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New Boat - Sunsation 288

Doc

Doc

Bottoms Up
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I bought a new boat over the weekend. Great fathers day present. :D

We had her out yesterday and had a ball. Very nice. I don't think the pics do it justice but I'll share a few anyway. This is a 29 ft 2003 Sunsation 288 MCOB (Mid Cabin Open Bow). It's like new with just over 300 hours on it.
 

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Very Cool!
Now you need to get an SSMVI on the back and a blown 540 in the engine bay!
 
Nice ride Doc! Are you going to keep it in the river for running or take it out to some lakes to see what it can really do?

What's it got in the engine bay?
 
Sweet! One day I'll go back to having a boat. I had one or more boats for almost 15 years. At that point I ended up not having much time to use them and couldn't justify the cost. Sort of like the pair of super nice Kawasaki STX15 3 passenger Jet Skis I have. They are fuel injected, get reasonable fuel economy, start immediately, have lots of storage room and will run 70mph with 2 people on them. They are 2004 models and neither has over 30 hours on the hour meter. :sad: They just stay covered up in my barn on battery tenders. I'm considering selling them this year since they haven't been wet in 2 years now. If you have a watercraft, you need to use one like you to make it fun and worth it!
 
I'll run it on the Ohio River. I prefer the river to lakes. Rivers have up and down, and easier to know right of way. On lakes everybody goes every which direction, no one is wrong but it sure can mess up your cruising. Not everyone on the river knows the rules but most seen to understand to give way to boats going up or down the river vs going across or caddy corner.

It has a 496 HO (High Output) 425 HP. It will take me as fast as I want to go, maybe faster. I've seen 63 on GPS so far and I backed her down. That was enough for me. Our little two person jet ski would do 58, which again, was fast enough for me. I don't think I'd even enjoy going 70 on one of those.

This boat really cuts the water much cleaner / quicker than the baja. It bites and turns sharp. Takes a little getting used to. My old big block 454 took some time to build up the power and then whoosh you away. This 496 has immediate response . Push that throttle down and your flying. Pretty kewl. :D

So, what's SSMVI Fred?
 
Holy crap doc. Doing 63 on the Ohio river?!?!? That's a little quick isn't it?

Most of my boating days were on Lake Erie. Once you get out about a mile, you have all the space you need to haul ass since most everyone stays within 1/2 mile of shore. As a kid, I water skied from the American side to the Canadian shore... and back. (about 13 miles each way with the only a quick stop on the Canadian side). Wish my arms could do that now.
 
I boated on Lake Erie as a kid. I got to ride on the ski boat but did not get to try to ski. I loved it.

We have two boats in this area that are tunnel hulls. They are the fastest boats around. Both have said they did 115 gps. Then one said he did 120 gps. We have a number of open spots on the river for this kind of speed. They did have spotters down near the end of the run to warn other boaters to go the other side of the island. Quite a few boats top 70. I do not feel the need for that kind of speed, and my wife is glad of that.
 
Doc said:
I'll run it on the Ohio River.
Click to expand...

The mighty muddy Ohio passes about 3 miles from my humble abode. If you feel like making a downstream trip sometime, let me know. With the 20 gallon tanks that come on our Jet Skis and the ability to easily carry another 5 or two 5 gallon plastic tanks of fuel, we gan go a long way before needing fuel. When I had my Sea-Ray, we made a trip to Louisville and back over a weekend. It was a nice easy trip running only about 35 mph on average.
 
SSMVI - Speedmaster #6 drive. Would be needed to handle the horsepower. About 25k a crack. Figure a prop at $3500-$7000.

But heck, 70 mph is fast enough for that boat. ALWAYS wear your lanyard and test it every time you use the boat. There's videos all over youtube of boats going around in circles after the driver/passengers get thrown out. Not much you can do when your boat is heading right at you and that prop is spinning like a bowl chopper.

For running above 50, you should consider dropping some coin on real offshore life jackets by LifeLine. Not cheap, but remember at 50 mph, the boat takes a spill, you go flying, your clothes get ripped off and so does any other life jacket. The Lifelines go for about 300 each for a standard jacket. They stay on, and tested to stay on.
 
Dargo said:
The mighty muddy Ohio passes about 3 miles from my humble abode. If you feel like making a downstream trip sometime, let me know. With the 20 gallon tanks that come on our Jet Skis and the ability to easily carry another 5 or two 5 gallon plastic tanks of fuel, we gan go a long way before needing fuel. When I had my Sea-Ray, we made a trip to Louisville and back over a weekend. It was a nice easy trip running only about 35 mph on average.
Click to expand...

Thanks Brent. We've done Cinci before, that is an overnighter going down there. How far past Cinci are you? I would like to do a week long trip but this probably is not the boat for that kind of trip. While we can sleep in the mid cabin cuddy it would not be the most comfortable place. Normally we only spend one or two nights on the boat a year. Just for fun, no long trip invovled.

waybomb said:
SSMVI - Speedmaster #6 drive. Would be needed to handle the horsepower. About 25k a crack. Figure a prop at $3500-$7000.

But heck, 70 mph is fast enough for that boat. ALWAYS wear your lanyard and test it every time you use the boat. There's videos all over youtube of boats going around in circles after the driver/passengers get thrown out. Not much you can do when your boat is heading right at you and that prop is spinning like a bowl chopper.

For running above 50, you should consider dropping some coin on real offshore life jackets by LifeLine. Not cheap, but remember at 50 mph, the boat takes a spill, you go flying, your clothes get ripped off and so does any other life jacket. The Lifelines go for about 300 each for a standard jacket. They stay on, and tested to stay on.
Click to expand...

Thanks Fred. Great info. Will look into jackets by lifeline.
 
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