265 owners, running advice

[oviv]

I am the proud new owner a of a 2001 265 Express. She has twin 200 HPDIs. Took her out yesterday for the first time. Experienced what I have read about with bow steering. It seems the best results were with no tabs applied. I still found myself doing a good amount of steering correction back and forth while running. It was a good 2-4 offshore yesterday. Some advice would be appreciated before going back out.

Ovi

 

[Dieler]

Congrats on the ride, have same setup. Simply takes a bit of time at the helm to sort out trim at various speeds. Once you get a feel for it the boat handles great. I find that the boat likes a bit more speed than some others in chop or a bit of swell - likley what you felt yesterday. At slower speeds it will get pushed around a bit more than you expect. Use the tabs for compensating uneven weight on boat, hard wind from one side or general sea conditions when things get a bit sloppy - other than that haven't had to touch them on most days. Keep in mind small adjustments in the trim will make quite a bit of difference on this boat. Interesting to watch the fuel consumption change with trim changes

 

[oviv]

Congrats on the ride, have same setup. Simply takes a bit of time at the helm to sort out trim at various speeds. Once you get a feel for it the boat handles great. I find that the boat likes a bit more speed than some others in chop or a bit of swell - likley what you felt yesterday. At slower speeds it will get pushed around a bit more than you expect. Use the tabs for compensating uneven weight on boat, hard wind from one side or general sea conditions when things get a bit sloppy - other than that haven't had to touch them on most days. Keep in mind small adjustments in the trim will make quite a bit of difference on this boat. Interesting to watch the fuel consumption change with trim changes

Thanks Dieler. Appreciate the feedback. When you say "Keep in mind small adjustments in the trim will make quite a bit of difference on this boat", are you referring to engine trim or tab trim? I know for sure tab trim does just wondering if it reacts to engine trim the same way.

Ovi

 

[Dieler]

Was referring to trim on the motors (not the tabs). Not enough trim at plane will bow steer and too much will porpoise the bow, find the sweet spot at your preferred cruising speed and then you have a reference for how it should handle when all is at a nice equilibrium.

 

[eppem]

Best dang boat GW ever built (ok I own one). Lots of dedicated 265 owners on this site. You will hear from most of us eventually - do a search on the boat on this site, lots of info.

Pull trim tabs all the way up. Engine tilt all the way down. Hit the throttles and get to your cruising speed. Then adjust the engine tilt and watch the fuel gph drop - like the last poster said, find the sweat spot. You only need the hull trim tabs for adjustments of weight or any side to side tilt from current or wind. Its a very lite tap on the tab control. Don't press and hold, tap and ajust. It very sensative and reacts quickly...

Good luck!

 

[slapshot1848]

I keep trim tabs tucked all the way in unless weight distribution requires it. The engine trim I start out all the way down them when on plane I stop once the gauges read two bars. I have twin ox 225's so it may change w/ different horsepower or engine types. Once you find the sweet spot you will know it as the boat seems to level itself right out and track as you would expect her to.

Cheers
-Slapshot

 

[mronzo]

I am the proud new owner a of a 2001 265 Express. She has twin 200 HPDIs. Took her out yesterday for the first time. Experienced what I have read about with bow steering. It seems the best results were with no tabs applied. I still found myself doing a good amount of steering correction back and forth while running. It was a good 2-4 offshore yesterday. Some advice would be appreciated before going back out.

Ovi

The 265 is a Captain's boat. I set a course,then slowly add speed, trim engines up, and trim tab according to conditions. If you do this and run on course you get best performance and speed in consistent conditions w/o pounding. Of course, the stray bigger one will make you splash at speed but you ARE running an
express fisherman!

 

[4Grady]

I've spent the last few weeks running a new to me 265 and pretty much all the responses so far are spot on.

They need a certain amount of motor trim to get that bow up out of the water or it bow steers quite a bit.

The 265 Express, IMO, is not for the weak at heart operator. You need to get/be somewhat aggressive with the way you run these 265's or they walk you all over the water. I was told in the beginning the 265 got better the harder you ran it. Now, after learning its quirks, I completely agree. Almost all of our days out on the water these past few weeks have been anywhere from 2-5ft swells, often as close as 5 seconds apart with confused seas and usually fast sometimes very fast current/s.

The first day or so running this 265 I pretty much hated it but then I started experimenting with different motor trim settings and when I started doing that my opinion took a 180. I ran anywhere from 23-33kts and most of the time 28kts, in the conditions I was running in, was my sweet spot. A few times just messing around when I only had a 2-3ft, spaced 8-10sec apart I ran it up to 35kts, and I was VERY impressed with how well it handled but at those speeds my fuel consumption with the twin 250's wasn't nearly as impressive.

Best advice I could give a new 265 owner is play with your motor trim and throttle settings, ALOT!! The more time you spend out on the water trying different settings the faster you will learn what works for you and where you like your settings for your conditions. There is no substitute for time out on the water.

 

[Dieler]

Thought I would share a "by the way"...Did quite a bit of near shore and slightly offshore last several days. Had one day in particular where the forecast was a bit off and the afternoon turned very windy, had major chop and tight period 3+ footers. Ran around through it and was amazed at how well the hull performed. Usually avoid days like that (over 15 knot blow, with wind against tide) as my one daughter can't get enough fishing in :> Anyway, the harder I pushed the boat the better it ran, and outpaced a few buddy boats with me. Daughter said it was better than a roller coaster. All in all, did not get the pounding in head sea and following sea the boat swallowed easily. Great boat and moral is I continually find the ride better, in rougher conditions, than one would expect.