Lifting Strakes on a Californian 43' ACMY

Hi all,
An off the wall question.
Our 1984 43' Californian ACMY has what appear to be lifting strakes. Was this an add on feature, or were they standard items? Does anyone know if they were very effective? Any thoughts on the effectiveness of her trim tabs? The hull looks like it should plane easily, but...
We're re-powering right now, having bought the boat as a restoration project. We know the boat was pretty fast when it was new, but the strakes kind of surprised us.
Or were they actually functioning as spray rails, shaping the bow wave for a dry ride?
We've had her underway on 1 engine only to move her up to our slip to start the project, so not much operating experience with this hull.
Thanks for any light that can be shed on this terrific boat design, and their associated quirks.
She originally had two 7.4L Crusaders, we're replacing those with 6.8L MerCruiser 383 Stroker MAGs; FF&F replacements. Married up to the original 1.99:1 Velvet drives, she might perform like she did as a youngster. We'll see. The Onan 6.5 Genset got a refurb, and runs great.
Best to all,

Rick
M/V Carrick
Californian 43' ACMY

Is this a 38’ with a cockpit? If so, we almost bought one. Nice boat. Didn’t know they were built with gassers. Good luck, don’t know about the strakes. We have trim tabs on our 41. Don’t really even use them except occasionally to trim side to side.

Rick, the boat is probably too heavy and slow to benefit from “lift strakes”.

Strakes are depebdant on angle of attack. AOA
No AOA and no lift at all. Just added drag.
Some AOA and there’s hoping enough lift to overcome the drag.
High AOA and they are quite effective. Especially on a light boat.

Trawlers don’t usually benefit from lifting strakes.

Well the boat in question isn’t a trawler. Most of our boats aren’t, mine isn’t but I call it a trawler. I suspect his boat is similar to mine. My boat wil do 17 knots so the strakes do play an effect if I go fast enough, I just never go that fast.

Comodave,
Yup .. not very effective.
Gotta go WOT to get them to work.

I don’t think I have to go to WOT for them to have an effect. I could cruise at 12 to 13 knots and they would have an effect. I just don’t want to spend that much in fuel but some people do.

Lots of commercial guys add stabilizing fins on each side to cut down on roll, I watched a glass man put a pair on his stern picker. They might look like lifting strakes, but their objective was to reduce roll when stationary or at low speeds. Plywood, covered with glass, ugly going on but they looked like part of the boat when finished. Also watched a gentleman put a pair on his 32' Bayliner, but never got the chance to see if he was happy with the end result. He hadn't taken it out without them, new (to him) boat, on the advice of others... So no relative comparison could be made.

Pictures?

AKDoug said:

Lots of commercial guys add stabilizing fins on each side to cut down on roll, I watched a glass man put a pair on his stern picker. They might look like lifting strakes, but their objective was to reduce roll when stationary or at low speeds. Plywood, covered with glass, ugly going on but they looked like part of the boat when finished. Also watched a gentleman put a pair on his 32' Bayliner, but never got the chance to see if he was happy with the end result. He hadn't taken it out without them, new (to him) boat, on the advice of others... So no relative comparison could be made.

Pictures?

Click to expand...

There are threads here on bilge keels or rolling chocks which is what I think you are referring to.

That sounds right, I thought perhaps they were being confused with lifting strakes... They were mounted in an area that might look like they were intended to reduce spray.