New Sonic in rough water.
 

Ok guys, I got to ask this question. I have recently been on two test runs in my new 260 Prowler. First run with a friend on a calm day, boat felt great, very tight and responsive. Second run with my wife and brother on a less than calm day, about 18” to 24” chop, and I have to say compared to my 24 Outlaw this thing beat us to death. The boat is defiantly solid and well built leaving your organs to be the weak link. I haven’t heard anyone else mention this subject before…………………………..…is it taboo to ask or speak of???
I would just like to know what other Sonic owners have to say about this. Needless to say, my wife was not happy with her first ride. Any thoughts or input?

I had a 1998 260 and all I can say is the boat needs the trim tabs and you have to get used to working them expecially in rougher water if you trim down the motor a little and apply the tabs about 1/5 way down it should make the ride much better at higher speed,the boat will also ride rough if you are not applying enough throttle and trying to run too slow in rougher water, get it on top of the water and it smoothes out.

JLSNYDER24BAJA,

I agree with Shewbart, I did the exact same thing, test drove my 26' on a 12"/18" chop, later saw a world of difference in a 24" chop. Also a little disappointed, but drop the tabs (and speed) and it's still a good boat. However, respectively, its still a 24' boat (swim platform) and just a little limited. Also, the Sonic is a wider boat, hence, more stable, but a little rougher.

All about getting on top of the waves. Once you have some time behind the wheel and get the feel of the boat you will never doubt it again.

Dip the nose down a little, give it the gas to get on the waves, and I bet your ride will be very smooth:)

Wow. I have not heard that reaction. It will take a little time with the boat. Make sure you mark your trim indicators at neutral, for drive and tabs.
(Do this by running a straight edge off the bottom of your boat, and adjusting each tab and drive so the plane of the tab is the same plane as the bottom of the boat, and so the cavitation plate on the drive is all at the same plane as the bottom of the hull's running surface. When you have each at this neutral location, take a Sharpie permanent marker, and place a mark on the window of your trim indicators so you know where to place them.)

When it gets a bit snotty, run your drive at neutral. (Maybe even nose the drive in a tiny bit). Run your tabs at about 1 - 1.5 ticks below neutral, (just enough to bring the end of the tab at or below the plane of the hull. (You do have the 16" long tabs right? Or K-planes?) Also, adjust the throttle to where it is nearly touching, or on the dash. ( :D )

Given your 26 is lighter than my 26. How much fuel did you have on board? If you had the wife on board, (please no offense MrsJL, but sometimes wives are known as the "Rev Limiter" :D ), it will be a bit bumpy as the boat is made to go fast OVER the rough stuff, not slower as to fall off of every wave. The one time I put mine on the trailer was when I was in consistant 3-4s in the Chessy Bay. The 3-4s were not a problem, and with my sister on board we were still fine. When we came around to the bigger part of the Bay, and we hit the occasional 5-6s it was too much to be a pleasant day boating. Yet, however, it was not a scary ride, just a little too rough.

Remember, THIS is boating in a 26 Sonic:

http://www.offshoreonly.com/gallery/...cat/500/page/1

18" to 24" chop? Me and my 42 Sonic call that FLAT!

:( :( Thanks...a lot of love here Huh?:D

The boat is bow heavy...price for that tall cabin. (An extension box works very well on that hull). As others have said, trim on drives and plane settings are important. Find neutral and work from there. Better yet put on a box. The boat is made to run on top of the water/wake etc. It's new dial it in. Find someone who owns or is familiar with the boat and they can help you centerline the settings, then ADD A EXTENSION BOX:D :D :D

Hmmm, sounds like I like those boxes on that hull doesn't it?

Sonic builds a hell of a nice boat, they have one of, if not the biggest cabins in it's class, and their pricing and performance is still very attractive in the larger boats. Good luck, it's gonna take seat time to learn how to run it properly... :)

:D :D :D

Yeah, mine is bow heavy too. Its terrible.

Sonics ROCK!!!

