TVMNick

Hey everyone!

Been a long time lurker here and always an enthusiast of boating and performance boats in general. I recently came across a deal that was too good to pass up so I moved forward on it, the boat I picked up is a 2007 Baja 26 Outlaw with 236 hours on the stock 496HO. I've only used the boat one time so far on my home lake of Lake Powell, Utah/Arizona and had a great time with it! I did find an issue on the boat that I'm having repaired now, the drive lubrication system had cracked and was putting all of the drive fluid into the transom but that should be all good to go soon.

I realize that in the world of fast boats that if you want a faster boat you should just buy a faster boat, so what I am wanting to do with this boat is maximize cruising speed. I.e. I want to cruise as fast as possible at the lowest RPM possible (fun right?). Target for this project is 50-55mph cruise at under 4000RPM, being that I don't have much in water time with this boat yet I'm not sure if this is even feasible but thats where I would like to get some feedback from the knowledgable minds here on what prop could theoretically get me close to this goal. Utilizing the prop slip calculator a 25P at 3800RPM with an assumed 15% slip would go 51MPH. Am I up in the night on this?

Currently the boat has the stock Mirage Plus 23P and I saw a speedo best of 64mph at 4900RPM with the boat trimmed out. I do realize this isn't the best being it isn't a gps number, but it is a baseline. I would love to do some more testing but that won't happen until the spring now. I'll probably send this prop to BBlades or the like for labbing this winter purely for a top speed prop should I ever get a wild hair, but I doubt it would get used much but ya never know.

All around I'm thrilled with the boat, I've been looking for a 28 Nordic Heat for about 3 years now around $30K and I picked this Baja up for less than that and from everything I can tell they are comparable in most ways. I'm mainly going to be using this boat with 5-6 people on board, a cooler and running around Lake Powell to check out the different canyons, Indian Ruins, and tourist sites. I will probably do the Lake Powell Challenge next September with it as well and maybe a single trip to Lake Havasu.

Thanks for dealing with my long winded post and I look forward to learning from you all!

Griff

You have to prop a boat for the correct WOT first, which it is now. Cruise speed is secondary.

Spinning a higher pitch prop at a lower rpm puts more strain on the engine.

A Bravo 1 4 blade or Rev4 might give a slightly higher (2-4mph) cruise speed but you will most likely lose 2-4 mph on the top speed.

TVMNick

That makes total sense, I really appreciate the reply Griff! I guess I will try to optimize what I have and get the boat to full RPM and see where that takes me. Mostly I'm just excited to go use it more!

Are there any things in particular that I should keep an eye out for on this 26 Outlaw that were known issues? I haven't really read about much that seemed to be a consistent issue!

nordy racer

that's a damn good deal for a 26ol with that hours for under 30K.. did it come with a trailer?

Griff

I don't know anything real specific about 26 Outlaws.
I owned a '93 24 OL and had several friends with various year 25 OL's. None had any issues.

TVMNick

Yes, has an aluminum EZ Loader trailer! I did put new wheels / tires and fenders on the trailer to make it look better but its in good shape! I felt like it was a really good deal, I was somewhat skeptical since it seemed too good to be true but so far so good.

TVMNick

Cool, from everything I have read and seen they appear to be a great boat overall. I can't wait to get a season of use out of it and have some adventures on Lake Powell with it, there are a bunch of areas of the lake I've never seen because I've never owned something that cruised quickly and comfortably.

The only thing I have read is that the 26OL is a liner boat and they had some issues with them, not exactly sure what to look for though. I have read that looking under the back seats in the cabin there could be cracking if there is an actual issue with the boat but I have looked several times, had everyone I know look and they can't see anything either so hopefully that means its solid!

TVMNick

Is there anyway to post pictures on here without loading the photos to a website?

Griff

Paid memberships can load pics directly onto OSO. Non paying/ Registered have to host them on a photo sharing site.

iaoutlaw

Upload photos to photobucket then copy the url and paste on this site