What is a Tapered Chine?
A tapered chine means that where the side "meets" the bottom there is a slight angle there instead of a pure square corner. (see above picture). This is, basically, a shortcut to get a rounded chine hull. It is not nearly as effective as a rounded chine in the way of handling, cornering, and shallow water performance, but it is easier to build. Basically, the sheet comes already bent and takes the guess work out of bringing the hull together.

It is common knowledge that a square chine hull (no taper and not rounded; ie a typical Jon boat) is terrible for shallow water performance. (see Information page). There are several reasons why, but one of them is that a square chine hull will slide like a puck on ice in very shallow water. It starts to hydroplane when you get into 6" of water or less and you WILL lose control of the hull in sharp turns. If you are on a mud flat, you can forget steering the hull at high speeds.

The best solution for this problem is the rounded chine. It corners on a dime in ANY situation, deep, shallow, and in pure mud. You can not make them slide. An alternative to the rounded chine is the tapered chine. It is halfway between the square chine and the round chine. The taper is there for NO OTHER REASON but to try and help you turn better. Does it work? Not really. It is better than a square chine, but in very shallow water (6" or less) you will have little or no control of your turns at high speeds.

You may ask why one would want a tapered chine hull? Well, marketing, misconceptions, and exaggerated claims play a large part. However, there are certain situations where the tapered chine may have an advantage or two. The tapered chine will draft SLIGHTLY less water than the rounded chine. We are talking less than 1". If you run in areas that are shallow, but not VERY shallow (12" or so) the tapered chines sliding problem may not affect you as bad. Consequently, you could draft a little less water and get another 1 mph out of your hull. Please note that getting 2-3 mph out of the tapered chine over the rounded chine is one of the exaggerated claims mentioned above. It WILL NOT give you that much!

This being said, if you run in areas that do not have true mud flats that are exposed, have at least 12" of water over the bottom or more, and hanging up on stumps and rocks is not an issue, you can use the tapered chine with little, if any, problems. For those of you that fall in this category, we have a line of boats just for you!

Click Here for Tapered Chine Hulls