Deltarat

I bought a new boat and I have some questions. I have had a 21 foot jet boat that I have been driving for 15 years. This year I bought a 27 ft Fountain and the difference between them is huge. Let’s start off with passing and crossing cruiser wakes. What is the proper way to do this? In my jet I would slowly creep up on them and then I would just go over them fast enough to carry my bow in the air, but dropping of plane and getting back on plane is a pain in the Fountain is a pain. When the cruisers would be coming at me I would aim the bow about at a place were the wakes were minimal and just hang on. Is this the same with a bigger boat? Speaking of plaining the boat, what is the proper way to do this, can you just pop one of these boats on plane or do you have to creep it up on plane. In the jet I just stood on the pedal and the boat would always pop right up. Any advise on running RPMs, in the jet I had no worries, but I was told that the way you drive your boat would be a big determining factor in how long my drive would last. I have had the boat for 4 months and I have already lost one drive doing nothing but cruising around at about 3500 RPMs with and occasional 5100 RPM blast.
Granted, the stock Bravo that was on the boat probably wasn’t in the best shape to begin with. I will be putting a new Imco Extreme SC on the boat this weekend and after what I paid for the drive I would like it to last a while. Is there any rule of thumb about running in the 3000 to 4000 RPM range? Thanks in advance for all of you suggestions.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

In the 3000rpm range is the easiest area to figure out your trim settings on the drive and the tabs... You can see small changes if you have a GPS to show speeds. You will want to have the tabs level or slightly up in relation to the bottom of the hull.
The fountains are light boat so getting on plane shouldnt be hard to do....you never want to hammer down the throttles or you can plan on buying a new drive every weekend with bravo's.....just roll on it gradually.....you can figure out how much it will take and what you feel comfortable with prety fast. Im my 30' scarab with twins it was usually tabs down and drive tucked in.....bring the rpms to about 3000/3500.....and the boat will work its way up....as she rolls over the top you start backing off the trottles.....unless you want to keep going fast but for cruising mine usually liked the 2500/3000 rpm range....as the boat is nearing the planing stage you start raising the tabs and you will feel the bow rise and the boat get looser......once up on plane you can now start raising the drive and at this point its either looking at the indicators for settings or just a "feel of the pants" type of thing where you set the drive height and tabs for the boat to feel its fastest.

As for crossing wakes......i always take them at a 45* angle......depending on how big the wake is i usually look for that "low spot" as you mentioned or if the wakes are big i go for the leading edge of the face of the biggest part of the wave heading for you......this way you are getting launched over the wave and following wakes and not trying to crush your way through the wave hitting a trough.....
hope that helps a little....its all about taking you time and learning the traights of your boat....what you may find that works on yours may not work on another of the same size due tothe way its setup....just have fun and take it slowly.....you will get more confidence the more seat time yo have in the boat