106 MPH Checkmate.......
 

When I was in Ohio there were several of these wicked sleepers around. Many from Harold Kunkles shop in Mansfield.
Have met many non believers but I have seen several of them run and they will crush your ego.
This appears to be one of them.
Click the link for pix's from one of their annual fall shoot outs.

http://columbus.craigslist.org/boa/2484723441.html

Offering for sale my 1997 26ft Checkmate 242 Convincor Sport (same as today's 262). This is an unique opportunity for some that wants a proven 100mph+ hull that they can put their own power in. This will be a fully rigged boat less power and outdrive. I currently run a dry sump 632ci tall deck motor and Imco SC outdrive and have been 106mph with this combination. My powertrain will be pulled when boat is sold. Purchaser can ride in boat before power is pulled. Boat has upgrades too numerous to mention...will list a few:
-Full hydraulic steering with dual rams
-All gauges needed in a fast boat (water temp, water pres, fuel pres, oil pres, oil temp, recall tach, etc)
-New tubular aluminum swim platform
-Trailer completely redone one year ago (new paint, tires, aluminum wheels, led lights, & electric brakes on all wheels)
-New throttle/drive controls
-Rockford Fosgate/Sony audio system
-1/2" dip tube in fuel tank
-Cockpit and full covers

I've owned this boat for 10 years and hurt a lot of feelings with my little sleeper. Many people have seen this boat over 100mph and cannot believe how stable and vice free the boat handles at speed. Boat is in nice shape, original gel coat, with metallic red tribal graphics in the gel coat. Have moved up to a larger boat which will be getting my power/outdrive. I will be happy to give the next owner advise on how to set up the boat to achieve their goals. $15,000. (Reasonable offers considered) You can reach me at 937-604-3294. No emails. Not interested in any trades.

Im curoius to know how big of a lake ur running on. I have a 253 convincor and have run in the 80's and its not that stable. but we are on lake champlain...

Damn, I wish I was in a position to buy that

Not my boat.
 

Most of those pictures are from Alum Reservoir in central Ohio in an area of the lake approx. 3 mls long.
They have a shoot out in the fall of all the heavy hitters to see who's top dog.
Harold is the king at setting up Checkmates. He used to provide all the test data for their catalogs. When they come out w/a new hull he orders one stock, pulls the power and inserts his.
He's an older guy and used to tell the story about always mounting an umbrella in what ever hull he had at the time so his wife would have shade. The boats were always stock other than power/drive and sooner or later some one would spout off to him. He'd kick the Mrs out and go destroy them.
I think he told me his fastest 25' ran 112.
You have to see it to believe it.

Howd De Do It!
 

If you look carefully at those pictures you can see some of the tell tale signs of a fast performance v-hull:

1. The hull at speed has a near perfect running angle, attitude and stern lift which is what makes the running surface patch as small as possible and allows those kinds of speeds.
Less running surface in the water at speed lowers drag and allows higher speeds.

If any boater can set his good hull up to run like this at speed, he will always see better speeds than those who don't!

2. The tach shows an rpm of over 6500 rpms, so with good power and torque at that prop speed its possible to turn the prop fast enough with reasonable slip numbers to get a prop speed to move the boat at those kinds of speeds.

3. Not knowing items like hull lay up and coring and overall hull weights or interiors for overall boat weights, its a guess, but I would suspect this little boat is on the light side for a 27 foot V!

No crazy mad science or real secrets here, just good overall package engineering and build which can usually net these kinds of results in a good well designed v-hull performance boat.

Also keep in mind this package probably does not accelerate like a bat out of hell and could probably be a little tough to handle in rougher water conditions. Ultimate speed and top end performance is usually a series of tradeoffs used to acheive those kinds of results.

