Wedge? Is the cocktail racer transom near vertical? Outboards seem to like a 15 degree transom, but check with cocktail racers because they may be running "kick under" engine tilt to keep the nose down.

The original 1939 Skua (from which the CCRs were derived) had a small transom angle that fit 1939 outboards.  Most newer outboards are designed for a much different transom angle of about 15 degrees.  The CCRs are built to the 1939 transom angle, then use a wedge shaped block between the top of an outboard's mounting bracket and the aft face of the transom to allow use of current outboards.  For CCRs, a change of one degree of wedge angle can have a significant impact on performance.  Since not all CCR builders will have their transom angles at the same exact angle, and since all recent outboards are not built to the same perfect transom-angle-bracket specification, and since each CCR and driver weight combination is not the same, the wedge for each CCR is most likely to be different from many others.  Cutting and trimming a wedge is part of the tuning a competitive CCR driver needs to do as part of their race prep, like tuning and maintaining their outboard.

A typical (ballpark) wedge might be 8 1/4" wide and 6 1/4" tall.  (This extra width allows bolting newer engines to transoms.  Check your mounting bracket for overall wedge size.)  Top of wedge about 1 1/2" thick, bottom of wedge about 5/16" thick.  Your starting goal is to get your anti-ventilation plate (just above the prop) parallel with the aft bottom of the hull at the keel.  Tune from there after testing your rig.  If at speed your hull is riding nose down, with the driver kneeling in the cockpit, trim wedge to move prop further away from your hull (test by putting tongue depressors or something between bottom of wedge and bottom of motor-mount bracket).  If you are constantly propoising, tuck your lower unit closer to your hull.

Always, always, always tighten your clamps before running your boat.  It is your fault if the outboard falls off in the middle of a test run because "someone" didn't check the clamps after adjusting something.  (I personally love the added security of bolts!  Even though they are a pain at times.)

Also remember to put small wedges under the actual clamp faces at the front of the transom.  By adding the large engine wedge you change the angle between the back side of the metal motor mount and the front face of the transom.  Not putting similar small wedges under the round clamps at the front of the engine might stress those clamps to failure.  They are expensive to replace, assuming you don't need to replace the whole outboard because it fell off when the clamps cracked.

There isn't much room in older OMCs' clamp spaces after you put a 1 1/2" wedge on the back of a 3/4"-thick transom.  You might need a thinner wedge or have to rasp out a part of the top-inner section of transom to slide your outboard on.  I don't recommend the latter because it weakens the transom.  Others have done it; some transoms have cracked.  It's your boat.  I would thin the wedge first.

Thanks for the info. I should have known that the correct answer is more complicated than what I was hoping for. This gives me a good place to start. Thanks again.

Yeah, I agree, though a detailed reply but the correct answer seems to be more viable than several short ones. Even corrected some queries of mine in it.

Moderator,

Can you please delete this spammer's comments and userid from this forum.

Thank you