Hot Rodding Mariah 202 Shabah
 

I.m in the Marine biz and a Hi-Perf Boat guy. Need a recipe. My brother found a mint 2000 202 Maria Shabah. Merc 260 Carb/Alpha with 320 hrs. Boat has a good rep and seems to be bult well.

He wants it to go 80 MPH. Has anyone done this? Don't know if the hull will handle the speed without chinewalking and screwing itself into a flip.

We figure it will need a least the following:

K-planes or Lenco tabs
Sometype of external outdrive steering
400-500HP blower kit on the rebuit 260 Carb.
383 with some mods.
320 EFI Merc Mag with Alpha
Just drop in a 8.1 425HP Merc Bravo 1
Upgrade alpha Sportsmaster outdrive, coned bravo, imco or conrad?

Need to know other forum members thoughts on the easiest most cost effective way to ge this done. Or if its just plain dumb to do.

Scott

plain dumb.

But its his money. I dumped abunch of $$ into a 1989 cobalt condurre. It was a well built boat but not built for high hp, should have just taken that money and put it towards my current boat.

LC

80mph might be a bit aggressive, but it does seem like more power would be good. If it were me I'd probably look for a used 500EFI ready to run, fit a bravo I transom assy, bravo I or XR drive, external steering and give it a shot. One thing to think about is that on a short boat with a fairly flat bottom it'll ride quite rough at speed so probably not worth doing unless you've got a glassy lake near by. Just my 2c. Even a 454 or 502 mag and bravo setup would push that boat along quite well.

I have a cobalt bowrider--also not a go-fast boat really. I've no plans to make it go 80mph though. It does 53mph now and that's almost enough. Maybe 60mph some day, but no real hurry on my end. It does feel totally smooth, calm and stable at 53mph. If I wanted to go 80mph I'd buy a different boat rather than try to push my cobalt that fast. I'm sure the cobalt wouldn't break--it's built like a tank, but that's just not what it's made to do.

Tell him to enjoy it the way it is unless he wants to piss money away. Way more cost effective to buy a 80mph boat...not make one out of a hull that was not designed for it.

+1
A lot of us here have already wasted time and money doing exactly what you guys are thinking . Learn from it . Go get you a hot rod .

Buy a dream meter speedo and call it a day. These are mariah family rec boats never made for 80 mph.

years ago we took a customers 1994 Mariah Z200 inwhich was a small 20 ft. - 94 inch beam 21 degree deadrise with a 5.7 LX mercruiser rated 250 prop hp. I know a tad different specs than your 202. I think your 202 has a 20 degree deadrise.

52 mph was stock on a good day and we did a bunch of stuff to it and money just to get 60 mph. At top speed trim out for speed it chinewalked to point calling it quits for anymore mods plus not pouring any more money into it for hull blueprinting, good set of trim tabs and so on.

The best thing I can tell you to do is take weight out of it especially in azz end and play with S.S. props for some small cheap speed & handling gains. The 200 we did was very stern heavy and removing weight out of the stern helped with handling, plaining, accel. times along with a small speed increase.

I have a Z3202. albeit, it's a 30'r, I dont think youll ever get that 20' to hit 80.

What does it run now 52 -55mph? Its fun modding out a boat but very rarely will you see a 25mph increase. Get an 80 mph boat.

My first boat was a 21' Mariah w a 454 B1. No way would 425hp get to 80. I think mine ran high 50s/low 60s according to speedo. Waste to throw good money towards a goal like that.

I’ll agree with most everyone here in that you’d be wasting your money for several reasons. First, a Mariah was never built to take the pounding that 80 MPH will dish out, so it will fall apart pretty quickly if you try to run it at that speed. Second, the hull was not designed to go that fast and thus will be an absolute handful to drive – possibly leading to an ugly crash. Third, you will have taken a pretty decent family boat (in outstanding condition as I understand) and turned it into an evil handling hot rod that nobody will want to buy. Said another way, you’ll harpoon the resale value.

I’d suggest you simply flip the boat for a profit and use the money to buy a true 80 MPH boat. Everybody will be happier and safer – not to mention having a few more bucks to spend on gas.