Engine Size & Blackout Package & Other Newbie Questions

[1Blderbob]

Hey azray007, I see you like the tunes from another post. What are you thinking in the way off battery set up on this boat? You never mentioned those type of options on the build.That should be right up at the top of the options. Motor being the most important. Good luck with the decision process.

 

[Landscaper2009]

Here's some more suggestions to think about. Look at the Evinrude E-tec. They make more torque and are lighter in weight than most four strokes. Their HO series is tuned for more HP than the rated power. Also, some dealers have some older motors with 0 hours that they can deal on and still give a full warranty. What ever you decide to do,remember it's all for fun.                By the way, I run a E-tec 200HO on a 2550 RCW w/ESP,it runs 41 light load and 36 with 15-16 adults on board. Good luck!

Yup... I love my Etec. I have the 250 and get top speed of 49 mph with 4 adults, gear and 1/2 tank of fuel. I am curious if it's just a tune that makes the HO get more hp. If so I would like to look into getting mine done. I haven't had 15-16 adults yet but sounds like a fun party on the water.

 

[BigKahuna]

I would love to take a ride on a 200+ but I live around Charlotte, NC.   

Azray......


I have an I/O with 220 HP. 


CWAG911 has a Honda O/B with 150 HP


Nautical has a newer boat with a 250 HP outboard.


All of us live at Lake Norman. PM us if you'd like to take a ride. Or go to Lake Norman marina. The Benny dealer on the lake. They have a good selection of boats in the showroom as well as on the water....

 

[Scott1]

Yup, I'm sure once you see the center storage it is a "must have" for many of us. Our dealer doesn't order them that way so I would have lost a discount on top of the cost of the option if I were to have ordered a boat. In the end, it would have turned out to be a very expensive storage place for us. In exchange, I went from a 200 to a 250 but probably should have gone to a 300. P.A.D.S.

You should have stayed with the 200 and then paid $800 or so for an ECM re-program that would give you close to 325HP.  Stupid me, I paid extra to go from a 225 to a 250 not knowing I could have the ECM re-programmed.  I ended up re-programming the 250 anyway.  Expensive mistake on my part.

 

[azray007]

Hey azray007, I see you like the tunes from another post. What are you thinking in the way off battery set up on this boat? You never mentioned those type of options on the build.That should be right up at the top of the options. Motor being the most important. Good luck with the decision process.

Hi Blderbob,  for the tunes I plan to go custom.  I'm a bit of a snob on the audio side of things.  All of the boats I've been able to physically see didn't have much more than, from what I can tell, basic Kicker speakers that have the lighted speaker cones.  Also, the head units choices didn't appear to offer much expandability.  My series of boat doesn't offer some of the premium stereo upgrades that the 100K+ boats do.  I plan to take my two JL Audio amps out of my old boat and a couple pair of the larger speakers.  (They are only a couple years old.)  I'm going with the SSRX setup which has the larger "couches" at the front and the rear.  With that setup, I took a good look at a floor model and determined I can use some of the speakers from my current boat.  (The original boat deal with my wife was, buy her a ski boat and I could do what I wanted with the audio system.  I have a good friend from 25 years ago who used to handle all my car audio and now he's a manager at one of our very reputable vehicle/vessel audio stores, Freeman's for those in the area.  Travis did an awesome job on my boat and even fabricated additional areas for me to mount my speakers.)  I plan to install both JL M1000 amps in the cubby behind the steering wheel, 2 JL 10IB5 subs in the vinyl behind the captain's chairs, 2 M880's in the very front corners, and where all the 6.5 speakers are mounted, remove them and replace with M770's.  As for the head unit, I'll have to see which stereo option I get.  I have a Kenwood with two remotes now that sounds great, but I also recently noticed that JL Audio has jumped into that market as well.  When speaking boat audio, Wet Sounds and JL Audio are tops.  Of course that is with their better speakers and having power to feed them.  My ear likes the JL's better and I've also had outstanding luck with them ever since I did my very first custom car stereo setup.  Ok, oh yea, the battery, I plan to order my boat with dual batteries.  To be honest, when I pull up at our local beach, I end up playing DJ all day.  I installed dual batteries in my existing boat but have not once had to flip the switch to start it.  ...and that's with playing it fairly loud for well over 6 hours.  Regardless, two batteries are always better than one!

 

[azray007]

Azray......


I have an I/O with 220 HP. 


CWAG911 has a Honda O/B with 150 HP


Nautical has a newer boat with a 250 HP outboard.


All of us live at Lake Norman. PM us if you'd like to take a ride. Or go to Lake Norman marina. The Benny dealer on the lake. They have a good selection of boats in the showroom as well as on the water....

Thank you BigKahna!  That is an awesome offer I might just take advantage of.  I did visit Lake Norman Marina and did a test ride on a triple toon with a 150.  That was perfect; however, that was a fairly empty boat.  I want that performance and a little more on a boat with people and some gear.  For my boat options, I'm limited to a 200 outboard.  I might PM Nautical and see if they are up to giving a very nice stranger a test ride.


