New guy questions?
 

I am an experienced boater; however, all my experience was in an I/O. I just took my new to me 2006 MB B-52 out and have a few questions.

#1. The boat pulls to the right...after looking at the rudder...everything looks ok (as far as I can tell). The rudder looks offset to the left of the prop center.

Is this normal and is there a way to "trim" the rudder so the boat drives strait without turning the wheel?

#2. Perfect Pass Wakeboard Pro (original I think). I set it at 21 and on takeoff it goes to around mid-20s then back to mid-teens then back up to mid-20s before settling out.

Is there a way to keep this form happening (without getting stargazer)?

Thank you!

I think problem no. 1 is a problem. Bent shaft? Nautiques have a feature where you can tune the rudder.

But I would otherwise think problem no. 2 is minor. There are a bunch of settings you can change on Perfect Pass. I have seen them. I've never personally changed them.

All ski boats, v-drive or direct drive are suppose to pull to one side. This is to aid in driving a straighter line. There may be an adjustment tab on you rudder, possibly composite on the end or part of the rudder in the center, that you can adjust to help aid in straighten it up. As for the perfect pass, that may just be how it operates, or it could be a faulty servo motor. I would suggest making sure the tension on the cable running to the servo motor is tight before taking off to try and track down the problem. We had similar issues with our old perfect pass on a 2001 super air. We replaced the servo and bingo! GPS perfect pass is always a good option though! Have it now and it works wonders! Hope some of that helped!

Your setting are just off for the weight your running on your perfectpass. I'll try to find a thread where they talk about changing them.

Pulling to the right can be based on environment i.e. If the boat is off ballance and listing to the right, it may pull t the right. Also if there is chop or water current, that will affect it as well unless you have hydraulic steering.

The offset rudder is normal. some manufacturers build them that way to allow you to remove the shaft without taking the rudder off..
Some boats have adjustment plates on the rudders but MB's do not.
As for the steering I'm pretty sure if you had a bent shaft you would feel abnormal vibrations. How hard is it pulling? Is there just pressure against the steering wheel or are you literally turning to the right? Is it the same at low and high speed? I am guessing you are just feeling the effects of prop torque which is normal.

My comment on the Perfect Pass would be to check the paddle wheel under the boat and make sure nothing is restricting it or that it spins freely and true.
Also, my experience has been that the Perfect pass maintains speed much better in RPM mode rather than speed.

As far as perfect pass goes that is the issue I was having when I used perfect pass the first few times until a friend told me when accelerating, once you get close to desired speed let off a little bit so you dont just speed past. It might not be the issue you are having but I used to give it gas and when it reached speed I wanted then I would let off a bit causing it to go way high, then way down before finally leveling out. If that is not the issue the setting in PP when adjust correctly should fix the problem as it did when I got my first boat with PP last summer.

OK, not bent shaft, but maybe bent strut or rudder. If I let the wheel go on my boat, it seeks straight forward by itself. There's no perceptible deviation from straight ahead.

Thank you all for the help...My first day with an inboard boat was a learning experiance!!!! The boat rides smooth so I accept the "drift" to the right with no pressure on the wheel as normal. As for PP I will download the manual and go play with the settings.

Thank you again!