Home › Forums › Bass Cat Boats › Learning a 2020 Caracal / ProXS Combo
Limbhanger51.
New owner and first post… FIRST – THANK YOU BASS CAT! AWESOME FOLKS. EVERYONE I HAVE TALKED TO HAS BEEN SUPER!
AND THANK YOU FOR THE “ONE DIRECTION. ONE COUNTRY. ONE MISSION. PSALM 91″ MESSAGING. DONT EVER GIVE IT UP!
Before i purchased my BC i searched this board and others looking for any info i could find. i hope others will find this post helpful.
Couple notes… The last 14 years have been in 2006 Skeeter ZX200 and 2015 ZX225. VERY dependable Yamaha, never any motor issue…ever. Basically, driving a skeeter is easy… Trim it all the way out and let it fly. You can play with engine height a bit, maybe a bump or two of trim depending on load, but pretty easy… not prone to walking. 73.4 mph most i ever (once) saw out of my ZX225, 25 T1 prop, 225 SHO.
On to the Caracal. Factory rigged with 225 ProXS V8, 24P Fury, manual jack plate, top of the plate halves were level. Skipping forward… past break-in… so i could get a better look at actual run time. NOT impressed with the 24 Fury. to me the boat had little lift and took forever to build speed. Once on plane, It simply did not feel hooked up… throttle inputs seemed to spin the prop rather than provide acceleration. No plugs in the Fury. I lowered the motor approx. 3/8”. this helped a lot but still not impressive. I could reach 70-72 but took forever to get there… and yes it does walk… having to learn to drive again, like my pre-2006 Triton days. anyway… not impressed but felt it was a prop issue…. not boat or motor.
bought a new 25P tempest plus, Large PVS plugs…. First time out… problem solved (for now)… by myself… lots of lift… touched 72… learning to drive. Then came tournament day with partner and full livewells. Terrible holeshot… no prop slip… no bogging but took a while to get on plane. Once running i could run upper 68-69 but only turning 5650 – 5700. So i need a 24 and no plugs i think…
On with the 24P tempest plus… removed all plugs… and raised motor may 3/16. Next outing … partner, tournament load, etc. prop spins wildly getting out of hole… but feathering the throttle happens much faster than 25P Tempest with large plugs. On plane ran great… 6.0 on the digital trim, approx. 5800 give or take… 70.x mph in clean water (remember full tournament load, gas etc). and not terribly bad on the walking. Cool. but does spin wildly getting out of hole.
put large plugs in the 24P Tempest and dropped the motor approx the 3/16 back down. By myself… best yet holeshot, 72 mph (learning to drive)… good throttle response at mid speeds, great lift. Interested to see how this does with tournament load.
An engineer by trade i am constantly tinkering with everything, so i have not minded this experience. Caracal definitely has a setup sweet spot and it is hugely dependent on load, and to a lesser degree load balance. For me the 24P tempest plus seems to be the way to go, just fine tune the rest.
When compared to the Skeeters mentioned above, the rough water ride of the Caracal is light years better! You still have to be smart this time of year with those @#$#@#$% wake boats but its a much softer ride. turning is awesome too, running creeks etc. Doesn’t power slide like my skeeters. Caracal is more on rails, crazy good. trim about 4 – 4.5 for reference.
I’ll be the first to admit i am still learning to drive better. will take a while. Hope someone finds this interesting and helpful. Happy to take suggestions as well!
thank you!
😉
Good read, I have a 2019 with a G2 and it is a beast out of the hole so much torque.
Crank
Plug the prop holes and see what happens.
George
Thanks George. I put the large plugs in the Tempest, but have only tried it solo
put large plugs in the 24P Tempest and dropped the motor approx the 3/16 back down. By myself… best yet holeshot, 72 mph (learning to drive)… good throttle response at mid speeds, great lift. Interested to see how this does with tournament load.
Hopefully this weekend
Crank,
Put solid plugs in the prop. I have a 2019 Caracal with Mercury 4 stroke and it was like yours until I plugged the Bravo 1 eight holes and it made a difference for me. I have been told the 4 strokes don’t need to slip
George
thanks i will try that if still too much slip this weekend
update – tried out the latest setup outlined above. Full tanks, two guys, tournament load out…. holeshot pretty good just a little prop spin on break over. I could push 70 (69.8-69.9) on initial morning run. Not terribly difficult to drive, although i did not push my luck with trimming up. 6 – 6.5 on the merc monitor. Not sure this setup will make much use of additional trim, but will keep experimenting. ???
This setup has been the best all around so far for heavy tournament loads. If something changes i will update post.
thanks again to the Bass Cat Family !!
I think with 4 strokes you need to plug all the holes. I run a SHO 225 on my Yamaha. Had the SHO T2 24 3 blade and it was like you taking forever to get up to speed. I changed to a Bravo 1 XS 25 4 blade. I get out of the hole great and get up to speed quickly. Obviously with a 4 blade top end is a little less, but her in the heat of Florida summer I’m still getting to 68 fast and if I tweek the trim and jackplate I can get a little more. I used a Fury 3 blade on my last Caracal and it was terrible, that’s when I switched to the Bravo. I thought the Yamaha SHO prop would be great, but it was not. 4 blade keeps me planted when turning as well, while the 3 blade SHO prop felt like it was slipping in turns. The Bravo has 8 holes in it, and I have all of them plugged completely. Again that’s a Yamaha, so I don’t know about the new Merc when it comes to the holes.
My real advice would be to get another Yamaha…;)
I’m running a SHO with a Bravo on mine. Great combo, worlds better than the 3 blade
© 2026 Bass Cat Boats
