Trim

The running angle of the boat and engine to the water, adjusted underway.

Trim is set two ways: where the weight sits, and the tilt of the outboard. Trim in, engine tucked, for the launch out of the hole; then trim out in stages until the bow settles level, the wake flattens and the wheel goes light. Too far out and the boat porpoises; back in a touch cures it.

Trimmed right, the same boat is faster, drier and burns less fuel. Trimmed wrong, it plows a wake that is your legal responsibility all the way to the dock it slaps.

Trim is the running angle. Nose down plows and throws spray; trimmed out to level, the hull rides on top and the wake flattens.

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Put the words to work

Vocabulary is easier at the helm.

The free South Carolina boater safety course teaches all of this in twelve chapters with a sixty question practice exam, and when you are ready for the water itself, one form gets you rental quotes from local operators.

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