knotrated

just bought a 89 27 ft. webbcraft. need advice about everything,prop pitch,trim tabs,what can i expect out of this boat?its powered by a pair of 454's with 250 orignal hours.any advice would be helpful.

alcor

Well from one dummy to another, welcome to the world of used boats.

I've been working with a 36' early Sonic (1984 total rebuild in 1998, or so they said) I bought about 2 years ago. Now don't take this the the wrong way, but after 2 years of figuring out what the previous guys (dummys) did prior to selling it to me, I think I'm about to end up with a good ride.

Anyway, what can you tell us about the boat, hp, carbs, drives, existing props, etc.? What do you know about the previous owner(s) and anything they may (or at least said) they did to the boat? Oh yea, are you married? If so , how strong is your marriage?

knotrated

yep I'm a dummy. 330 horse 454's,bravo1,quadrajets,23pitchprops.boat belonged to the proverbial little old man.i spoke with him and got no real info except "boat was too damn fast".My concerns are 1.boat seems somewhat sluggish to get on plane.2. trim tabs may be small 12'x15'?no other compairable boat that i have seen has had such shallow pitched props.What little advice i have gotten tells me"I,m never gonna be happy with this boat".Oh yeah, married.

alcor

Ok, on the props, e-mail Darin at [email protected] and give him the information you've provided including type of prop you have, RPM at wide open throttle (WOT), weight of boat and speed. Tell him you got his address from Offshoreonly.com members. He seems to have done everyone right including my props from a year ago.

Before you send those props off, make sure your engines are running right. It wouldn't make any sense to get the props re-worked then find out (for example) that your engines weren't quite making all the power they could which of course would change the readings you would provide Darin and probably his response. Another words, when I bought my boat, I quickly learned the engines were run out, way out. Had I re-worked the prop prior to rebuilding, I would have had to probably re-worked them again when the engines came back producing the power they should have been to begin with. Just a thought.

alcor

On the trim tabs, size sounds ok to me. My 1984 36' Coyote (early Sonic) has 12' x 18" K-Planes and they roll this 9,000 lb boat just about anywhere you want it to go and then some. As for pitch control, they get the bow way up in the air to the point that the bow bounces (that's to high) or you can bury the bow till it plows through the water wildly, that of course is to low. The point is, they take me from one end of the spectrum to the other and anywhere in between, so this dummy I figures there fine. What brand tabs do you have and what makes you think they may not be big enough?

knotrated

my main reason for ? the tabs is that they don't seem to help much getting the boat out of the water on take off.The boat also seems to want tab unless you're wide open.Wide open is 5 grand at 67mph.The tabs are by boat leverler twin rams.

alcor

E-mail Darin at Houston Prop with your information, he'll know what to do with the props. There's props that do all kind of things, great out of whole, bow lifting props etc, etc, etc. I don't understand much of it but I think Darin does so the best place to go is to the Horses mouth.

By the way, what have people said that makes you believe you'll never be happy with this boat?

alcor

Just noticed Houston's new post with a toll free number its:

1-877-580-prop( 7767)

Or 281-580-7767
__________________
DELIVERING SPEED

Houston Propeller Service
16920 Kuykendahl #106
Houston,TX 77068
281-580 PROP(7767) Darin> ANYTIME

knotrated

Experts say the boat is too heavy,bad balance and is abastard design.Supposidly the builder never had an original idea he ripped off wellcraft and others.I think I,ll eventually be happy once i make it MY BOAT.

mopower

5000 rpms is a bit high for 330s. They like 4400/4600 a little better. I tried 23's on my 27 Formula as opposed to 25's and all I did was turn the engines faster and use more gas. Went back to the 25s. You may want to try some Bravo I 4 blades either 22 or 24 pitch. These should increase your cruise speed a couple mph at the same rpms as a 3 blade.Down side...you may lose a little top end