water in boat??????????????

[stjoeislandkid]

is there any way to tell if your boat is water logged or if there is water getting in under the floor in the foam? my boat seems to be in very good cond even if it is 22 years old. i,m the second owner and it only has 182 original hrs on it. the boat is a searay 200 bowrider with a 5.7 mercruiser. iknow this boat weighs about 3500 lbs and is heavier than alot of boats the same size.. there are no soft spots in the floor anywere including under the seats and near the transom.. my problem is this. other boats similar to this one are getting around 54 to 57 miles per hr at wot. i can do about 50 at wot and the motor runs perfect at 4500 rpm. i.ve tried different props but don.t make alot of differance. gets up on plane no problem and will rev to mercs specs about 4200 to 4600 no problem. a friend suggested maybe she,s waterlogged and it has got me to thinking, i just don,t want to tear up the floor and was wondering if there was another way to find out. any suggestions would help thanks in advance......

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: water in boat??????????????

that's crazy talk. Why are you concerned about 4-7 mph on a 22 year old boat? I doubt your speedometer/GPS is that accurate. Factor in wind, current, salinity, atmospheric pressure and salinity?

And besides, it's a 22' bowrider. Not a speed machine. If it got there at 54 instead of 50, what would you do with the time you saved?

Waterlog (other than damage it causes) is merely weight. Like having an extra passenger, or a full tank of gas, that's all.

I'd wonder more why a boat isn't used more than 9 hours a year. A year! Should be that much a month unless it was mothballed fror 20 of the 22 years.

It's a lake boat thing. I don't understand.

 

[MarkSee]

Re: water in boat??????????????

HC is probably right but if you should ever want to have it professionally checked, find and call a marine surveyor who should have the equipment necessary to check for moisture content. Maybe you can find a surveyor that can take the readings without needing to do a full survey and save you some money.

Mark

 

[moosehead]

Re: water in boat??????????????

OP, where are you boating, what is your load and speedo device, and how are you propped? I may be mistaken, but it seems as though your 5.7 should max out closer to 4,800 RPM at WOT, no? FWIW, I can touch 48 MPH in a similar craft but that is at 8,300' elevation so it seems like you are a tad slow.

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: water in boat??????????????

180 hours on a 22 year old boat?

 

[pckeen]

Re: water in boat??????????????

It happens. Someone buys a new go-faster toy, then realizes it's too difficult/time consuming/ to launch, so it sits and maybe gets taken out on three or four weekends a year. In my part of the world, those who use boats every weekend may still only put 30 hours on it a year....

 

[Chris1956]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Gee, I think 50MPH on that rig is pretty good. My 18' SR with a 4.3LX Mercuriser (205HP) would go 42MPH, downhill with the wind. You have a mush larger boat and a bit larger powerplant. It takes a whole lot of power to go just a bit faster, just is the nature of boating.

 

[spdracr39]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Keep in mind everyone's boat goes 10-20 % faster when they are telling you how fast it will go than what it actually goes. Also are you using the proper trim settings because that can make tons of difference. I believe you are right in line and shouldn't be concerned about it since you will rarely use WOT anyway unless you just love to burn fuel and beat the teeth out of your passengers.

 

[southkogs]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Gee, I think 50MPH on that rig is pretty good...

^^^^ yeah, I wouldn't sweat being water logged. Mine's an 18' and I'm really only getting low 30's on it - unloaded, following sea, tail wind, downhill and the 6 Cyl 250 took the right dosage of Prozac that morning.

The way you said it makes me think you're basing how fast the other boats are going on some reports somewhere, not experience or testing. Get a good GPS speed on yours, and then maybe check it against some others actual speeds taken the same way. You may be surprised. Boat speed and fish that got away tend to have rather similar traits sometimes.

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Another thing you need to realize, is that IF you had waterlogged foam your boat would be gaining MAYBE 200 to 300 pounds (that's an educated guess based on wet foam pulled out of 2 boats I've restored). That's equivalent to having 1 or 2 additional people on board. I don't know about your boat, but when I go from just me to just me plus 2 people I don't see all that much of a drop in speed, maybe 1 or 2 mph.

Also, for there to be waterlogged foam there had to be a way for water to get to the foam. Unless the boat's been left out in the elements for extended periods of time, or there's obvious damage, then you probably don't have anything at all to worry about.

 

[greenbush future]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Well do you store it out in the weather to allow this to occur? Have you looked under the floor? Does the bilge run all the time? I would be checking and digging around underneath to make sure my 22 year old boat was not being exposed to any conditions that would allow this. The #'s you mentioned don't sound too bad, what are the specs from the manufacture on your boat?

 

[britisher]

Re: water in boat??????????????

If you know what the dry weight of the boat is and also the trailer weight, then why not take it to a public weighbridge and get it weighed. An earlier poster said waterlogged can add 300 lbs, so you would notice that weigh addition on a weighbridge.
TBH there are so many variables here. I know more about cars than boats, but a new car where the engine is still loosening up, will not perform as well as one that has put the running in phase behind it. A boat engine will be just the same. As someone remarked your boat engine life is very little, so the engine may not be as loose as 'other similar boats' as you put it. I also believe engines are like old people, you have to keep using what you have or everything starts to seize up (LOL). Your engine may also not be as perfectly in tune as it should be either.
At the end of the day, what's 6 mph between friends? At least you get to watch the views for longer!
What would concern me more, is not the effect that any possible waterlogging is having on top speed, but the more major effect it may be having on the life expectancy of the boat itself. Just my 5 cents

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: water in boat??????????????