In any event , great job of putting together a nice performing v-hull speedster and if someone is looking to move into a small water rocket this could be great buy, provided you are also ready to spend a good dollar on the engine and drive package it takes to push this puppy that fast!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Something fishy. The pick of the GPS and tach is with the key off. A 242 checkmate is NOT 26' or 27' long. I had a '98 253 with a procharged 502 and it was not stable @ 78 mph!! Maybe someone can crunch the numbers on what amount of power and what prop it would take to push it that fast and how long the drive would last. Also, it looks waaaaay too clean for a '97. 106 mph in a 24' boat not designed for those speeds......I don't believe it.

Nothing fishy about it.

Here's the thread from last fall where some of those photos were taken.

You can find the contact info for the owner of the boat that and PM him if you want.

Link proves nothing. Sorry not a believer.

I have seen this boat run plenty of times and it is awesome. He is a member on this forum and there is nothing fishy about what he says.

Sounds like someone might be a little bitter that there boat doesn't run that fast:party-smiley-004::lolhit:

I ran him in my 21SB at the shootout we had on Cesars Creek... I'm a believer.

He ran by me at 103 and that boat was dead stable at that speed. He runs nitrous on that boat and was on the bottle when he passed.. made me feel a little better:) He is a good dude and I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions about the boat.

Also, the 242 is actually a pretty good hull for speed.. 253 not so much from what I understand.

I find it hard to believe, but obviously there is truth to the story. Now I'd like to see the size of his balls!!

Here is a pic from our first pass with Lynn.


http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/.../DSC_0742a.jpg

Yep...I have run him as well. It runs the claimed speeds!. Owner is a good dude!

Wow, That is awesome!!!

Have seen it at the shootout at Alum...Runs strong but cannot verify speeds,personally..Truth be told though, there are a few checkmates in this area running some impressive numbers! I do know that a few of them are running nitrous.

Speeds are believable, I know of a Checkmate (early 90's boat I believe) in Quebec running a pump gas N/A 900HP 572 and he's doing 90+ mph on GPS.

I know when I was selling Marine supplies to the Kunkles they had just picked up Eliminator and were struggling to get them to run the way that they should.
He had one of the smaller single engine Eliminators boats there that they were trying to sort. Harold laughed and said, "so far my damn Checkmate Vee bottom is still about 5 mph faster" ;)

Those guys made believers out of a lot of people and helped show how good of a boat they really are.
Was there another time that he had a 27' Fountain in his shop beside one of the new Checkmates and the difference in mold and gel work was stunning.

Was one of the first (local) I/O guys to show me how smart he was when we were laughing about (20 yrs ago) all the other guys trying to make car motor set ups (cams and carbs etc) work in a 6000 lb boat w/no transmission :)

Thanks for all the positive comments and pic's added to this thread too. I especially like that the guy is in a helmet and vest in all the shots.

Blah......
 

hah, hah, hah. Gooot one ;)

Impressive stuff!

Still happy with mine. All stock, but it keeps on keeping on at LOTO. :drink:

There's a guy here on the Potomac that runs over 100 in a Checkmate. it's either a 251 or 253, not sure.

My .02 is that it's great for bragging rights, short bursts on relatively flat water. Not very practical otherwise.

Its true theres one with a number 6 on the back of running around here somewhere. Everyone knows all the good **** comes from ohio:coolcowboy:

That is a great picture. I love hearing stories about hot-rods, especially the single engine boats that look somewhat stock then motor on by whoever they run (on most occassions). Good stuff.

Anyone ever seen the video of the 18' Glastron Carlson that went 125 on radar back in the '80's ???
Coolest video ever. A bunch of bad hombres show up at a shoot out in Canada to throw down. A Skater,a Talon etc, etc. The fastest make passes in the low 100's which for the mid/late '80's is honing and then this long hairded disco looking dude backs in in a I/O powered 18' Glastron Carlson. You're thinking, what in the hell?? A 65 mph pass w/these guys? The DUDE lays down a 125! The freagin crowd is stunned! Like the first Rocky movie stunned.
I found the link to where the video was on youtube but it now says it has EMI (or something) in it and is banned in our country.
Should have saved it when I first saw it.

