Re: Pontoon Speed Help
SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boy--what a weekend! We headed up this past Friday to the lake--me in the lead to get things ready and the rest of the crew due about an hour later. My goal was to get things prepared quickly and get the boat on the water to test the hydrofoil and clean 'toons, and then add the prop for further tests. Well, that didn't happen. I got the place, and before I even got the boat in the water the first crew arrived. I decided to go ahead and put the prop on while waiting for the rest of the company to arrive, and boy--that went over like a bag of bricks with my wife. "You're wasting time!", and "What if you do something wrong/break something and all of these people arrive with no boat to ride??" and so-on. Tsk, tsk, tsk. But I was undaunted! With the help of my brother-in-law, we changed out the prop (first for both of us) in about 5 mins. I was actually worreid that we'd done something wrong because it was so easy. Anyway, it worked flawlessly.
So, here was the load on Friday: Me (about 205 pounds), my brother-in-law (an easy 230), my wife (skipping this one just in case...LOL!), her sister (maybe 140), her two daughters (say 90 pounds each--they're 10 and 12), my two kids (45 and 55), my wife's friend and her daughter (another 140 and maybe 60). We also brought two towables, two large coolers filled to the brim with drinks and ice, another one with food, and a few misc items--say another 100 pounds. So--that's 1255 pounds. Let's just say, for argument's sake, that my wife adds another 100, bringing the total to 1355 pounds. We hit the water, and boy--it was a veeery turbulent day. In case anyone on here was on Lake James (Marion, NC) that day, I'm sure they'll attest to it. Despite this fact, the trusty old GPS shocked me when we hit the open water and I went WOT (now at 5100-5200 RPM)--16 MPH!!!! A solid 16. It hit 16 and stayed there until I throttled down. We went to a cove, swam a bit and dropped in one of the towables. We tossed my daughter and one of the bigger kids on it, and I went WOT again. It solidly hit 15, and even jumped to 16 mph here-and-there, but would drop down to 12 mph in a hard turn.
Now--16 mph certainly isn't going to fill your teeth with bugs, but think about this (it's what was going through my mind until today!)... my previous top speed (GPS, of course) was 16-17 mph unloaded. If this thing was hitting 16 with an extra 1200 pounds, what would it do with just me? Better yet, I don't know if it's the result of the prop for the hydrofoil (my guess is the latter since it come out way over the prop thus keeps more water above the propeller where the exhaust exits), this thing is much, much quieter at WOT. Before, once I went past 4100-4200 RPM, it went from a deep, throaty sound to a weed-eater whining sound. If this had been the only improvement, I'd have been happy. Also, the same thing occurs in tight turns. The exhaust sounds deep, muffled and throaty, whereas before it really went to a screeching high-pitched sound--even at 2500-3000 rpms.
I don't even want to talk about Saturday and Sunday. I came down with a stomach bug and was completely beached. Ugh.
So--today popped up, and although I was feeling a bit under the weather, I just had to hit the lake. I went out on the water about 11:00, trying to beat a storm that seemed to be approaching. The waters were pretty calm as was the wind, with maybe 6-inch ripples all over the surface. I loaded up my son (4 years old) and me, and puttered out to an open waterway about a mile long. After telling him to sit down, I laid down on the throttle. It hit 16 mph by the time I was near 4000 rpm, and I just knew I had to hit 20. A few seconds later "20" popped up on the GPS, and a second or two after that, ****21****!!!!! I kept the throttle wide open, and it sat on 21 the whole time. Nearing the end of my run, I throttled down, made a hard left, waited for a jet ski to zoom by, and hit it again. I wanted to make sure it wasn't "wind assisted" (I really couldn't tell which direction the wind was coming, although it was a steady breeze). Once again, it jumped right up to 21 and stayed pegged there until I cut back on the throttle. I was ecstatic. I was grinning and slinging "Oh yeahs!" so fervently that my son joined in. After getting back, I informed my wife of my success, undoubtedly akin to breaking a land speed record, but she just didn't seem to understand. I did get an eye roll--at least that's something!
I had promised pics of my GPS, and I'll try to get some on Wednesday when we head back to the lake. Until then, I'll be grinning like a little kid!
