Help me buy a hole in the water (or not?)

OH MAN. I got the arrester seal Thursday and got time to put it in Sunday morning. The boat fired right up and idled with all the new parts with one exception: the tachometer trouble lights have a 4-pin connector on them and I couldn't for the life of me find where to connect it. There's an identical connector under the cowling of the motor so I'm guessing I need to order a wiring harness for it. That's a bummer, I had thought the extra connections on the motor main wiring harness were for that but they don't mate up in connector or wire color. I messaged the dealer I bought the motor and tach from; hopefully they get back to me as Suzuki doesn't provide end user support. The tach works fine I just don't have the diagnostic lights on the bottom of the tach hooked up.

That aside, a friend came over and we got the boat out on Alum Creek Reservoir. HOLY CRAP the transformation is amazing. I think the prop made the biggest difference; even at low speeds and part throttle the thrust feels smoother and more sure. But the top end sure doesn't hurt. Yes it's still a little baby motor but I did a few long full throttle runs and was hitting 19.6mph which is perfect. It rode over boat wakes and chop so much more smoothly at speed. It's great. Picks up and goes quickly, goes on plane (or partial plane or whatever this hull does) readily and easily. It even vibrates a lot less; I would blame it on the "everything is great now" mindset but there were several resonant frequencies that are really gone, the splashwell doesn't do the horrendous resonant vibration any more. I think the prop was cavitating because the difference is pretty profound.

It felt like a new boat, again. I felt the limits of the reservoir opening up just due to the speed and sure-footedness of the boat now. At 7mph and hull speed only the wakes from other boats were a major inconvenience now it's no big deal. We motored all over the south pool of the reservoir and I felt like - had my friend not been getting a bit green from all the chop and wakes - we could have gone over the whole 3000 acres of the lake.

Definitely A+ do recommend. Now we'll see if I end up with two boats this summer as mentioned in another thread my father in law keeps mentioning his SeaArk he's going to want to sell. I'm in love with this little Starcraft at the moment, though.

That's awesome news.  I wonder who was drunk at the factory when they put that first prop on.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

That's awesome news.  I wonder who was drunk at the factory when they put that first prop on.

Probably decided by the sales departments. Think about who is really using a long shaft 9.9 horse these days, and buying it new? I bet that in this country, 75% of them are destined to end up on the back of a 22 foot Warrior or 25 foot Hunter, and probably never going over 2000 RPM. See madmachine's post. Most boats that would use it as the primary propulsion would have a short shaft, or be a 15 or 20 horse. And - in this country - Suzuki isn't where most folks are going to be looking, they'll go for Mercury or Yamaha or Honda first. Most people buying them have specifically seeked them out. 

dculberson said:

 

Definitely A+ do recommend. Now we'll see if I end up with two boats this summer as mentioned in another thread my father in law keeps mentioning his SeaArk he's going to want to sell. I'm in love with this little Starcraft at the moment, though.

You definitely need 2 boats. 

Apparently a boat this size is VERY weight dependent. I took two adult friends out and the kiddos and the boat would barely make it up to 12mph. It didn't really go on plane at all and seemed unhappy at that speed. It was no big deal; we were just cruising around enjoying the beautiful weather. But it made a huge difference to have +350lbs or so on the boat.

That's totally normal.  Those hull designs are more or less flat on the bottom, which is great for easy planing, but if it can't get that vee front up and out of the water, it makes a big difference.

I suggest trying it by loading up all the people, and start throwing out kids at full throttle one at a time to see how much weight you can have and still plane.

(this is why I'm not a parent)

My Pappy's sport had a Johnson 70, and with a full load of people and a couple lunch boxes, it would still plane, but you had to have the trim just right.

I can confirm with my wife and both kids in it, it will go on plane but it's not quite as eager as with just two people. Top speed is about 18.3mph. We've been enjoying it, and it's doing a great job of being a little runabout to get us to the swim coves and fish. We haven't had it out as much as I'd like, but there's always something to get in the way. I've gotten pretty good at pulling it out of the garage, launching it, retrieving it, and putting it back in the garage. The more you do something, the better you get at it, I figure.

I haven't done the final painting and wiring cleanup yet, hopefully I can get to that this year but it's no rush since we're able to use it as is.