bds1078
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2011
- Messages
- 10
Hi,
Years of boating, but am new to pontoons. I'm learning the quirks of a displacement hull. Found a 1991 18' Fiesta pontoon in good shape with smaller 19-20" toons, overpowered it with a good running 1978 Mercury 90hp. No tach on boat, boat runs pretty good with light load, but with heavy load lugs (as expected) with the bass boat 19 pitch prop that came with motor. I am on the hunt for a 15 pitch to try it out, unless someone thinks that lower would be better?
Also, at medium to high thrust water goes everywhere around the 90hp, and motor seems to be pretty deep in the water, although it sits on it's factory transom. Cavitation plate sits about 3.5" below bottom of tunnel/transom. Would raising motor 2-3" make much difference, or would that be flirting with too shallow under thrust? I realize that the hull was not engineered to be a ski boat, and the 90 is oversized at high thrust, but the water pounding the underside of the floor and flying all over the lower powerhead is a bit puzzling. Boat rides level, and tilt angle doesn't seem to affect the splashing at all. Thanks, Brad
Years of boating, but am new to pontoons. I'm learning the quirks of a displacement hull. Found a 1991 18' Fiesta pontoon in good shape with smaller 19-20" toons, overpowered it with a good running 1978 Mercury 90hp. No tach on boat, boat runs pretty good with light load, but with heavy load lugs (as expected) with the bass boat 19 pitch prop that came with motor. I am on the hunt for a 15 pitch to try it out, unless someone thinks that lower would be better?
Also, at medium to high thrust water goes everywhere around the 90hp, and motor seems to be pretty deep in the water, although it sits on it's factory transom. Cavitation plate sits about 3.5" below bottom of tunnel/transom. Would raising motor 2-3" make much difference, or would that be flirting with too shallow under thrust? I realize that the hull was not engineered to be a ski boat, and the 90 is oversized at high thrust, but the water pounding the underside of the floor and flying all over the lower powerhead is a bit puzzling. Boat rides level, and tilt angle doesn't seem to affect the splashing at all. Thanks, Brad
