best of both worlds

[shiftworker]

i am thinking of buying a new bass boat....right now i am leaning somewhere in the 18.5-19.5 ft range... now i have a 21 ft triton and i really like it. however with the rapidly rising gas prices it has made me want to downsize. my trition fishes nice but it is very heavy. it cost me a lot to pull the boat and then a lot more to run it. i have a friend who recently purchased a new 21ft bullet with 250 and says his gas mileage is a lot better with the lighter boat even though he has a larger boat and motor.(he used to have 21ft with 200hp).

question: im looking at maybe a 19 ft boat with either a 175 or 200 hp motor. my objective is to get better gas mileage both while pulling the boat and driving it. i would consider any boat (bullet, stratos, trition, skeeter) but would like some opinions on which rig would allow me to save on gas and still get to where i want to go without being the last one their..

any suggestion or opinions would be appreciated.. i hope the way i worded this wasnt confusing.

 

[Fat Albert]

<font color="#ff0066">Shiftworker,,,this is my opinion.......<u>you will be sorry if you down size</u>.....keep it and enjoy it..... make your wife give you more money.........FA</font>

 

[hl&s]

Even if you picked up a couple miles a gallon, it would take a lot of fishing trips to notice a substantial fuel savings. If you trade down and get some cash to boot it may be a benefit, but if you have to shell out dollars to make the trade, you may fish a long time before you break even. If I already had a good boat, I'd be real hesitant.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[fishinvol]

Fat Albert - 5/2/2008 11:53 AM<font color="#ff0066">Shiftworker,,,this is my opinion.......<u>you will be sorry if you down size</u>.....keep it and enjoy it..... make your wife give you more money.........FA</font>

Think that will work for me Al??

 

[sdfd29]

This is the performance data for a Basscat Pantera II with a 200 HP Mercury Optimax. You can see the MPG values for this boat in the 3 - 5000 rpm are pretty good (5-6 MPG). The PII is a 19' 1" boat with a 93" beam. It is not a lightweight boat and has a tremendous amount of storage. It has more storage than a Triton or a Ranger, that is why we just ordered one. Delivery should be in 2 - 3 weeks (it went in to mold today). emoParty Now it is a question of keeping the rpm's down. This data is from the Mercury website and contains data for other boat manufacturers as well.

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
Top Speed (MPH@RPM) 71.2 @ 5680 (WOT)
Acceleration 0 - 20 MPH (sec) -
Acceleration 0 - 30 MPH (sec) 7.3
PERFORMANCE DATA
Engine Speed Fuel Economy Sound
(RPM) (MPH) (GPH) (MPG) Range (mi.) dB-A
1000 5.3 0.9 5.9 174 -
1500 6.7 2.1 3.2 94 -
2000 7.6 3.7 2.1 62 -
2500 21.4 4.1 5.2 154 -
3000 30.1 4.8 6.3 187 -
3500 37.5 6.7 5.6 166 -
4000 40.1 7.5 5.3 157 -
4500 48.9 9.6 5.1 151 -
5000 61.2 12.2 5 148 -
5500 68.4 16.3 4.2 124 -
5680 (WOT) 71.2 18.2 3.9 115 -


Sorry how it compresses the data, it looks different when I posted it.

 

[Guest]

FAT ALemoGeezer emoGeezer emoGeezer .....Glad i dont have to ask the thing yaw call a wifeemoPoke

 

[mallardecho]

tailgate1979 - 5/2/2008 6:11 PM

FAT ALemoGeezer emoGeezer emoGeezer .....Glad i dont have to ask the thing yaw call a wifeemoPoke

Yeah big talk........we all said that at one time or another...........