Move bravo 3 to bravo 1?
 

I have a boat open hull V, 26 feet, 4500 lbs, 20 deadrise ( cobalt 272) year 1994 with engine mercruiser Marck 400 HP. Bravo 3 pich 24, in this moment my bravo 3 (1.81 ratio) need change the gears up and down, and I think is not good moment to go to Bravo 1, what will happend ?, best top speed? More performance? What gear it will need.?

Thanks in advance for your comments

Erick

a bravo1 will make the boat a little faster and should work good on your boat.you want a 1.5 gear ratio.i would try a bravo1 4 blade prop 24 pitch.

Dear Mike, thanks for your good comments, I will do
Erick

you will lose a little bit of out of hole acceleration. people who spend their lives under 3500 rpm's prefer B3's.

Eric you will probably only gain 5 mph at most. With you being in cancun, its not worth it. Lots of wind and current there. With a boat that size, It WILL NOT be steerable in reverse with a B1 with very much wind. Thats makes maneuvering in and around the docks almost impossible with that sort of wind. A B3 just gives a boat so much more control in those situations.

Chris

I would not change to a Bravo 1 on your boat. I had a Bravo 3 on my Stingray 230LX and I changed it out for a spare B1 in the garage. I picked up maybe 1-2 MPH, but the handling suffered and like Blueabyss said, reverse steering is extremely difficult. I'm looking for more of a Max effort on my boat so the tradeoffs are OK. Come to think of it, my dad's 23 ft deckboat with a 350MAG MPI picked up 1-2 MPH when he took his B1 off and put a B3 on it (54mph). Also, Cobalt has your boat listed a just under 5000 lbs dry, and I bet that is without the motor. Cobalts aren't known for being light, they are heavy and soak up a lot of pounding and are built very well. I think you need to add about 1100 lbs for the rigged weight.

Again, I would stay with the B3, what kind of speeds are you looking for? If I were OK with below 65, I would put my B3 back on.