13.5x 17 steel ballistic on a 17' sea ray 100hp

[krisnowicki]

I have a 13.5 17 ballistic prop with power trim and all I am out in the river with a full tank and two people the boat planes up nice but i get to 33 or 34crusing and 37 max(gps) wot at about 5200-5400rpm max with a 100 hp Merc out board. What can I do to improve my top speed.... any advice would be helpful

 

[walleyehed]

Re: 13.5x 17 steel ballistic on a 17' sea ray 100hp

As much as I hate to admit, The ballistic has a history of being a fairly fast prop but has some other short-comings that render it unusable to me.
With the hull you're running, an engine raise (X-demension) will help, but you may be limited by the water pick-ups on just how far you could lift the engine. I'm fairly certain you could raise it so the AV plate is 2-3" above the boat bottom, but the Ballistic won't hook up at that height.
I honestly think a Turbo1 in the same pitch would allow the raise. The ballistic makes an excellent center-piece on the kitchen table.

 

[krisnowicki]

Re: 13.5x 17 steel ballistic on a 17' sea ray 100hp

whats about a hydrofoil would that help to i dont have one right now

 

[walleyehed]

Re: 13.5x 17 steel ballistic on a 17' sea ray 100hp

In my opinion, the hydrofoil is yet another tool that may fix one problem, yet create another. They do help with hole-shot but rob speed on top-end...the best I've found for increasing hole-shot with no top-end loss is smart-tabs...still another tool, but a better choice because I have found no reduction in performance at all.

 

[krisnowicki]

Re: 13.5x 17 steel ballistic on a 17' sea ray 100hp

So i took it back out today and i noticed something when my boat is at wot the AV plate right above the prop is partially out of the water.... is this normal... This is with the motor trimmed all the way down. Maybe this is why I am not getting alot of speed? any help would be aprreciated

 

[walleyehed]

Re: 13.5x 17 steel ballistic on a 17' sea ray 100hp

It should be out of the water for best performance...it should also be trimmed-out for max speed.