Plus the ITS:confused: :D:D

if the baja was so great why did'nt you stick with them ?when you learn to drive the sonic it will eat any baja of it's size alive in rough water ! we all take our 26 sonics out in the ocean not a lake !!

Speaking from experience here, I know for a fact my 26 Sonic rides better than a 24 Outlaw, there's nothing wrong with the Baja's, my brother owns the 24 Outlaw, he even agrees with that, he always refers to ours as the real boat. I don't know if its because your boat is a lighter lay up, its very strange. You just gotta practice, every boat has its own personality. I was pondering trading ours in for the lighter lay up new 260 for more speed, but with my winter mod's this year, my lil ol 24 foot :rolleyes: Sonic that takes up all of my 32 ft. garage, should be seeing some very respectable numbers after some more winter mods. Heck why did I bother trading in my 24 ft. Switzer, if I only got a 24 ft. Sonic??? I could have been seeing mid 90's with the Switzer. Well, best of luck to ya, hope you work out your issues, if you want I'll trade hulls with ya.. I got a 98 Prowler, last year 85 MPH, GPS, no ITS, and I didn't pay 100 grand.

Here she is..

prowler looking good, this is my friends boat beating a 25 active thunder and 26 hustsler all of equal power........sonics kicks a$$.........................

In choppy water the Sonics ride better at higher speeds. With my 31, the slower I go in rough water the harder the ride. Like everyone else said, it will take some seat time to find the sweet spots. Don't be discouraged, this is a performance boat made to perform! If you want to go slow....buy a cruiser!!!;)

jamie why don't we have jill (sonic99) in her 1999 prowler show you what the sonic can really do in rough water from our area of boating !!

:eek: Damn Tony thats an excellent picture!! We need you around here to get some good pictures of us balls to the wall. With our 28 labbed Mercury Bravo One that we got at the end of the season last year, there aint much of our bow heavy boat in the water:D . The problem is we spun it at 5600 RPM and it may be too small this year. I'll probably need to try a 30....I know a guy with a particulary slow 26 Sonic, with a fast name on the board (it has SC in it):p , that has a 30 pitch....but if I keep picking on him he probably won't let my try it...if he lived around here I'd have him hooked up..:cool:.LOL We're gonna try and see more of you and Jill this year, by coming down that way more often, since you don't come up this way and hang on our island...:( Did Scott sell his boat? Instead of going with a bigger 29/30 Outlaw, my brother bought a H2 Hummer this year, and said he has on order a 25 Outlaw SST that will be done in the middle of April. I'm happy with the size of the 26 so I can't reason out going bigger yet, plus it won't fit in the garage. We can't wait to get on the water, but right now my motor is sitting in the garage on a engine stand...LOL!!
Tell Jill we said "howdy" ...

Thanx for all the input guys:cool: Like everyone said though, I just need some time behind the wheel in order to get use to the boat and its characteristics.

I never go slow:crazy: :D

Tony you got me crackin up here:D

Hmmm.
All execpt that Active Thunder....I believe I was in front all weekend :D

Your Picture shows a Fountain, 26 Hustler and the Sonic.
The AT has already left the frame and is up the lake a bit. :crazy:

That’s quite a bold statement. Let’s talk facts

Hustler is bone stock Hp 500. The owner will tell you the boat only goes 70 Not a bar room 80

Sonic has hp 500 attached to a Merc ITS (stand off box) with an Arizona speed and marine kit on it along with other secrets the owner dose not want to share. Bar room 80 mph

Active thunder has a 502 MPI pushing 500 hp and has proven to beat the sonic on numerous occasions, (but we do not talk that do we) Gps 76.6 (standard bravo)

For get about the Scarab (not pictured). I have nothing to prove to anyone but my self.

I have been in Scotts & jills boat. The 26 required tabs to keep the boat stable in the rough. The one with the ITS has been known to launch vertical, this is why we use to call him vertical limits. Sorry but that boat in the rough water at high speeds is dangerous if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on. I just don’t see having a boat that requires that much attention to adjusting the tabs to be considered a well engineered boat. I rode a many of boats of this size and was quite disopointed in the ride in the 26 Sonic..... Sorry guys.................

