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My reason behind the middle pontoon being lower to simulate the hull design of a traditional boat. I looked at some of the big pontoons being made, as in, the $70,000 ones, and saw they were doing this, so I said "all right I’m not totally insane." It follows the same port/starboard to keel taper as a normal hull.
When I gun the boat, it does in fact get up on plane (you feel it rise up), but the center tube ‘splays’ the water laterally, the outer tubes cup it, and then it deflects back toward the middle tube around the last 1/4 of the boat. I added underlayment because this was effectively causing a straight shot of water at the engine (plus deflectors at the back). Without the deflectors, it was a like a fire hose of water being shot into the boat from the rear.
The motor sits with the ventilation plate at the same height as the bottom of the center tube, copying the design of a traditional hull. At WOT and on plane, it behaves the same. However if I trim it, due to the amount of turbulence, ventilation/slippage starts to become an issue. The boat handles fine in moderate chop (say, 2-3 foot waves), and bounces similar to a regular boat.
Granted, 99% of my experience as a boater is with a 14′ starcraft aluminum tiller, so I’m still cutting my teeth with other style hulls.
My goal is/was 20-23MPH, I’m not far from that right now (19mph), and I don’t think the 50hp has the right prop on it yet because again, it’s working hard to hit 4900-5000 RPM. I think 5500 would give me that little extra I’m looking for.