1987 16' SportCraft center console

[bowhuntrrl]

I just became the proud owner of one of these today. The hardware is in a whole different ballpark than the hardware on the 205 FF that I sold last year. I ended up replacing every single piece of junk hardware on that boat , at great expense , I might add. The hardware on this including the front rail is all stainless and is original, at least that's what the owner claims.

Now for my question. The boat has a 1986 Suzuki DT-85 on it. The owner claims that it will only do about 22-25 mph. This seems really slow to me considering the size of boat and motor. It still has the original prop on it which is a 19 ptitch. My thought is that it is over propped. Anyone out there have one of these that would care to comment on the speeds they're getting and with what motor/prop combination ??? Thanks.

 

[rmillik]

Re: 1987 16' SportCraft center console

I have a 1991 Campion Explorer 165 (16.5" long) w/1991 75 HP Mercury OB. When purchased used, the boat would not reach rated RPMs or speed. The first thing I did was change the prop. If you have a tach on the boat check to see if it will run at maximum RPMs per the OB manufacturer's recommendation. My boat will run 40MPH (according to the speedo) and almost that fast according to my GPS. Don't know which is most accurate tho I suspect the GPS is over a long run. These boats are similar so you should get a similar speed. Are you checking speed by the boat speedo? I think the RPM check is your best bet to determine if it is correctly propped.