Posted by beer_queen on 05/05/09 - 8:29 AM
#1
Hello all, we just did a sea trial on a 2000 28' Conquest with twin 225 Mercury Optimax's. The fuel tanks were 3/4's full. The boat has a 5KW genny and we had around 1150 lbs of people/gear. Most of the time the people were around the helm area - not at the back seat. I'm not sure if the water tank was full. The boat was very slow out of the hole - very doggy in fact. The water was swirling up and around in between the outboards and actually pulled the inside latch holding the outboard covers off twice when we were coming up on plane - we quit latching it after that. Top end was around 45mph (not taken by GPS) when trimmed out. The outboards are mounted as low as they can go - top hole. It has the standard Mirage props. Do the outboards need to be raised? Is something else wrong? It would gradually fall off plane starting at around 3800 rpm. We were on Lake Michigan with less than 1' waves. Is this normal? Looking for suggestions.
Posted by RevengeFamily on 05/05/09 - 10:50 AM
#2
Welcome to WhalerCentral.
I own a 1999 285 with the Opti 225's. What kind of boat do you currently own? Don't expect this boat to jump up onto plane in a hurry. The boat alone is 7500lbs, engines are approx 500lbs a piece, fuel tanks if full hold 296 gals. X 7lbs per gallon= 2,072lbs yours were 3/4 full = 1,554lbs of fuel. Add to that your crew of 1,150lbs. That's a tall order for 450hp to get up on plane. To stay on plane I need to be turning roughly 3700rpm plus adjust the trim tabs. I definately need to use the trim tabs to assist the engines.Your top speed is consistant with what I achieve. According to my GPS, my top speed is 44.5. Not sure why you were losing your engine covers. I've never had an engine cover come loose. Are you sure they were both properly latched? Hope this helps.
Norm