review of 70 on Mac x

[bugman]

I just returned from a 3 day trip with my (new to me) 2004 Suzuki 70. What a difference those 20 extra ponies make. I had a 96 Honda 50 that came with the boat when I bought it last year. The old motor always made me a bit nervous when I pushed to boat at speeds over 7 mph. The first thing I noticed was how quiet the motor was, at idle. And when I opened it up the ease at which it got the boat up out of the water was amazing. Even the Admiral couldn't believe the power the motor has. Cruising at 5000 rpm the boat was doing 16+ mph. The motor didn't feel like it was working, we could sit in the cockpit and talk without having to shout at each other. And it was so nice to be passing those big motor boats for a change. Fuel economy was way better than the Honda, for the hour we ran at 16 mph we used about 4 gal. The next day still no wind so we cruised at 6+ mph at 2000 rpm and just sipped the fuel (ballast tank empty)used less than 2 gal. to go around 12 miles. Day three the breeze came up around noon so we filled the ballast tanks and put up the sails. The boat seemed to handle about the same as before. A couple hours latter the wind died again so we motored back to the ramp at 5 mph (2000 rpm) ballast tank full and pulling the dingy. I must say I still have a little power boat envy, but its not because they can go faster, it because it still takes me almost a hour to stow everything for trailering. There is one thing that makes me a bit concerned, the stern of the boat sits a lot lower in the water, less than 10" of freeboard at the motor well. Is this something I should be worried about? Should I moving weight forward to counter the larger motor?

[pokerrick1]

Yes, IMHO! One should always try to balance the weight throughout the boat for stability when powering, especially fast.

Rick