Sold my 50, buying the Etec90

[Starscream]

Went out in the cold and rain with the aluminum BRP 14x11x3 propeller back on. The Piranha composite prop is disassembled and stored.

RPM is up, to just over 5,000 with the original prop that previously maxed out at 4,800. 25mph, with no ballast, 2 adults, light chop, full water tanks (note to self: need to pump out).

We were the only boat on the lake. (All the "sailors" were hunkered down in the yacht clubs avoiding the rain I guess: wusses.) Winds were 12 knots with good gusts that rounded us up under sail once . My cousin was driving with full main and jib when a strong gust pushed us over, I guess to about 45 degrees, and the boat turned rapidly into the wind and stopped in irons...he couldn't stop it from happening, although he is not a sailor and didn't really have a clue what was going on. I just let it happen because I was curious and we were both wearing lifejackets and game for anything. The sails weren't set well and we definitely had a bit of weather helm.

Sailing conditions were nice. 2' waves, max 3', fairly steady wind and not too many big gusts.

[beene]

Went out in the cold and rain with the aluminum BRP 14x11x3 propeller back on. The Piranha composite prop is disassembled and stored.

RPM is up, to just over 5,000 with the original prop that previously maxed out at 4,800. 25mph, with no ballast, 2 adults, light chop, full water tanks (note to self: need to pump out).

We were the only boat on the lake. (All the "sailors" were hunkered down in the yacht clubs avoiding the rain I guess: wusses.) Winds were 12 knots with good gusts that rounded us up under sail once . My cousin was driving with full main and jib when a strong gust pushed us over, I guess to about 45 degrees, and the boat turned rapidly into the wind and stopped in irons...he couldn't stop it from happening, although he is not a sailor and didn't really have a clue what was going on. I just let it happen because I was curious and we were both wearing lifejackets and game for anything. The sails weren't set well and we definitely had a bit of weather helm.

Sailing conditions were nice. 2' waves, max 3', fairly steady wind and not too many big gusts.

Should have put a reef in the main
Would have been some smokin speeds with that wind
And no more rounding up
G

[Starscream]

Agree on the reef. Except I don't really know how to do that....I read to Chapter 8 in Sailing for Dummies and then went sailing. I think reefing was chapter 9 . I am still getting used to sailing this boat after four years: with the young boys on board we usually motor (now 4, 5 and 7 years old). Plus until recently we kept the boat on the trailer and going out for an afternoon sail by myself would have been a major affair and I never did it. Now that it's in the water I can go out for an hour or so anytime.

My mainsail has reef points, and there are two pulleys at the base of the mast of which I have no idea for what they are. They lead to two other pulleys outboard and then through a dual rope clutch mounted close to the jib winch. The rope clutch is way too small for the main halyard so I was thinking it must be for reefing, but I don't have any of the boom or mast mounted pulleys (oops, blocks) that I think are part of the system. There was a good diagram on one of the threads that showed how to do it and one of these days I'll figure it out.

[beene]

Agree on the reef. Except I don't really know how to do that....I read to Chapter 8 in Sailing for Dummies and then went sailing. I think reefing was chapter 9 . I am still getting used to sailing this boat after four years: with the young boys on board we usually motor (now 4, 5 and 7 years old). Plus until recently we kept the boat on the trailer and going out for an afternoon sail by myself would have been a major affair and I never did it. Now that it's in the water I can go out for an hour or so anytime.

My mainsail has reef points, and there are two pulleys at the base of the mast of which I have no idea for what they are. They lead to two other pulleys outboard and then through a dual rope clutch mounted close to the jib winch. The rope clutch is way too small for the main halyard so I was thinking it must be for reefing, but I don't have any of the boom or mast mounted pulleys (oops, blocks) that I think are part of the system. There was a good diagram on one of the threads that showed how to do it and one of these days I'll figure it out.

Well
without some pics, one can only guess
1. your main most likely only has 1 factory reef point, so that is not much good anyway, i would take your sail in and get another reef put in, less deep
... failing that.... continue
2. with all those blocks etc, sounds like it would be fairly easy to set up a reefing line, just run a line from the cockpit, through the clutch on deck, to the bock on the stantion, to the block at the mast foot, up the mast to a block at the gooseneck, up to the main 1st reef tack, back down to mast on other side with another block at gooseneck, out to a block on the boom just aft of the 1st reef clew point, up to that clew, back down to the boom on the other side, just aft of that point and terminate there with a padeye or similar.

Clear as mud



G

[Starscream]

Yes, I get it. Yup. Certainly. Well almost certainly. Well not really. Actually No. I don't get it.

If some jerk (i.e. a real sailor with a real sailboat) passes me under sail because I can't reef I can just fire up the bad boy and rock his sailboat on my wake. I would probably do a couple of 360's around him for good measure and then seeya.