A 22 year old boat with those hours would be suspect here unless recently repowered. Most weekenders here put 15 - 20 hours on or more and may shut down only 2 - 3 months a year. Others ( like me) use the boat more than once a week-- a day ocean trolling will add 7 - 11 hours each trip. My boat is used 12 months of the year.

It happens. Someone buys a new go-faster toy, then realizes it's too difficult/time consuming/ to launch, so it sits and maybe gets taken out on three or four weekends a year. In my part of the world, those who use boats every weekend may still only put 30 hours on it a year....

 

[laulin]

Re: water in boat??????????????

That does sound odd for such an old boat.

 

[moosehead]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Same story, different thread, until the OP puts out some more facts, we're just talking amongst ourselves.

OP, what you should see here, is (1) your boat may indeed be performing at optimum levels but until you get more facts for yourself and the board, we're just guessing, and (2) if your boat isn't performing to spec, there may be potentially multiple reasons perhaps the least of which is waterlogging.

FWIW, I try to wring out every performance advantage from my watercraft and vehicles, and if they are not operating at or above spec, I tend to chase it down. It's not just about going fast, but making sure everything is properly tuned and maintained.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: water in boat??????????????

A 22 year old boat with those hours would be suspect here unless recently repowered. Most weekenders here put 15 - 20 hours on or more and may shut down only 2 - 3 months a year. Others ( like me) use the boat more than once a week-- a day ocean trolling will add 7 - 11 hours each trip. My boat is used 12 months of the year.

but up there a "year" is really a couple of months. They have two seasons: winter and July 4.
And lake boaters often don't have far to go, so they ride out and sit and ride home--a day's boating is only a short run on the motor, where you and I on the coast would usually go greater distances, because we can, and even idle time is typically fishing where the motor is used intermittently too. Thus we get 100 hours a year, not a 100 hours a decade!

 

[AChotrod]

Re: water in boat??????????????

Ive got friends that only use their boats once or twice a year, some that even take years off before using it again. For instance I have had my new boat out more times in a month than my buddy has had his out since 07 when he bought it new. Work, Kids, life and other hobbies tend to get in the way sometimes. Heck my car has probably got less then 100 miles put on it in the last 4 years.

 

[ricohman]

Re: water in boat??????????????

but up there a "year" is really a couple of months. They have two seasons: winter and July 4.
And lake boaters often don't have far to go, so they ride out and sit and ride home--a day's boating is only a short run on the motor, where you and I on the coast would usually go greater distances, because we can, and even idle time is typically fishing where the motor is used intermittently too. Thus we get 100 hours a year, not a 100 hours a decade!

Very true. And with the fishing I do it cuts down on the hours even more. I have 22.5 hrs in two years on my new boat. I know of boats that are from the 80's with less than 50 hours.

 

[moosehead]

Re: water in boat??????????????

OP, where are you boating, what is your load and speedo device, and how are you propped? I may be mistaken, but it seems as though your 5.7 should max out closer to 4,800 RPM at WOT, no? FWIW, I can touch 48 MPH in a similar craft but that is at 8,300' elevation so it seems like you are a tad slow.

Absent boat info from the OP, the link below shows Sea Ray prop chart. The 2001 210 Bowrider with 5.7 powerplant does indeed show 4800 RPM at WOT and specs a 14x19SS prop on the Alpha 1.

Sea Ray's model archive also shows the 2001 210SS BR dry weight of 3,400 lbs. though no specifics by engine type.

Is quoting yourself the same as talking to yourself?

http://www.searay.com/boat_graphics/electronic_brochure/Company1729/1C1_25_74DEIP4PY0W.pdf

 

[stjoeislandkid]

Re: water in boat??????????????

well guys its not the fact that i want to go faster, its just that i know a boat of that size and power should do at least 4 to 7 miles per hr faster in certain conditions, and this one has not so far. the boat runs perfect at the proper rpm that is on the tag on the motor 4400 to 4600 rpm. i,ve tried 19 20 21 and 23 pitch props and there is about 1 to 1 and a half miles per hr differance in the speed all these tests were done with just me in the boat and about a half tank of fuel. some of you seem to think there is some thing wrong with a 22 year old boat having less than 200 hrs on it. well i can tell you for sure that the hour metre is correct cause i have known this boat since the original owner bought it new in 1991. the boat only came up for sale because the gentleman sold his cottage because of health issues he has had for many years. and that is why it has such low hours if you saw the boat you would understand because it is in absalutly mint, mint condition boat house kept and serviced by the same marina down the road from me since new. i have the original bill of sale and every service record since new. so when it came up for sale i could,nt get my money out fast enough. anyway i don.t think its waterlogged but for the life of me why will it not do over 51 or 52. maybe i do to much thinking. oh well gives me some thing to do on these long canadian winters all your thoughts are welcome.