali boats are generally lighter weight hulls with a moderate deadrise angle which gives the back less grip on the water. If you have the nose trimmed in to hard and possibly a lot of weight up the front, this can cause the nose to dig into the back of the wave in front of you and the back of the boat to get push to the side by the wave behind. You possibly could solve your problem by trimming up/lightening up the front of the boat allowing it to lift over the back of the waves with less resistance.

Best of luck

Daisy · Post by **Daisy** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:23 pm

[quote="Mullaking"]Ironically I was planning to buy a haines but they seem a little bit too over optioned to me.

Yep I hear ya , she's a much too pretty a boat to mess up and wouldn't be my choice preferring something more utilitarian (checking out the WA built Venom boats but it's a few years off). Just trying to show some hulls don't seem to broach.

Kevin Kevinson · Post by **Kevin Kevinson** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:09 am

well i can vouch that 2rods's floating esky is a tremendous boat in a following sea...

not that it is much help to your situation MK

dodgyone · Post by **dodgyone** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:30 pm

Kevin Kevinson wrote:well i can vouch that 2rods's floating esky is a tremendous boat in a following sea...

not that it is much help to your situation MK

The esky did still show a tendency to broach when on the first couple of runs in heavy seas/chop. Took a little playing with trim and weight distribution until Paul got the balance right.

seafarer · Post by **seafarer** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:53 pm

if the boat under powered can cause the problem if not under powered try a prop that will give you better bite on the water for better trim worked for me

2rods · Post by **2rods** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:44 pm

Yep the esky is fine now that I have worked out the trim and stuff.. get the nose up and get ya hand on the throttle........(make dodgy stand down the back) seems to work for me

Funny though ...the slapper was good and nearly never broached in a following sea???

Mullaking · Post by **Mullaking** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:00 pm

Well heres my outcome on the matter. I went out in my boat with the head Trailcraft bloke and actually learnt something. He was able to get the boat to broach quite badly in the wake of another boat. It was just as bad if not worse than when it did it to me. Then with a slight change of trim and power he showed me how to completely avoid a repeat. I was amazed. It all comes down to driving ability. It was good to let someone who knows what he is doing take the helm and show me how its done. He pushed the boat to its limits and showed me exactly what these boats can do. He and a crew of 3 guys took a 660 trailcraft sportscab to Hobart across Bass Strait and experienced 5mt swells with 1mt cross chop. The 66o handled it but again it took and experienced driver to prevent tip overs and dead crew.
Ali boats need as much weight as you can throw in it to help it "bite" the water. With a following sea load the back up heavy and power into the wave when you are surfing down the front. Take control away from the ocean and put it back in your hands.
Its all good but I have decided to upgrade to a 660 anyway cos the 610 is not quite big enough!!
Are they ever??

dodgyone · Post by **dodgyone** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:18 pm

Didnt even get a ride in the 610 and its gone already?

Oh well. Get to play in the 660 next weekend then I suppose.