Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

[ofhs85]

hey guys I'm looking to buy a boat to wakeboard from and i found this 2004 Sea Ray 200 sport SS but it only has a 4.3L with 190hp. i was hoping to get a 5.0 or 4.3 mpi at the least but i really fell in love with this boat. I will be adding a wake tower, but My concern is that it will not have enough power for wakeboarding. what do you guys think? does anyone know what the top speed of this boat is. Thanks for you help

 

[ThreeMileBayWaker]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Plenty of power with the V6. A 130hp 3.0L was able to pull me out of the water, (6'3" 200lbs). Granted a V8 will do it even better, but its really not that necessary to get the V8. If your planning on having the max capacity of people in your boat while towing riders, then yes you might want to opt for the V8.

You can then also play around with props to get yourself a better hole shot to pull riders up. I went with a Carb'd motor myself because it has a more powerful low end torque, whereas the FI motors do best top end and on fuel economy.

Top speed will prolly be around 45-50mph, and with a V8 roughly 5mph faster. Yet one more reason I didn't go with a V8 for only 5 more mph.

 

[kc95gt]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

I have a 4.3 in my 19' boat also. On the weekends during the summer we usually have about 6 people in the boat and pull wakeboarders most of the day. We really never have any issues at all the the power. You really don't need to worry about top speed on a wakeboard boat, it's all about hole shot and plane speed. I put a 19p 4 blade prop on mine and it works great for wakeboarding and cruising around the lake.

 

[sebber83]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Hey Buddy,
We ride a 19 foot Doral with a 4.3l, listed at 210hp but it could be 190hp, ahaha, and I can tell you that the power is more than enough to session behind. We usually ride with 600lbs of weight plus anywhere from 2 to 6 pasengers and have no problem at all getting up and even run double-ups and what not. You will have plenty of juice to yank out riders plus you will be able to ride your fav river/lake/bay all day on approx 80$ in gas, by day I mean a good 8 hours of solid boating.

One trick I found for newbies to get up the 1st time is to sit them on the dock or on a tube in a bay. This way they are already out of the water, board is already floating and they usually get up first try using this method, then by the time they fall from their first start, they have the hang of it and can start from the water...try it..and happy boating!!!

 

[semo549]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

I have a 18' sea ray with an inline 165hp mercruiser. It is 30 years old and I usually have 6 people on her and it pulls a wakeboarder up no prob. I did go down to a 17pitch prop though. Days that were not boarding I switch back to the 19pitch. You shouldn't have any problems

 

[kyle f]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Why not just by an inboard, a direct drive or V-drive? A V-drive will have so much more room than that Bow rider... the wrap around seating is wonderful. THen you will never have to worry about pulling anyone or anything.

 

[sebber83]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Although I agree with you that V-Drive is optimum for wakeboarding and allows for lots of room and a great ride. It's not always ideal depending on the water way it is used on. The river we ride and boat on is shallow in lots of places, plus there is sand bars and rocky areas, we also like beaching and exploring islands, so we need to be able to trim up to protect the drive. A friend of mine has a Malibu V-Drive and although it kicks up a great wake, he cannot enjoy it to its fullest on our river. So if the sea ray is what fits for you, then by all means buy it and enjoy, V6 will have plenty of power!

 

[JaseBosto]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Yea. Even a 3.0 is adequate. I went with a stern drive vs. an older moomba because I wanted to be able to trim up.

 

[ofhs85]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

thank you everyone for your help. I ended up finding a better deal so i jumped on in. It is a 2003 rinker captiva 212 with the 5.0 mpi for 13,500 and it already had a tower on it.

 

[kyle f]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Either way, look into getting perfect pass set up on the boat or otherwise your enjoyment of rides will come down to how good of a driver you can find.

 

[LFTDJEEP]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Either way, look into getting perfect pass set up on the boat or otherwise your enjoyment of rides will come down to how good of a driver you can find.

What is perfect pass?

 

[sebber83]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Perfect Pass is a speed control module, either controlled by gps or rpm, it will ensure that no matter how hard the rider pulls, the boat will keep the same speed, it will do the work for the driver, so u pick a speed on the computer, give it throttle to get the rider up and then let the boat control it's own speed... magic!

 

[kyle f]

Re: Sea Ray 200 with 4.3L 190hp

Perfect Pass is a speed control module, either controlled by gps or rpm, it will ensure that no matter how hard the rider pulls, the boat will keep the same speed, it will do the work for the driver, so u pick a speed on the computer, give it throttle to get the rider up and then let the boat control it's own speed... magic!

it can be slected to run on RPM or MPH in the options screen. The speed readings can be pulled form a GPS module (on the star gazer sytem) or from a paddle wheel that is supplied with the kit. THe paddle wheel is far more accurate than the pitot tube used on the back of some boats to drive the speedo or the pitot tubes built into outdrives.