In the 80s spent a lot of time in a 16 foot skeeter with 175 on it. It was rated 125 I think you mentioned chine walk that boat slid sideways a lot but I bet quit often the actual boat wasn’t even in the water. We used to joke after taking flight for a ways You know like three or four seconds which is quite a ways at 70 and you know when your hull has become an Airplane wing that maybe only half of the prop was even in the water. If you have read many of my posts you’ll realize I used a few of my nine lives way to early.
when pulling a skier that wasn’t ok or good getting up someone had to be on the bow unless the driver could control the throttle well, you couldn’t just shower down on it. That boat easily ran 70 mph plus when you got it trimmed right and weighted right. If you wanted to you could almost stand that boat up on the transom from a dead stop take off I know more than a few bikini wearing women fell off the bow into my lap on accident, boat was really hard to
control
I blame weight Old outboards were not light and hard to match throttle responses. Put 300 pounds up front and see what happens.