Fresh water versus saltwater top speed. 308 flat deck build
 

Hey everyone, Its Nastybug(Steve). Ive looked thru a ton of post/threads and havent seen this anywhere. Sorry if I missed it. This came up a few times during the beginning of my build. Speed is always a concern when buying one of these boats but I wouldn't limit it to Skaters. All and any info would be interesting to me at least. The question with my boat was the windshield was going to scrub speed. I spoke to Greg who has a similar rig to mine minus the wide body and runs on Lake Havasu. Very nice guy and extremely helpful. He was only able to get 96mph out of his original set up. Twin merc 300xs's. Some of you have seen it. Has a yellow and orange base and is a flat deck with windshield. Absolutely beautiful boat. It runs 500 feet above sea level and in fresh water. I do all of my boating in salt water. I am just curious for those of you who have been in both what if any difference you have seen being salt is more bouyant than fresh. The type of boat and where you were would be helpful. Thanx Steve.

Steve
I have run in both fresh and salt water and have not seen much difference. The biggest variables I have seen is temp, humidity and the location of where you run. It seems there is better magical water out west and up north than down in S. FL. We consistently see slower speeds than other places LOL.
Over the years I have met some guys from up north with outboard boats down here and they thought they had motor issues due to the drop in speed while they were here.
You will have a ton of people telling you what to do and what not to do. My .02 cents would be get used to the boat, try different things and keep GOOD notes. Every boat is different in what it will like. Have fun I am sure it will be a really nice boat. You will be in uncharted waters with the new build!

At sea level here in FL near Tampa. We test our SVL often. We are consistently slightly faster in the fresh water. Same is true for my 32.b
Steve

Have to agree that the biggest variables air air temperature, barometric pressure and humidity.
If you've ever done any Dyno testing you can see it first hand. Those three are the main correction factors in engine testing. Some unscrupulous builders use that correction factor to show the horsepower numbers they want to the customer.
Back on topic. In the past salt water was always considered faster because it gas more buoyancy. I think when you had a lot more wetted surface in the water this affected performance. I don't think it's so true these days especially in cats as there isn't that much of the hull in the water.
I always hated racing on Lake Mead as that place just seemed to kill outboard performance. Was also known to kill a lot of engines!

The big gain in salt I think was the prop biting harder salt water more dense I don't notice much different from Michigan to ft Meyers