I wont be missing the kayaks Dave. I didnt mention earlier that planing off is still effortless in the skater. I know we had wondered how removing all of that from under the aft tunnel area would affect takeoff and low speed planing. All things considered, I think we definitely hit a home run here. I know that this was a lot of extra work but its all worth it now.

Great to hear! What better way to spend a summer working on boats that we love. We all spend more hours tinkering than actual use!!!
We all need our heads examined! :circle:

great to hear!!!

you guys may need to go see a shrink, not me!!

see I'm just fine!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]544315[/ATTACH]

Missing Loto trip this year :cool:

[url]http://youtu.be/gAuE23DufHo

??? says video unavailable. :-(

Try again

Thanks David .................... 120 + ?????

"Beautiful Noise"

David, Your boat's attitude is so much better than before the change! I guess replacing the sandbags with "bags of money" was the right choice!:boat:

Way better video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUiUNdoKDvg
Boat is flying nice. :-)

Love that sound!

To me it doesn't get any better. The Big Boy's can have their big blocks. Give me a 2-stroke any day!!!

Just going through some pics from the last couple of months

Patient wife[ATTACH=CONFIG]546344[/ATTACH]

With your wife holding the boat - that 36 looks like a 46!

All the more impressive performance with quad 2.5's - great pics.

Now with the holidays over im looking forward to building on the gains in top speed this year. Im planning Loto this year so I better be thinking ahead. Ive got some areas to work on that I think should yield some results.
Who else from the Skater Brotherhood is making the trip to loto this year to participate in the shootout?

Hey David
I am sure I will be there ,not sure yet if I will be running tho,

Hi Tom, did you find a new Skater? Just curious

Yes I did ! Just dropped it off to Chris mills for paint ,I will be posting a few picks of it during the work

So tom, The "Cat" officially out of the bag?:grinser010:

Lol yes it is ! Very excited for this new venture.i will get pics as Chris sends them ,should be done in 2 months

Congrats, its only fair that you tell us what you picked up and start a thread on it lol

C'mon man. You gonna leave your bros Hangin like this? What did ya get?

Sorry flight ,ya it's a 2000 28 skater

Sweet! Cant wait to see it. CONGRATS !!

Great news Tom! Cant wait to see what you've got and the progress of the work being done on your new 28.
Side point: Do you outboard guys realize what we have collectively done to the SKATER Forums category? It probably seems to someone new who checks out OSO for the first time, that Skater still just makes outboard powered cats :daz:

Good point...Probably 90% (or more) of the Skater news in 2015 involved O/B's

Other than Pyburn, a few race boats (new Stihl boat, Mauff taking Supercat world's in new hull, Hp Mafia @ worlds), Skaterfest, Bam's class win @ Loto...and Kenny ripping up the water in 32 Gone again + latest 368 transaction - what really happened in the I/O Skater world????

QUOTE=tom kennedy;4394816]Sorry flight ,ya it's a 2000 28 skater[/QUOTE]


[ATTACH=CONFIG]549783[/ATTACH]

David ..... Whats your point? ;-)

I know, really?

The point is that there are more of us with less money than people with lots of money!!!!!!
Some of us poor people have to do all our own work....

Just look back through several pages of the SKATER forum.
The majority is easily outboard stuff.
Compare this to the other brands forums on OSO. Youll see what im talking about.
We are a diehard bunch to say the least

Yes and we all have a sickness! It is called OOSD

Obsessive/Outboard/Skater/Disorder

I haven't had much free time to test lately. We moved into a much larger "tweaker upper" home earlier this year and with a long list of honey do items I have relied heavily on just following all of my Skater brothers threads on OSO. I've enjoyed following the new outboard Skater threads with the new 400's and all of the ensuing prop selecting and dial in. I'm also intrigued with the 30 Skater inboard to outboard conversion. And Ron, I'm still wondering how those new 300X powerheads compared to your previous setup.(pardon if I overlooked something there).
My hats off to all of you guys. Please keep it up. I'm enjoying your progress and "cutting edge" innovation. I draw much inspiration and encouragement from reading the latest on the Skater threads.
Also it is awesome to see how everyone shares information concerning test results with the engine height water pick up and prop selection.
I hate the old "it's ancient Chinese secret crap".
Our OSO Skater forum is more like a team.
The boating season is about over here in Ohio. As it draws to an end, I will soon be draining the fuel tanks and prepare to hunker down til spring, Carry on and keep up the good work Fellas!

Good to hear from you, David!

Absolutely good to hear from you. Now get that house finished and come boating with us!

David
Thought you might pop up with quad 400r's or something!!!!!!!!!!
Time just seems to fly by. Glad all is well

None of these new twin 400 rigs are gonna' run like yours David! Until they mount a pair of triple 400s on a 368, you've got everyone covered. And even then, I think it would be close. You've got the baddest offshore outboard boat on the water - hope to hear of some more dial-in gains from you in the Spring!

Thanks Guys!

Hey im at the point with my present dialing in, that im looking at more little details to add some speed
One thing for sure is any amount of weight savings.
Do any of you have reccommendations on switching out the heavy OEM skater seats ?
Ive seen some lighter ones made for car drag racers.
What has been your experience? Is it worth the trouble, and how much weight savings and speed gain?
How about other tricks?

Hey David, the front Skater seats weigh 55 #s apiece, and the rear Skater bench is typically around 150#s. That's 250+ #s total. The lightweight Skater seats in my 30 only weigh 27 #s each, for a total of 135#s. And the actual Sparco racecar seats that my lightweight Skater seats are based on are only 15#s apiece - but that's a lot of work and money to save just over 100#s. The best trick I know of right now is going with Li-Ion batteries. I just picked up a pair of Group 34 Li-Ion batteries with 1,000MCA for my 30. They only weigh 17#s each! The batteries Pete is currently putting in the boats with 400Rs weigh 65#s apiece. It was well worth spending $3,000.00 on batteries to save 100#s in my 30 now that it's going to have a couple outboards hanging off the back. And as a general rule of thumb, you'll see about a 1mph gain for every 100#s you lighten up the boat - depending mostly on where you lose the weight out of the boat. If you pull 100#s out from under the bow, you'd probably pick up 2-3mph, if you pull 100#s out near the transom, you probably wouldn't even notice the speed gain. From my understanding of your rig, from what I remember reading in your old posts, you're boat has typically had a tough time carrying the bow to free up and gain top end. If this is the case, I'd do everything I could to make certain the front is as light as possible. No batteries, stereo, amplifiers, speakers, fire extinguishers, etc. mounted forward up under the bow. And I'd make certain everything in the bilge is mounted all the way back at the transom. I believe you're boat is running flat because of all the lift of four props carrying the transom - if I remember correctly?