I'd love to see that video too. I'm always a fan of the underdog.

Back during college in the early 2000's, I had a bolt-on 6-speed LS1 car that ran low 12s at 112+mph. It wasn't all that fast compared to supercars or heads/cam/nitrious LS1s, but for a long time I ran quiet exhaust, stock wheels, and debadged it so a lot of imports would think it was a v6. I got a lot of weird looks with that thing as I'd fly by folks.

working on it.
 

As to the street cars, this was my baby. Home built 440 6 pack 4 speed car. Turned the motor 7K and ran 12.60's through the mufflers on street tires 3.91's and should have run probably a 11.80 but I couldn't get it to shift.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...beeingrass.jpg

30' with a dry sump 6.

Yowser!
 

When I sold them and dealt with them and the factory back in the day, they never had an issue with over powering a hull.
The owners of the fast ones just seem to be quiet and carry big ass sticks ;)
What's the saying about picking out the bad ass of the bar??? It's never the mouthy one.
What does that one have for power and run????

I had a 98 with the same exact color scheme, except it had a windshield vs his windscreen. Some fact you might want to know about the 242 compared to a 253. I have many friends with 251, 253 and 259's

-It is over 1 ft shorter and 9 inches wider than a 253
-It has a flat deck, almost no boat above the rail. so flat that you can't roll over in the v berth. Parked next to a 253 in the water it is about 1 ft shorter in height
-Not exactly sure how light, but it tows down the road like 2 jet skis, very light compared to a 253
-the cabin is no frills, the cushions are almost as light as air
-no wood in the boat, very thin starboard makes up the filler panels
-you mentioned the boat is too clean for a 97, imo the boat was ahead of its time. Molded glass everywhere, everyone though my boat was newer.
-he mentioned it is the same as today's zt260, not true. The new 260 may have the same bottom, but it has much more boat above the rub rail.

I purchased mine impulsively and assumed it had a 454 mag, it ran 65 mph with a light load on GPS with a 25p 3 blade. I was surprised to find out the engine was a 300hp basic 454 with a weber carb:eek: had to switch the 25 to a 23 for better planning, lost a few mph. Effiecient to say the least

Boat tracked well, however it would fly very easy in 2 ft waves. Not a boat I would want to do 100 mph in, unless it was glass to ripple water. in 3-4 ft waves you really had to drive the boat, and 300 hp was not enough in those situations.

I'm a believer, but I'll watch from shore

I'll say it again... I'd love to see this machine at the Shootout. :drink:

come'on pure energy it has a 1/2" dip tube in fuel tank...LOL

Yowser!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by check300
30' with a dry sump 6.


Here is some more of Check300's :drink:


Jon

Last few............of Check300's



Jon

I would like to see how this boat would do on Lake Erie.......

Little vid of Bills rocket!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpI6u...layer_embedded

Great pics Jon...Its been a while! Give me or Rick a shout next time your out in GH. Your always welcome to come out with us.

Todd

Blah, hah, hah......
 

So we now have video of all the required gauges, clearly the helm of a Checkmate.........hummmmhhhh,.....???? How do we debate this now??

So it looks like our lesson is, just because it ain't all over the internet (or a cat) don't mean it ain't so??

What a classy piece of hardware and an amazing piece of engineering! Well done sir.

Wonder how much a wealthy 32' Skater owner would be willing to wager on a race against this cruiser while it's tied at the same Tiki Bar ;)

The drive is worth more than the boat...

I saw the pic of the drive on the back of the boat and no scoop
and thought photo shop ;) Course I knew the only thing that would fit under a flat sun lounge.......

Who would have guessed. Now THATS a sleeper. Problem is, not a sleeper for long, a couple 100 plus passes and the word spreads FAST. Cool boat.