Weed hatch anti cavitation/baffle plate

[ditchcrawler]

On open water at full speed,the vibration of the cavitation plate was frightening .Bottom plate(5mm) replaced with a 10mm plate,no more problems.Weed hatch now needs arms like Popeye but quiet at speed(6 knots according to G.P.S.)

We had that on a GT hulled shared ownership boat we had. Just a single pipe support between the top plate and the bottom. It would resonate at cruising reves causing the bottom plate to chatter on the side of the box. A second brace between the two plates stopped it.

[bizzard]

I've had three boats where the top plate is 6mm or less without web bracing to the baffle plate. All had a centre screw-down for the side clamps. Have always used thick rubber and have never had a leak yet? Fingers crossed!

 

I should add that the top flange of the box is around 1.5" wide.

It may look very nice but its not puckka, for the want of a couple of cross braces, just a couple strips of 1/8'' plate welded on it would have been enough to keep it flat and not add much weight. A length of angle iron laid across it for the screw to screw down onto would do but those handles are probably in the way.

[Markinaboat]

It may look very nice but its not puckka, for the want of a couple of cross braces, just a couple strips of 1/8'' plate welded on it would have been enough to keep it flat and not add much weight. A length of angle iron laid across it for the screw to screw down onto would do but those handles are probably in the way.

The angle iron could act as a handle as well I guess.

[MaryP]

Purely anecdotal, but we had a cavitation plate on our Springer. A couple of close friends didn't. We had significantly less problems with junk getting caught around the prop over the same sections of the cut. In fact, we went a good 3 years without getting anything caught that needed us to go down the hatch.

I have one on my Springer, and have only been down the hatch rarely in 10 years, and then for big stuff like yards of polythene (Hatton), a mattress (Somerton Deep Lock) and a dead plant net 10 or so feet long (Leicester). That was a difficult one to remove, but my daughter did it by herself! She's a lot taller than me. I couldn't have done it!

We create very little wash too - maybe related?

[DHutch]

In fairness theres not a lot to our hatch cover.

 

It has some short bits of small angle that locate the top plate, but in practice the baffle plate provides more location and hence they are really only duplication. I think ours is 6mm plate but it might even be 4mm.

 

 

Daniel