All that and a 40 mph speed limit!
Well at least you can get up to 40 real fast!!!!

Jeff

Jeff 40mph is that the speed limit on your Lake Minnetonka where you boat with your Magnum & Donzi, that's nuts. I see why when you come to Lake St Clair [ your Donzi pictured here ] you drive them like you stole it..

It too small and overpopulated with morons to go any faster.
Lake St. Clair is where it's at!!

Yea, Lake Minnetonka does get crowded on weekends & holidays, but other than that it is just glass or a touch of whitecaps. There are pro's and cons to a space like that. A big pro is you can work in a city and go for a spin every night without having to pack the vehicle, pull a trailer and/or drive for hours. Con's, as was mentioned, it gets to be a zoo on weekends and holidays, but that simply provides time to watch all of the beautiful people.

Is there really a 40 mph speed limit on Minnetonka? I guess it is a good thing I don't have a speedo in the boat (although at the moment I can't get the boat to go a heck of a lot faster than that :-( ). I do know there is a sound ordnance, the sheriff had a talk to me about that (I think it is 92db...it's fairly low).

btw - Lake St. Clair looks really sweet!

"but that simply provides time to watch all of the beautiful people."

Or the fat guy with a parrot trying to pick up chicks.......

Jeff

Parrots are beautiful too :-)

Jeff don't you also have a strict noise limit on Minnetonka by the DNR????? I believe our other Magnum brother found that out last year the hard way !!!!!

Wow - that's so cool to hear its got some power again. The only problem with a duo prop is that there will be very little prop slip, if any, which means more stress on the drive - so easy on that throttle hand if you get bigger props for it - no idea what that drives rated for. I used to scare the crap out people with 470hp in that thing. In the early 90's no one made large pitch props for the Volvo's - don't remember how I ended up talking to Mach - was before the ole inner web days, lol. They laughed when I asked them to make a 26" pitch, and really thought I was nuts when I called back for 28. Your going to have to pay someone to build you a set of props I'm sure - call B-Blades maybe? Trim it way up once above 70 - it'll dance nice on that tail - like a bass boat. I used to trim up till it slipped while accelerating so it wouldn't torque over, and then up even more as the speed the increased. I ended up going with a large 15" diameter round eared prop to try and make up for the short bullet and reduce the slip, but then that made it torque over pretty easy when trimmed down at slower speeds. Matter of fact, between the excessive trim angle and the bullet being too short for those speeds, it was never really hooked up and would actually burn and pit the base of the blades from the water actually boiling - but you'll never see slip with the duo, and it won't torque over. I had just built a house and gotten married, so I didn't have any money or time for any real prop tuning, like changing the rake angle etc. Unless the drive has a lot more drag than a nose coned 270, you should be in the 80's easy with that power - something it's original builders probably never imagined ;) I ran 76mph next to big sonic (called Irish Mist) who had a Loran that verified the speed. Also ran along side a buddy's 32 Excalibur (the hull reggie fountain splashed for his original 33' 10 meter) who had a Nordskog speedo that also read it at 76-77. A guy in the area named Tom Gunther took an ex-berkley jet drive 19' Monza and dropped in a twin turbo'd 355ci Merc engine and alpha drive that would pretty much hang right with me. I dont think it held together that way very long though. Fun times.

Very cool to hear these stories! Even with the 23p the boat is a blast to drive as it skims the top of any water riding on the back few inches of the hull (tail) and it's nose up in the air. My plan is to locate a set of B8's for the VP DP, I have no idea what the pitch of these are, but it is where I am starting. Hearing about the ride doing mid 70's has me jealous, i can only get it up to mid 50's w/ the 23p....but like I said, even at that speed it is a blast. If I can get it to 80, that would put me at twice the lakes speed limit and I suspect me nobody (or very few) on the lake could come close...except for the sheriff's radio :-)

As soon as it quits raining the boat is heading off to the shop to have the VP 290 DP outdrive installed and try out the $1500 c7 duoprop blade I picked up today (estimated to be somewhere ~ 26-28p). WHile at the shop it is getting soda blasted and repainted. I have a laundry list of things I want to do but for now the focus is on those things that must be done before dumping it in the water. Later this summer (after my other boat arrives) the monza will go back in the shop for some other work. I look forward to posting new pics here :-)