Sommer is coming...
 

Well...me, anyway. Actually...I'm already here.

We sold our beloved Active Thunder last fall, looking to prioritize other things in our lives, but I told my wife if the perfect boat came along, I'd consider dipping our proverbial toes back in the water. Lo and behold...such a boat ended up for sale right in our neighborhood, so I pulled it home last Friday and hit Lake Michigan on an unseasonably warm April day on Saturday.

The quick and dirty: its a 2008 27 ZR, 496HO and a Bravo One. Boat only has 160 hours on it, and is in really good shape. We plan on using it for a day boat...quick trips locally to Lake Michigan, Illinois River, etc. and it'll spend the rest of its days tucked away under three covers in my shop.

After running the boat Saturday, I've got a couple questions for those who may have experience....
1) What is the optimal drive height for cruising? The gauge seems a little "lazy," like...the needle moves more slowly than I'm used to with input from the switch and doesn't stop right away when I let off the switch...at least initially, it was tough to figure out. I know I cavitated the prop a couple times trying to find a good spot, but I don't yet have a feel for the boat.
2) The prop. I read on here that a 26 Bravo is optimal...and that's what I have. BUT...it was pretty beat up, and the dealer took it to a local shop for repair. Looks to me like they just basically cut away all the bad parts and basically left me with a smaller diameter...so I'm certainly looking to upgrade. Would a labbed 26 Bravo be the best option?
3) Planing took approximately 3 days and almost 4k rpm. Is that normal...or a function of the not-so-good prop? Granted, we were 100% full of fuel...but do those tiny little trim tabs help at all? I didn't really have time to experiment just yet.
4) Looking to the future...should I look at getting bigger tabs...or possibly playing with shaft height (like throwing an XR with a shorty on it)?

Gonna be a fun toy...just needs new tires and bearings and an oil and gear lube change...and we are ready for summer fun!https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...fcab66554f.jpg
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Get a real prop before changing anything. The prop will make the most difference and without a proper baseline you can't really guess as to what you will want based on your needs. Donzi set up all these boats aggressively on the X dimension so with the best top speed props planing blows. I don't have a 27, I have a 28 ZX but I'm sure they are similar.

Tabs full down can actually hurt planing depending on your setup. The concept is the rear end of the boat lifts up out of the water giving even less water for the prop to bite on. I'd try them down just a bit and see how it goes.

Once you get a good prop post back with results and I'm sure many will have some options to go to. On my boat I switched from Mirage plus to Bravos because the way the boat handles and gets up on plane is worth a couple miles per hour on the top end, plus my cruise speed is faster. So you might be considering going from a 4 blade to a 5 if general operation is more important than top end. If you go labbed you might need more inches depending on your current max RPM

Thanks to a friend (CLEAN LARRY SC288), I'll hopefully be giving a labbed 26 a whirl over Memorial Day.

Sommer,
Nice find! Glad to see you back on the water... I got some K-planes in the swap shop section if you choose to go that way and are interested...

If you bring your Scuba Gear we can take a stock 26 off of the AT, or we can just make Todd do it LOL

Well that didn't last too long. lol Nice find Mike!

Once a boater...

i swear this is the last one.

I said that 3 Top Guns ago......^^^^^^^......:drink:

Lucky thing your truck matches.......... btw what hppened to colorado ?