How fast should my boat go?

[jbgp1200]

How fast should a 2007 RZ2 go with no weight and a stock prop?

My boat seems to top out at about 35mph, and of course the more I load it with weight the lower my top speed. But I have always wondered what the bench mark was for speed on these boats.

When surfing I've always listed my boat 1100 lbs on one side and about 400lb in the bow and I've never had a problem or noticed any issues with surf speeds. However I have recently been running evenly weighted in the rear and I can tell you this boat can't handle 2000-2200 lbs in the back. Top speed with that weight in the rear and 400lb in the bow is about 10mph. I can gain a mile per hour with every 200lbs I add to the front. (We tested this with bodies). Also with max weight its hard to hold any kind of a steady speed with the Speed Set.

So now I have this great 3000lb ballast setup that my boat can't possibly handle with a stock prop. Its obviously putting some strain on the motor. Do I bother with replacing the prop or just avoid over filling my ballast to the point i have to full throttle just to get 11.2 mph out of it?

[JLG]

Had an 07 22ve with the MP 340 and it ran around the 38mph top end range with an acme 537 on it. Similar boat to yours so assume yours is accurate. May wanna check the speedometer but its probably accurate and perhaps that isn't a stock 537 on it? If I were to have that much ballast I would switch to a 1235 or such prop and be done with it.

[NICKYPOO]

Chpthril will chime in I'm sure but, you should re-prop if your having issues. One thing you didn't mention is what rpm you are turning at wot.

As an example, I just got back from Shasta. It is at 1000ft elevation. I also run at elevations up to 5600. I don't want to just bounce it off the rev limiter while down low so it's basically propped for down there and I accept what I get up here. Down there it is propped perfectly IMO. It runs 41mph and just barely tickles the rev limiter at 5200 (I think it's 5250 but whatever). It absolutely jumps out of the hole and also holds speed beautifully at any speed with zero cavitation. Up here (4500ft) it runs 38mph at a bit over 4900rpm. Same great speed holding regardless of ballast or load. I'm on my third different prop and I absolutely love this one, an Acme 911.

Point is, the prop is the single biggest factor in adjusting your performance. If your not sure what is on there, find out, get a good set of data numbers and start talking to a professional about what you have vs what you want your boat to do. The correct one will perform throughout the range and will get to a max rpm you are comfortable with. Top end speed is usually the compromise.

[skiguy]

Nick has it right. First step is to look at your WoT rpm's with your boat w/o ballast and loaded normally. Check your engine owners manual for recommended WoT rpm range. For multi-use I usually shoot for just below the rev limiter/red line but a couple hundred rpm's lower would still be in the acceptable range I believe. If all you do is surf you can tweak the prop to give you holeshot and speed holding under load. The folks at ACME, OJ, WakeMakers will be glad to help once you have some basic data on current performance and what your water sport priorities are.

Folks ask me all the time how fast my boat goes and my answer is "I don't really know". Our boats are tow boats and I could generally care less how fast it goes. I just want it to pull strong and steady. WoT wastes too much gas and I'm cheap :-)


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[culrich77]

Same boat and prop and the fastest I've gotten my boat to go is 42, that's with me and one other person, no ballast, at Lake Powell in glass water at 6am. Generally I never have the need to go above 30 unless I want to go old school and do a slalom run at 32.

[Thegerman618]

^^2 WOT on glass water empty (boat was even running on fumes) 42 was the best she would do, ran it up just to see what it would do, first and last time I will ever run it that hard.