how fast does your outboard-powered boat run?

[QuietRider21]

I'm just curious to see what kind of mph's you guys are reaching with your outboard boats.. My first was a merc-force 90 which pushed my 18' bayliner 36 mph. my second a 115 v4 yamaha pushed my 20' wellcraft to only around 33mph..my current is a 150 omc on a 21 chris craft..i wasnt too impressed with my first two o/b's, but i picked up my current boat at a great price. I'm hoping to see some better performance and break the 45mph mark..obviously not all of your have your boats propped for top-end speed, but i'm just curious to hear what your running anyway

[Chris1956]

You will not hit 45MPH with a 150HP sterndrive in the boat pictured. I do not think you will hit 40MPH, with that rig.

My 21' Seaswirl with a 150HP Johnny OB struggles to hit 40MPH. My 18' SR I/O with a 205HPV6 hit 40 going downhill, with the wind.

Speed increases take almost exponential power increases.

[QuietRider21]

Chris how much does your boat weigh? My boat in the pic is actually an outboard not a a stern drive. The outboard is under a hatch.The Boat is relatively light for the size between 22-2400lbs. And the rear 3' of my hull tapers up appearantly for less drag and quicker planing. I'm hoping to see 40+

[Chris1956]

My 21' Seaswirl is listed at 2700#. Normally hulls are tapered down, right at the rear edge, a bit to help planing time.

With the configuration of your boat, can you trim the motor. You will need max trim to get the speed you want.

[bluka43]

I have a 17' Xpress Aluminum bass boat with a 1998, 90 HP Yamaha that will do (on a dead calm day) 47 MPH at WOT. Not that I want to go that fast, but it is what it is. I don't do WOT for any more than a couple of minutes before backing it down. I usually do about 36 at 3/4 throttle.

[jkust]

One of my boats is a 16 foot, 84 Bayliner Capri with an 85hp Force. The combined dry weight of hull and motor is 1000lbs. It will GPS into the low 40's but it doesn't have a tach. It'll embarass lots of newer 3.0 liter I/O's out of the hole then they catch up and walk away. (I realize that isn't much of a brag). The boat instantly gets on plane and up to top speed. The only reason it gets up that fast is because it is built feather light but you can't necessarily see the heft of a boat just by looking at it. We generally keep it propped for power however which takes a few clicks off.

[Fatwing Chris]

46 mph on GPS(Speedo was almost dead on surprisingly)CVX20 Sprint with a 150 Merc l6 soon to be 150 V6 unless I can trade the pair of them for a 200 hp.

[1979checkmate]

52 gps, 1979 checkmate Trimate II, 115 inline 6, only driver, 6 galons of fuel, no front or rear seats.

[dingbat]

40 mph GPS. Grady White 226 with hardtop, #5000, V6-200HP - 2-stroke

[Chris1956]

62MPH at 6200RPM for my 16' lowprofile speedboat with a Merc 135V6. With a 23" prop and some tuning it will likely hit the low 70s', however, I don't want to go that fast in that boat.

[RRitt]

about 8mph.
If I run into an oyster bed going much faster it might hurt the hull.

[metriccrescentwrench]

1979 Checkmate Eluder, 1990 Johnson 200. 62 mph at 6000 rpm. Based on information from other owners I should be able to get close to 70 with some more tweaking and a different prop.


1981 Bomber 15 ft fish-n-ski (fiberglass). 1981 Johnson 90. 43 mph at 5800 rpm.


(I wanna' hear from Faztbullet on this topic, I bet he's got some stories to tell)

[Home Cookin']

21' sea hunt CC deep v, bottom painted, Yam 150 2 stroke carbed. Hard to get 40. Trying lots of props lately but staying in basically the same range.

[QuietRider21]

how much do you think your bottom paint slows you down home cookin? my paint is half worn off. i personally HATE bottom paint. ruins the boats look & resale value and increases drag.
anyways i envy you guys running in the 50-60 mph's... makes me wanna go find a nice used 250 horse o/b

[1979checkmate]

you dont need more power, just less boat! i power to 50 with just a 115...on a 16' performance hull.

[Home Cookin']

It's hard to say. I bought the boat with a virgin bottom but only ran it once, and wasn't paying too close attention to the speed. It may be as much as 5 mph. But that's at the top end, which I don't care about; the boat goes 30 mph painted at the same speed as it did at 30 mph not painted.
Around here, bottom paint does not ruin the look or affect resale much, and might enhance it. But at that point, saying "boat" is like saying "car" which ranges from a Porsche two seater to a Chevrolet sedan. Both go 60 mph at the same speed. If speed is your purpose, you won't have a T top, either.

[LonLB]

Pretty wide open question.

A bunch of guys on scream and fly are using outboards to top 100mph.

[takirb]

1989 18' Venture Fish n Ski, 1977 Johnson 115HP outboard (rebuilt) and i hit 48mph with the motor bottomed out (had a leaking T/T reservoir). Now that it's fixed, i'm curious to see if i can hit the 50 mark, though i typically cruise around 40-43mph. I've only taken the boat out twice, so i haven't toyed with any different props nor do i like running WOT.

[pecheux]

My old 20 footer central console Cadormat would hit 56 Mph pushed by a 6 inline 115 hp Mercury with 21" prop (with multiple passengers)
My present 14 footer fiber with do 31 Kph (kilometers) pushed by a 15 hp Force (with just me in it) LOL

[QuietRider21]

a 115 on a 20' cc @56mph is FAST. was that by speedo or gps? my 115 yamaha only pushed my 20' bowrider to mid 30's

[pecheux]

Speedo but backed up by other faster boaters. Explanation is the fiberglass Cadormat R200 was a very light boat for it's size 20X8X42

[metriccrescentwrench]

Pretty wide open question.

A bunch of guys on scream and fly are using outboards to top 100mph.

I did a little searching and it looks like the speed record for a single outboard engine is 176.5 mph set by Bob Wartinger in 1989 running a modified Evinrude (I like mentioning that fact to Mercury fanatics!). I haven't seen where that's been broken yet.

I think I'll be satisfied when I get my Checkmate up to 70, that's plenty fast enough.

[QuietRider21]

176 mph is INSANE..how would he even keep that boat on the water..its must of been a light hull if only a single outboard. and i agree 70 mph is plenty fast. i'd be a happy person if i had a 60mph boat. out of reach with my ChrisCraft

[gbrowne9]

i have a 1973 18 foot crestliner muskie and have had 3 different engines on it. a 1975 merc i6 150 that went 47mph,a 1992 suzuki 150 that went 64 mph and a 1988 merc i4 115 that goes 43 mph. the 115 uses about half the fuel of the 1992 150.

[bonz_d]

Boat in my signature. By myself on choppy water, scarry fast, 2 people just right.