Time to Plane and 0-30 speeds - what's considered good?

[golf101]

I'm looking at bowrisers in the 24-26 foot range, used primarily for tubing, skiing and wakeboarding. In comparing boat/engine combinations, I'm seeing some widely divergent TTP and 0-30 speeds (not unexpected). I'm trying to get a feel for what is generally considered to be "good" performance in both categories. (e.g., is 7.3 seconds 0-30 slow, fast, or in the middle? How about 8.1 seconds?).

 

[Philster]

Re: Time to Plane and 0-30 speeds - what's considered good?

This is considered great:

Time to Plane: 3.4 sec.
Time to 30 mph: 7.5 sec.

If a 24' bow rider can duplicate that, that's damn good stuff.

You get to 4.5secs to plane and 8.0secs to 30 and it's lackluster - dead average.

5.0secs and 8.3secs and higher = it's getting into the slower category.

That is from reading a lot of reviews.

Note: Deep V planing hulls with the ability to go offshore will take longer to plane vs. in-shore and lake boats made for pulling ski-ers and tubers.

A good prop, with good cupping/rake and jumping to 4 blades from 3 can make both numbers much better. If you want power out of the hole, getting on to plane and to 30 fast, then a 4-bladed stainless steel prop of a modern design (proper cupping and rake) will bite and get you on plane faster, given that all other things about the boat are equal, and the motor/drive is trimmed properly (in/down).

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Time to Plane and 0-30 speeds - what's considered good?

Don't forget those little "port holes" in the prop when making recommendations.

I only had one boat that had a ported prop. It was a Ranger 17' Fisherman with an '89 (year purchased) 115 tower. The boat was a deep v straked hull with a BB pad, and very heavy (boat, not added extra gear). I think they are still in the Ranger lineup.

I had a 3 bladed SS prop of about 21P and it was ported (the ports were round if that helps in identifying it). I want to say Turbo but just don't remember, but Turbo may be the one with the square holes..."dunno". I know it was not a Merc prop as when I bought the boat it had a 24P on it and that was too much. My first outing was like 55 mph at only 5000 (started getting a serious chine walk) and I only did it for a mile or so. I had to go to prop dealer (not the boat dealer where I bought it) to get it swapped and since I only had to get 600 more rpm's I doubt that I went lower than 21.

Anyway, on hole shot, the prop vented and the engine came up to rpm's really fast making for a quick hole shot even though this thing was arse heavy.....worked equally well on slalom deep water starts with my 220# (then) lardarse.

Coming out of the hole I like to keep the engine trimmed out as far as I can (not all the way up, but certainly higher than vertical to the boat hull) which helps the rpms get up and to get rolling once up. Worked better than the conventional practice of tuck her all the way in.

Once up rpm's would be up around 5900 (still getting exhaust over the blades) until the speed got up and then the overdrive would kick in (undisturbed water over the blades), the rpm's would drop and the boat would take off. I was duly impressed.

My current prop on a different rig, is a Ballistic and it isn't ported, but the current boat is not hard to plane out so I don't need them.

Mark