For my boating, I actually live in Mount Holly.  I trailer my boat, but can put in at Mountain Island, Lake Wylie, or Lake Norman all within 15 minutes of my house.  I grew up on Wylie and always disliked the color of the water and it was always very warm and crowded where I boated.  Since my first trip on Mountain Island, I've been in love with the clear cool water and the lighter traffic.  My current boat has had tons of money thrown at it in an attempt to keep it from breaking down.  It's very odd and no one has been able to determine the issue.  Long story in short version, it is a little finicky to get initially started for the day, and has cut off at random times about 5 times in the last two years.  So far we were able to get it started again all but one time...but I absolutely hate breaking down on the water.  This boat was a "test" to see how often we would use it.  Now we know that use is not a problem, and with having the Sea Ray, we also know that we need more space and that skiing isn't a priority for us...but with a bigger vessel, it might be since we will be able to take a lot more people with us on our weekend adventures.  With a new dependable vessel, I would like to start exploring Lake Norman some.  From our test rides, it appears to be a very nice lake!

 

[azray007]

You should have stayed with the 200 and then paid $800 or so for an ECM re-program that would give you close to 325HP.  Stupid me, I paid extra to go from a 225 to a 250 not knowing I could have the ECM re-programmed.  I ended up re-programming the 250 anyway.  Expensive mistake on my part.

Has anyone in the Charlotte, NC area had a Yamaha outboard ECM re-programmed?  I honestly haven't heard of doing it with a boat engine but it seems like it's just as viable as the "tune" I did on my Harley and my truck.  Both of those ECM re-programs definitely made a difference.

 

[1Blderbob]

Yup... I love my Etec. I have the 250 and get top speed of 49 mph with 4 adults, gear and 1/2 tank of fuel. I am curious if it's just a tune that makes the HO get more hp. If so I would like to look into getting mine done. I haven't had 15-16 adults yet but sounds like a fun party on the water.

HO's are the same engine,except that the tuning of the motor gets an additional 10 percent HP. I've read somewhere that that 10 percent was on the conservative side for the HP ratings. I don't see why your motor couldn't receive the same tuning since the E-tec comes in a 250HO version. My boat is always shuttling everyone to dinner and bars. It seems no one wants to miss the boat.

 

[Scott1]

Has anyone in the Charlotte, NC area had a Yamaha outboard ECM re-programmed?  I honestly haven't heard of doing it with a boat engine but it seems like it's just as viable as the "tune" I did on my Harley and my truck.  Both of those ECM re-programs definitely made a difference.

There is a tune for the Yamaha, but I don't think it will produce the extra HP as in a Merc Verado.  The Verado's from 200 up to 300 are the exact same engine, just a different map in the ECM.  This is why you can take a Verado 200 up to over 300HP.  The tuning/mapping is just changed to make it a 300.  These places usually tune it a little better than Merc does, so they get even a little more HP than if you actually bought the 300.

 

[jsur]

There is a tune for the Yamaha, but I don't think it will produce the extra HP as in a Merc Verado.  The Verado's from 200 up to 300 are the exact same engine, just a different map in the ECM.  This is why you can take a Verado 200 up to over 300HP.  The tuning/mapping is just changed to make it a 300.  These places usually tune it a little better than Merc does, so they get even a little more HP than if you actually bought the 300.

I might have some knowledge about the Yamaha shortly.  I currently have the 225 Vmax SHO.

 

[BigKahuna]

Thank you BigKahna!  That is an awesome offer I might just take advantage of.  I did visit Lake Norman Marina and did a test ride on a triple toon with a 150.  That was perfect; however, that was a fairly empty boat.  I want that performance and a little more on a boat with people and some gear.  For my boat options, I'm limited to a 200 outboard.  I might PM Nautical and see if they are up to giving a very nice stranger a test ride.


For my boating, I actually live in Mount Holly.  I trailer my boat, but can put in at Mountain Island, Lake Wylie, or Lake Norman all within 15 minutes of my house.  I grew up on Wylie and always disliked the color of the water and it was always very warm and crowded where I boated.  Since my first trip on Mountain Island, I've been in love with the clear cool water and the lighter traffic.  My current boat has had tons of money thrown at it in an attempt to keep it from breaking down.  It's very odd and no one has been able to determine the issue.  Long story in short version, it is a little finicky to get initially started for the day, and has cut off at random times about 5 times in the last two years.  So far we were able to get it started again all but one time...but I absolutely hate breaking down on the water.  This boat was a "test" to see how often we would use it.  Now we know that use is not a problem, and with having the Sea Ray, we also know that we need more space and that skiing isn't a priority for us...but with a bigger vessel, it might be since we will be able to take a lot more people with us on our weekend adventures.  With a new dependable vessel, I would like to start exploring Lake Norman some.  From our test rides, it appears to be a very nice lake!

Azrray......


As a matter of fact Nautical is trying to sell his boat w/that 250 on the back. I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking you out..... PM him.


Been to both of those lakes and seem pretty nice! That's pretty cool that you have options to your boating.


Good luck to you!

 

[wiredup55]

Beautiful boat- quick questions on the hybrid top


1. does it fold down easily/quickly to allow daily storage under canapoy lift


2. There is a bar coming off the canapoy that seems to go to the floor being the captains chair. Is this a permanent support or is it just not connected where it is supposed to be?

Sorry, just got this.  It seems all parts of this new hybrid comes apart and the whole thing can be folded down, although I haven't tried it yet.

Wiredup55 has a very similar Hybrid top as mine. Ours does not fold down for trailering or storage. However I too am curious about the extra bar as mine does not have one in the same location.

 

[wiredup55]

OP


I have the blackout and love it so far, only have had the boat for a month.  It seems well done and won't scratch that easy unless you do something stupid.   That and the in floor storage are very nice.

 

[MH663]

I might have some knowledge about the Yamaha shortly.  I currently have the 225 Vmax SHO.

jsur, waiting to hear what you find out.