Of course he would pass me even if I could reef.

[mastreb]

If you're going into high winds all day, you can just put in a reef with sail ties or a bit of rope at the dock before you go out: just tie the reef points down to the boom with a bit of rope and a reef knot, and then hoist. You don't need to do any reef line rigging to get a feel for it. That's how it used to be done.

[Tomfoolery]

That's how it used to be done.

And how this Luddite still does it. I've had single-line reefing on bigger boats, and all those lines and blocks flopping around gets to be a pain. On this size boat, simpler is better. IMO, at least.

[Starscream]

I went out again today by my lonesome and after a holding-tank pumpout...so about as light as possible although still a lot of gear below. Was probably about 250 lbs. lighter than my last outing and the effect on speed and RPM was....NOTHING. Same speed, same RPM, regardless of the weight dif. 25 MPH seems to be the max with my boat.

[mastreb]

I went out again today by my lonesome and after a holding-tank pumpout...so about as light as possible although still a lot of gear below. Was probably about 250 lbs. lighter than my last outing and the effect on speed and RPM was....NOTHING. Same speed, same RPM, regardless of the weight dif. 25 MPH seems to be the max with my boat.

I think that squares with what other 90 owners are seeing unless I'm mistaken. However, if there's no difference at all, you're at max RPM and you might want to increase pitch. How certain are you of your tachometer's correctness? If you've got a chartplotter, you should definitely rig the Lowrance ETEC to NMEA 2000 cable to get exact values for that and fuel consumption. It's only $50 or so on Ebay.

[kelseydo]

Starscream, if your RPM is accurate and you are close to sea level it sounds like you're Etec is running as advertised. My Etec 90 is configured as mastreb describes - networked to a Lowrance via the Etec's NMEA 2000 output. I spent this morning on a local lake (Strawberry) checking new plugs and a new 14 X 9 prop. My X is fairly heavy with 25 gals water, 24 gals fuel, camping gear, vittles, . . . , and my 100 lb Lab. Strawberry is at 4800' elevation and I'm now turning 5250 RPM getting 19.2 MPH and 2.9 MPG (no ballast). I had been running the stainless 13.75 X 13 prop that came with the engine and could only turn 3850 RPM at 18.4 MPH and is the reason for the new plugs after only 70 hours of run time. Two Strokes are very sensitive to elevation and I know next week when I'm at 7500' elevation I'll lose some RPM and speed. This is my third season with the Etec and I still love it.

[Starscream]

Starscream, if your RPM is accurate and you are close to sea level it sounds like you're Etec is running as advertised. My Etec 90 is configured as mastreb describes - networked to a Lowrance via the Etec's NMEA 2000 output. I spent this morning on a local lake (Strawberry) checking new plugs and a new 14 X 9 prop. My X is fairly heavy with 25 gals water, 24 gals fuel, camping gear, vittles, . . . , and my 100 lb Lab. Strawberry is at 4800' elevation and I'm now turning 5250 RPM getting 19.2 MPH and 2.9 MPG (no ballast). I had been running the stainless 13.75 X 13 prop that came with the engine and could only turn 3850 RPM at 18.4 MPH and is the reason for the new plugs after only 70 hours of run time. Two Strokes are very sensitive to elevation and I know next week when I'm at 7500' elevation I'll lose some RPM and speed. This is my third season with the Etec and I still love it.

Thanks for that input...Based on previous posts I was expecting a bit more out of 90HP to be honest. I was hoping for high 20's without the ballast but 25 mph seems to be the max. I will play around with the props a bit more: I'll try a 14x9 and maybe a 13x11, I don't know yet. The only other thing I can think of is to look carefully at the motor mounting and angles: it might just be possible to lower the whole shebang by one bolt-hole and get the prop a bit lower in the water. Not sure if that would help or hurt. The transom makes a deep hole in the lake behind the boat under power so that it looks like the prop must be just barely underwater. It's kind of hard to look closely while driving though, it just got me thinking.

I don't have an NMEA capable chartplotter, just a humminbird gps/sonar combo. It outputs to the DSC radio but that's it. No more boat bucks this season...the new trailer is under construction and that's it for this year. The tach probably is totally wrong: actually the dealer is going to replace it because it reads a few hundred RPM when the engine is off.

[Tomfoolery]

I think you should invest in an inexpensive dwell/tach unit, or multimeter with tach function, or even just rent one from an auto parts store to determine the speed the engine is actually running. You can't know when it's right if you don't know what it's really doing.

Inexpensive automotive dwell/tach units are about $30.

[kelseydo]

Starscream, if you think of the X under power as a barge and not as a speed boat you will feel better about about 25 MPH.

[beene]

25mph is sweeeeet!



G

[dlandersson]

25 mph is 10 mph more than I get.