Need advice on shedding weight on a checkmate

[Jwsav]

I am looking for a little advice from you guys on a project boat I'm working on. It is a 91-92 checkmate 21' Pulse. The newer generation of pulses (the pulsares?) weigh about 12-1300 lbs. this pulse that I am working on weighs around 1,750!!! I have no idea why checkmate made a 1700 lb speed boat but this rig is a pig. The newer hulls will easily run in the 90's with a Merc 300. Basically any of the Merc 300's. The original brochure on this pulse says 70+ with 245 hp. Because of the time that it was built I am guessing they got these numbers with a Bridgeport 240hp race motor. This boat will barely run 51 mph with a stock 200 so I don't see how they got 70+ with a Bridgeport or even a 2.5 EFI 260. I know everything there is to know about mercurys whether they are race motors or production. This boat may barely be able to hit 70 with a strong 260 but it comes down to one thing. The 1750 lbs is the problem. Given the fact that most older checkmate 21' boats lingered around 1200-1300 lbs and the newer ones as well I can only think that this boat just has a lot more glasses and resin. I did see a couple of posts somewhere about this model being built sturdier for rough water. It appears that it only stayed this heavy a year or two and then the 93-up pulse models were back down to 12-1300 before they changed to the pulsare. My question is mainly this. What can I do to shed some serious weight on this rig? There has to be a way to get At least a few hundred pounds out of this thing but how?
Someone replaced the floor already and it isn't full of wet foam etc. does anyone here know a way to lighten this thing up? I was curious about maybe grinding some glass out of the hull from the inside. I wish I knew where most of this extra weight was. Any advice will greatly be appreciated!

Thanks, John

 

[Scott Danforth]

If your dry weight should be 1300 and you are 1750, I would assume your floatation foam is waterlogged

 

[ondarvr]

I never visited Checkmate to know which glass they use in the hull, but in 91 most of the industry still used used 24 oz roving and 1.5 oz mat, it made a good and strong laminate, but rather heavy compared to other fabrics.

If it's built heavy, theres not much you could do except grind out some glass, which would be difficult to do, but possible. You would need to drill a few holes in the hull and see just how thick it is, decide how thick you want it to be, then start grinding. A hole saw works well for this because you can count the layers of glass in the core sample just like rings in a tree. Each layer of glass is typically easy to see when grinding, so you need to determine how many layers need to be removed and then invest in a very good grinder and a few cases of grinding discs.

There were companies that made hulls targeted for certain goals, the same hull mold would be used and the laminate schedule was changed from thin and light, to thicker and stronger to achieve the desired outcome.

 

[jbcurt00]

Iboats specs list both the 1991-2 210BR and 211 as being 1825lbs dry w/ out gear (so no OB is included in that weight) and the later 1993-5 21ft Pulses were 1700lbs+/- 3%.

There were both Pulses and Pulseares offered in 1995. The Pulse matches the specs for your's and the Pulseares were lighter hulls. Since the Pulses are identified as fiberglass Checkmate hulls and the Pulseares are Sport runabouts, I suspect they were targeting either a different user, intended use, or different bodies of water, as Ondarvr noted above.

BTW: neither model is rated for a 300. 245-250hp max rating.

Good luck and boat safely