130 Super Sport Difficult to Reach Plane

Optimizing the performance of Boston Whaler boats
rustman
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Joined: Mon May 23, 2016 1:16 pm

130 Super Sport Difficult to Reach Plane

Postby rustman » Mon May 23, 2016 2:07 pm

In 2015 I purchased a 2006 Boston Whaler 130 Super Sport. I outfitted the boat with a 14-gallon bait tank behind the helm seat, electric trolling motor at the transom, an additional Group-27 battery, and upgraded to a 9-gallon fuel tank. When I fish by myself [the boat has] no problem getting on plane, but with any other person above 100-lbs [the boat has] difficulty. After a great deal of research, I found this to be a very common outcome with the [130 SUPER SPORT and Mercury 40 HP FOURSTROKE] combination. Here is how I solved this problem.

The engine mounting height was wrong from the factory. The [anti-ventilation] plate was well below the plane of the bottom of the boat. An adjustment was made and this improved the [acceleration onto plane from a standing start], but [the boat was] still slow to plane.

After reading a great deal about the right propeller, I asked Tom Clark about propeller options. [He recommend the 12" x 11" Stiletto Star.] The propeller was changed and [acceleration onto plane from a standing start] again was improved, but not as I hoped for. Don't get me wrong, I will never fit an aluminum [propeller] again because [the propeller in use now] really bites even in heavy chop, but planing at lower speeds was [a problem].

The last thing I wanted to do was add a Doel-Fin or something similar; just the looks of those thing looked stupid. The problem here was I read so many posts about people who added them to their 13-foot Boston Whaler boats and had nothing but praise for them. I read every post I could find on different types with different responses, I mean days of reading.

I finally decided on the PERM-Trim; I am not affiliated with the company, I just did research. I went with this is due to very positive customer feedback on performance, material construction, and finish. It matched my Mercury 40 HP FOURSTROKE. This one little $100 piece of metal completely changed all aspects of performance with my boat. [The boat's acceleration onto plane from a standing start] and planing are instant, My boat does not porpoise any more. The boat can plane at low speeds. The boat handling is great, and top speed may have fallen by [no more than] 2-MPH--but who care when everything else is great? I was thinking of selling this boat, now it is just as I imagined it would be for a small bay boat.


I hope someone finds this useful.

Best,

Rusty Bennett
Huntington Beach, Ca

jimh
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Re: 130 Super Sport Difficult to Reach Plane

Postby jimh » Mon May 23, 2016 5:38 pm

Rusty--thanks for the information on your refinements in performance for the Boston Whaler 130 SUPER SPORT and Mercury 40-HP FOURSTROKE boat and engine combination. I do not believe that the STILETTO brand propeller you chose is still available. The maker of those propellers dropped that branding. They were a very good value in propellers when they were available.

I am not acquainted with PERM-Trim. Can you point to the manufacturer's website for the product you used? When I searched for this product, the search engine results were all for hair care products.

Jefecinco
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Re: 130 Super Sport Difficult to Reach Plane

Postby Jefecinco » Tue May 24, 2016 10:46 am

I believe the company producing the Stiletto brand propeller was bought by Yamaha. Most of the models manufactured by Stiletto may now be available from Yamaha.
Butch

jimh
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Re: 130 Super Sport Difficult to Reach Plane

Postby jimh » Tue May 24, 2016 12:56 pm

Here is the rest of the story:

The STILETTO brand propellers were made by Precision Propellers, Inc., of Indianapolis, Indiana. On July 22, 2008, YAMAHA USA announced that it had acquired Precision Propellers. From a press release at that time:

Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA today announced it has purchased the assets of Indianapolis-based Precision Propeller, Inc. and plans to retain the company's workers while making capital investments in the facility and its processes for the production of marine propellers. The new company will now be known as Precision Propeller Industries, Inc.

"Until today, we have been a customer of Precision Propeller," said Phil Dyskow, Yamaha Marine Group President. "We liked the company so much, we decided to make it a part of Yamaha Marine Group."


You can find a contemporaneous discussion about the takeover by Yamaha at

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/006259.html

The STILETTO branding of propellers from Precision continued, but shortly after the takeover by Yamaha the STILETTO website was taken off-line. Precision Propeller Industries, Inc. (the new name of the company under Yamaha ownership) continued to manufacture and aggressively market their TURBO line of propellers. The STILETTO brand was always a lower-price-tier product, but it continued to be made and sold (without much marketing effort by Precision) through some existing outlets, such as independent resellers (like Tom Clark) and by some discount-boating chains (like Overton's). (This is completely speculative, but perhaps the reason the STILETTO brand was still made for several years might have been due to existing contracts with some of these big discount stores to supply those products. There was no real marketing effort being put forth by Precision to keep the STILETTO brand alive, but they continued to be produced and distributed for quite a while after their branding and website seemed to disappear. And there may have been excess manufacturing capacity available, so perhaps the third line, the budget line, continued to be made just to take up the capacity in the plant.)

The TURBO brand remained as the "house" brand for Precision, with its own identity and website. See

http://www.turbo-props.com/

You can find contemporaneous discussion about the withdrawal of the STILETTO brand at

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/008192.html

I don't know of any basis to conclude that the propellers formerly sold under the STILETTO brand are now being sold as YAMAHA branded propellers. The Yamaha-branded propellers made by Precision were sold at the top-tier price through Yamaha and its marine dealers and marine accessory vendors. It seems to me to be more likely to find a propeller that is similar to the old STILETTO branded models in the TURBO-brand line of propellers, where the price may be higher than when they were sold under the bargain branding, but lower than the Yamaha branding.

You can find some remnants of STILETTO propeller information remaining on some vendor websites. For example, you can find some "clearance" items on OVERTON'S website with a few propellers in various odd sizes and pitches.

Again, it is interesting to learn that a particular STILETTO propeller worked well for this combination of boat and engine, but going forward it will be unlikely anyone can purchase that propeller as a STILETTO branded propeller, except perhaps as a used propeller.

Jefecinco
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Re: 130 Super Sport Difficult to Reach Plane

Postby Jefecinco » Wed May 25, 2016 10:00 am

Jim,

Thanks for the update/reminder. I hope I missed that last thread started by Tom Clark rather than forgot it. Getting old, I'm finding, is not all wonderful.
Butch