Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Great looking boat! You will figure out the ballast, it takes a little time. Tom

Great pics. Penny looks fantastic. A very exciting time. I haven't noticed any real excessive roll but it may be that I was expecting it to roll that much, if that makes sense. Never a concern about stability or safety. Mine seems to be sensitive to side to side loading as well but is probably typical for this size of boat. I also have 2 - 70# batteries low in the boat, just aft of the helm bulkhead and this may help a lot for stability. I usually have 45 litres of water in the tank just forward of the helm bulkhead. (Had to move the water tank forward from the designed location when I lowered the cabin floor). Envious of that dock setup. Very convenient to go boating I would think. Doug

Hi Doug N
Thanks for this. Another day on the water with my wife and step son partaking in a bit of fishing. Sweet !

Been experimenting with weight distribution and things are a bit better now so will leave it as is.
WOT tops her out at 6.75 mph but at some point she went up to over 7.5 mph. I find the sweet spot to be around 4000 rpm / 5 mph - perfect slow speed cruising for us.

Feels very secure and having the portable head is aces

More to come
Marc

Great report! As your motor gets broken in you should see top speeds over 7mph, my calculator showed a top speed of 7.5. But that is all theoretical. Glad you are enjoying your boat.

Tom

Hi Tom,

I am nowhere all that knowlegable with outboards but when I asked my wife to WOT for a few minutes, I glanced at the tach which registered 6000 rpm. Is this normal ? I thought these engines normally operate at around 5000 at WOT.

Also at times it felt like there was ventilation (?) going on. i.e. sounded like a bit of over-reving without any gain in performance. The stock prop is a four blade 10"x7" and always buried deep as well, even in chop. Not too sure what is going on but it seemed like it was not pushing for a second. Happened a few times only...

Marc

Edit... from the web i saw a chart for Merc 9.9 Pro Kicker. 5000-6000 rpm is normal.

Marc

Hi, Marc you should not be getting any ventilation if you have set your motor at the right depth. The big deflector plate on the motor should be even with the bottom of the keel +/- an inch for performance. Yes, the operating range at top speed is 5000-6000 rpm's but you want to measure your top speed at 6000 rpm's. You will of course never operate her at those rpm's except in special certain conditions. I would expect best fuel use would be around 4-4500rpm's.

Tom











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Thanks Tom,

As an aside, the outboard would not go over 5000 at first, Does the break-in period, when parts are getting properly seated at different rpm and loads result in going up to 6000 rpm now ?

...while getting the best performance and reliability down the road. Outboard break in is uber important from what I've read.

I will check out the max soon and report speed and performance at various trim when there is calm weather. Love how she effortlessly plows thru waves while a bow rider would have to turn around and is such a safe feeling inside.

A few things I would have done differently with the build now that I'm spending some time sailing

After sailing season, the 40 lbs AGM battery and main switch will be relocated from the port aft locker to under the port seat in cabin for better weight distribution. New longer 4 AWG x 12 feet battery cable etc.. As it is, the battery, main switch and main fuse are in the worst possible space to access. The (original) underseat cooler will have to go to accomodate this change.

Marc
Thanks for the feedback

Marc, just amazing. I took a few mornings to read through your entire build over my coffee. I will glean much wisdom from your skill and process when I forge ahead with my own build. Congratulations, on both the boat and the family!

Hey Marc, sure looks great. It does look bows high.

Have you worked out any of the kinks after a couple months?