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.

I hope the thread starter takes that as a challenge ;) There is some guy whose posted before that has a 6-700 horsepower cobalt here near me somewhere, I think it's yellow, where/who is he...somewhere in the low 20' range, there is something fun about it, don't get me wrong, it may not make sense, but it's still awesome. I think it runs 90????

I will say, whatever you stuff in there, yank the old motor and put it aside for re-sale. Don't even mess with it.

You could put the same 600hp in a 21 Challenger or Superboat and be well over 100.
Agree with the rest, enjoy it for what it is

I ignored everyone when they said "don't do it" to my boat. It is remarkably stable 540hp, @ 71.5 mph :) though everyone said it would take a bazillion hp to break 70 in my hull (it's slow and I know it)

And yes, I'm looking for a FREE faster hull!!! It's Christmas, donations welcome :evilb:

But it already had the 502 stock, I just warmed it up.

You certainly have a "sleeper" too! I can dig it, cool!

To be clear -- your boat is cool! The vid in your sig is one of my favorites. I watch your video and then I watch some of mine...they are a little "tamer" ;) Though I usually have a couple on "fun governors" on board :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxdbfn6sahgw7ej/P8290035.MP4

One day dear old dad will remember to keep the camera below the windshield. It's amazing how slow it looks until the camera turns around.

Aarrg , texting whilst driving . :angry-smiley-038: Good looking crew there , Merry Christmas to all of you !

I do this all the time and my posts look like they're typed by a toddler :lolhit:

Anyhow, that Mariah shouldn't go over 80, meaning its way not smart even with 280 k-planes to fight chine. I think a warmed over bbc and a stock B1 will put you solidly into the upper 60's and enough to make the boat uncomfortable to drive.

LOL, nah just looking at GPS on the iPhone, but you aren't the first person to say it ;)

Thanks for the replies. Pretty much what I figured. We play around with Hi Perf Merc OB 100mph + STV's, Ally Outboards and twin engine OB Cats.

After looking at the bottom design and pad style I would expect this boats hull design to run out of bottom at about 60mph then get just plain stupid and dangerous to drive.

This is the info we needed to see. Purchase and project no longer being considered