[UPBEAT MUSIC] Hi!
I'm Mike Vatalaro with BoatUS Magazine.
Today I'm on my boat to show you how to use your trim control.
This is the button on your throttle that allows you to trim your outboard outdrives up and
down.
The reason you want to use your trim is to optimize the running angle of your boat.
This makes it both more efficient and can also improve the ride conditions if the weather's
gotten a little nasty out.
So we're going to show you the basics today, what it means to trim the boat up, what it
means to trim the boat down, how it affects the ride of the boat, and then we'll talk
a little bit about some advanced techniques for optimizing your efficiency.
The basics of boat trim: On your throttle you have a button that says up and down.
When you trim the engines up, you are moving the props away from the transom.
You're trimming the engines out, so you sometimes hear it called "trimming out."
What you're doing is pushing the stern down, which makes the bow rise.
You want to be able to lift the bow a little bit because most boats run most optimally
at a slightly up-bow angle.
What you've done is you've taken some of the surface area of the hull and it's no longer
in contact with the water so you've reduced the drag, you've improved your efficiency.
When you trim the boat engines in, you're going to be holding that bow down.
Now you might want to do that on a day when the winds come up.
There's some waves.
Some chop.
That brings more of the boat into contact with the water and helps your bow part those
waves more easily.
It will slow you down but that generally improves your ride in choppy conditions.
Now, on takeoff, you want those engines trimmed all the way in because you want to hold the
bow down as you climb out over the bow wave.
Once you're on top of the bow wave, however, you need to start trimming the boat engines
up because that improves your efficiency.
You can actually hear the engines change pitch and usually your RPMs come up on their own
because you've improved that efficiency, you've reduced that drag, and the engines are much
happier.
That's what this looks like here.
Here we go.
Alright, now I"m going to start trimming up.
The boat's going to climb over that hump and start to accelerate.
Once you're up on plane, you can find the most efficient running angle for your boat
by trimming up until your bow starts to bounce a little bit.
When you've trimmed up too far, your boat will start porpoising--it will start raising
and lowering.
You'll start to see that here in a second.
It will start pushing too hard and the bow starts to get this ribbing motion like it's
doing now.
So trim down until that motion stops.
I'm using little half second bursts of trim.
Trim down until that motion settles out.
And there it's just sort of settled out.
And generally that's going to be your most efficient running angle.
And you can check that on your gauges if you have a fuel efficiency gauge.
Right now I'm running 2.6, which is about as efficient as this boat gets with these
twin engines.
You can trim down a touch more for a little more stability.
Now, if you're headed into wind and waves, go ahead and trim that boat down and you'll
notice immediately the spray moves forward on the boat, the shape of the wake changes,
and that bow comes down, you're running flatter, you heard the pitch of the engines change.
My RPMs just dropped even though I didn't touch the throttle.
I've got this boat running as flat as it can right now.
It's doing it, but it's not happy about it.
As I trim up, you'll hear it.
There goes the spray further back.
The shape of the wake changes and the RPMs come up on their own.
Never touched the throttle, just the trim button.
So there you have it: The basics of boat trim.
Hope you learned something today.
For more videos, go to BoatUS.com/Expert-Advice.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]