My 28 Scarab has 280 tabs on the back that are held up with bungi cords because I never finished hooking them up. This is because I have no need for them other than ornaments. The boat blast through 4-5 footers like you would not believe. Just ask pure energy about his hell ride.

If I had to choose between a Baja and a sonic of course I would chose the sonic. But if I was in the market for a new boat, the 26 sonic would not be on my list.

See you all on the river

Paul :D

Hot Boat, that sure was an awsome ride! Just get some grab handles, will ya!!!

Duh Sh!t, dar goes the neighborhood !
:eek: :crazy: :eek:

Maybe someday Paul will tell us how he really feels.

To get this post back on track a bit I do think the 26 is a very capable boat. The ITS drive with the built in standoff is definatly an improvment over the standard Bravo set up. I would say you have a very nice set-up and with a little seat time you'll be very pleased with your choice.

guy's the season has'nt even started yet and there is controversy already !! it's going to be a long lonely season when nobody's talking to each other ! who cares
who's boat is faster or handles better be thankful that
your fortunate enough to own one !!! now behave and i'll see you on the river next month

Sorry guys . No offense personally. I love all you guys. We have had many great times together . Like Chris said I was just stating my opinion. I guess I got my foot in my mouth . Like you said who cares whose boat is faster and we should be thankful we own one and have a chance to experience all the thrills and opportunity to meet great people that all share the same interest. I cant wait to see everyone this year on the river. Its going to be a new year with many new rides out there. I cant wait to see them all. Thats if you are all still talking to me ;) LOL see you all on the water.

Paul

your forgiven and apology accepted now lets go boating!!!!!!!

i just have to put my 2 cents in. pual has far as At and sonic they run the same one day one would be a head of the other depending on water conditions, i know you will agree, both boats are awesome and the dcrivers are both crazy. as far as the sonic being on safe, i have to disagree frist the driver is nuts and will trim it to the max in any water condition , any boat of that size in our type of water can be dangerous at higher speeds. except yours thats a supercharge boat anchor:D . as far as the bar 80 nobody said that but you but i can say the best ive see the sonic do ultimate condition is gps 78. there are no other secrets in that boat other than your thong that you didnt want jess, tgo see ooooppps sorry.:D :D :D .

The waters we encounter in our boating area are in my opinion MILD. I was out there during the Hurricane last year and there were barely 4 footers. All of our boats handle our water conditions just fine.

Everyone is so obsessed with TOP speed, Jamie started this post because he was concerned about the handling characteristics of his new boat, and I have to agree, the 26 sonic, the faster you run it the better the reward. Run it slow and its going to porpoise and slap the bow, get it up on top and it will skip over 3-4 footers no problem. Now everybody " play " NICE..

I'm starting to feel the Luv again:cool: I didn't mean to start "battle of the boats":hothead: I'm just like everyone else here...just killing the time with conversation until we can hit the water :D

I'll keep you guys updated on how my next run goes.

It will be soon if I ever get my seawater pump and prop back...cheers!

Jamie, I have done it several times,, you end up driving the boat according to who's in it with you.. Me and my buddy, balls to the wall and we crush everything,, out with mom and dad and I try to take it easy and end up airing it out and comming down even harder, sometimes when your trying to do the " right " thing I.E. keeping everyone happy in the boat, you end up doing the wrong thing handling wise, maybe back off because of your passengers when you really should have gotten back into the throttle...

I find that hard to beleive!! But then again you are from NY!!;) And that picture sure doesn't look like the ocean to me!!:D

Good Eye Tantrum!! :D I had a feeling that was you he was talking about!!!:D

Tony - from your responses, it sounds like you are actually going to be out on your boat this year on the Hudson more than 2 times?

Jill (sonic99)

Just remember

Opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one:D Learn to drive the boat and be happy with it. There will always be a faster better handling boat than your's:rolleyes: In there opinion.

Re: New Sonic in rough water.
 

Jlsnyder----
Have you had a chance to run your boat again?? How about an update.
Thanks