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JSLAW.
Was launching earlier this week at Beeswax on Lay Lake. Guy pulled up with a potential buyer to take him on a test ride on a 6-month old Triton. Prospective buyer started talking to me at the ramp and eventually asked me “do you feel unhappy with your choice of boat/motor?” Told him “not at all”. He asked “Dont you mind getting passed by all the 250-powered boats on the water today? That seems to be the most common power size on bass boats.” Told him “nope”. He followed up with “why?” I replied “because it hardly ever happens.” He didnt believe it, and the seller was getting a bit uncomfortable with the discussion. The prospective buyer asked me “where are the two of you headed?” Told him “well up the river past the 280 overpass”. He said “we are going up around Yellowleaf, you interested in running us up there to see if you can keep up?” Now the seller was REALLY trying to get in on the act and was suggesting they ought to go down river. In any case, told him Id be happy to follow him out to the main channel and see if I could keep up. They left with the seller driving, and he REALLY pushed things leaving the creek to get a head start, running WAY too fast to be safe since there is a very tight S turn leaving. We took our time and by the time we hit the river they were 400-500 yards ahead. Punched it and we started to close the gap. We caught them before we reached Bullocks Islands, which is maybe 6 miles up river. When we went by, we seemed to be about 4-5 mph faster, running between 72-73 the entire way (against a 1mph current and maybe 10-15 mph wind). 400 pounds of passengers (me, son and dog), full gas tank, empty live wells, normal tackleBTW, this was a tr-20 with a pro xs 250. We did politely wave as we went by. Did not see them when we returned, but it was after dark. The thing had some sort of “patriot” label on it, whatever that means. Maybe extra weight?Personally, Ive been quite happy with my 19 boat, 200 hp motor, and excellent fuel economy. And it will go when we want it to go, of course. 🙂
Love your stories Old Timer!
It is indeed a lot of fun to have a boat that is faster than average . — I too have a Classic that will ” fly ” …. The downside of it O/T , is when you blow up the outboard you have , which WILL happen , youll be lucky to find another one like it , as you have gotten ” THAT MOTOR ” , that all wish they had gotten . — It just runs harder , for whatever reason …… I , on the other hand , had to modify my Yamaha to get what I wanted out of it , but have not been disappointed . — The end result is still the same though . — If I dont want to get passed , whoever is trying to is going to have to work at it real hard . — Hoss
I am not so convinced that this is an unusual motor. Ive driven my share of classics over the years (thats the main reason I specifically was looking only at classics when I bought this one). The ones that I drove, pretty much ran like this one. All didnt have the same prop (26p fury 3 blade) and had not had the backplate tweaked. But pretty much every one I have tried would easily break into the lower 70s, and at least a couple ran into the mid-70s like mine. Part of it is certainly driving, as my son has yet to get within 3mph of the speed we see when I am driving. Takes a little while to get use to the tiny steering inputs required. Too much and it bleeds off speed. But if you dont react quickly enough, tiny inputs are not enough.Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the lone ranger, disguised as a pool table, got his balls racked. 🙂 Its not the numbers on the cowl that matters near as much as it is the name on the back of the boat.
I get the same look when I passed a Ranger with a 225 Merc. He later caught up and commented how “He was doing 62 mph when I passed him, and kept pulling away!”Gotta Love a BCB.
oldtimer57 wrote:I am not so convinced that this is an unusual motor. Ive driven my share of classics over the years (thats the main reason I specifically was looking only at classics when I bought this one). The ones that I drove, pretty much ran like this one. All didnt have the same prop (26p fury 3 blade) and had not had the backplate tweaked. But pretty much every one I have tried would easily break into the lower 70s, and at least a couple ran into the mid-70s like mine. Part of it is certainly driving, as my son has yet to get within 3mph of the speed we see when I am driving. Takes a little while to get use to the tiny steering inputs required. Too much and it bleeds off speed. But if you dont react quickly enough, tiny inputs are not enough.Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the lone ranger, disguised as a pool table, got his balls racked. 🙂 Its not the numbers on the cowl that matters near as much as it is the name on the back of the boat. Id have to say I agree with that last statement . — Ive had mine in the low 80s with the 25 pitch prop , ( speed run only – no gear or t/m ) and as you said , one must be careful with steering corrections made at high speeds . — Not much response from steering input above 80 . — Steered a little left , and it went straight . — Steered a little MORE left , still going straight . — Decided that was enough and straightened it out , or so I thought as I started to slow down . — It got REAL interesting at that point , and I now fully understand what Ivan meant when he told me Id have to learn how to ” LAND ” my boat . — I can run low 70s with the 23 pitch prop , but its turning around 7000 rpm . ( NO REV LIMITER ) — Ive decided thats fast enough to keep a lot of em behind me if I so desire . — Holeshot is about 1.5 seconds that way too . — I can be gone before most of them break over . — Take care , and keep the good stories coming . — I always enjoy them . — Hoss
Nothing interesting this afternoon other than the topwater bite on lay is picking up (spooks for me).Saw a guy with a HUGE Ranger launching. Put every Moomba I have ever seen to shame. Forgot the plug, got water in bilge. The poor 300 V-rod was turning blue trying to get it out of the water. They finally figured out what had happened, pulled over to shallow water and put the plug in. After pumping out, they left Beeswax in front of us. My son said the thing said something like Z522 on the side, not sure. Definitely a 300 V-rod. DEFINITELY under-powered. Couldnt break 65 going up-river. But it was definitely BIG. And if you leave the plug out, you can certainly ride a surfboard behind it easily.
Kinda funny how that little plug is so ding-danged important , aint it . — Cant say Ive never done it though . — Id be telling a lie for sure . — Hoss
Ive done it twice. The first time I launched my brand new Astro back in 1992, and at the OI this past spring. We were going out to fish later in the day and the ramp was really busy, with a number of pretty careless people loading up. People cutting front of others at the ramp, etc. Got a little too rushed trying to get out of the melee there and forgot the plug. Fortunately auto-bilge alerted me and we put the plug in from the inside.
Pretty sure Rick P. has a good story of either a classic or an eyra that he ran in a tournament back in the early days down on the Rodman Reservoir that would match this one, think he may have ruffled a few featers back in the day with a 150 or 175hp engine.
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