Will your twin powered boat plane on 1 engine?

[Whaler27]

Martino110 - 11/9/2007 8:08 PM

Boston Whaler full cabin 27 with twin 225's--no dice. Went to the catalog, it says minimum HP to get the boat on plane is 300. Anyone with this question about their own boat might want to refer to the mfgr's specs, as I am sure the other mfg's have this all figured out too.

Interesting. A single 3.3L Evinrude Ficht 225 spinning a 19 inch Viper can put my 1989 Boston Whaler 27 with the Whaler Drive on plane without too much difficulty, although much slower than with both motors of course. Needs a fair amount of tab down on the unpowerered side to keep the boat level and the good engine in the water. Found this out when one of them blew a gearcase.

Also, had one of my engines run out of fuel once while underway (was drawing from the saddle tank) on a really flat day at about 28 MPH and it wasn't immediately obvious that the motor wasn't running until I looked down at the tach and saw it was pointing at zero.

What 225s do you have?

[jethro1]

Will all of you that said you have run your twin powered boat on one engine please report what your WOT RPM was?

[kaneroy]

Drifter - 11/9/2007 7:13 PM

That seems odd considering that a few have reported getting their Contender 25 on plane with a single Z200. I think we also have one member that got his 23T on plane with one F150...



(I've never even tried it on my 23T with F150's.)

we thought so too. but it would not do it. the second engine would not go over 2500 rpms, it just would not get up to speed.

[MakoMyDay]

jethro1 - 11/10/2007 7:48 AM

Will all of you that said you have run your twin powered boat on one engine please report what your WOT RPM was?

62 light---VERY light
58-60 loaded
41 on one engine

Twin 225 optis---21" Mirage props

[ken2]

kaneroy - 11/10/2007 8:30 AM

we thought so too. but it would not do it. the second engine would not go over 2500 rpms, it just would not get up to speed.

I think the faster boats (60+) have a hard time getting up on one, because they have a lot of prop.
23ft Donzi zf with 200hpdi's won't plane on one. but its spinning 23 pitch props.
21's or 19's it would probably do it fairly easy.

[dmartin1953]

bigtuna - 11/9/2007 7:17 PM

Try tilting the unused motor out the water??? You don't think that is the first thing one would do?? The 25 is not personally my boat...but the guy who runs it is a very knowlegable captain and I can promise you he did everything he could to get that boat on plane to come in on one from 100 plus miles...no dice...he did have a REAL load though...4-5 hundred lbs of ice, 5 people, half fuel, 15 yellowfin, gear, etc
My 27 had 250s and we tried to get it out the hole with 3 different props with 3 people and half a tank of fuel...not even close...no way a 200 hpdi gets a 27 contender on plane (and no...slugging along at 15 mph is not on plane)

Bigtuna- The motor tilt comment was a weak humor- Do you guys trailer over to Grand Isle from Laffeyette? I grew up in Houma.

Do you have transom wedges? When I planed on 1 motor, the stock trim tabs were fully down, motor trimmed fully in and I have 5 degree transom wedges. I wasn't running as much ice as you were, but my 38 gal livewell was full (~304 lbs). Did you try moving the crew forward? What pitch props? All of my crew were at the leaning post or aside the console.



I don't remeber the rpm at WOT with 1 engine, but hopefully, I will get out this weekend for some grouper trolling and will see what the rpms are at WOT.

[CopyKat]

22' ProKat with 115 Suzuki 4 strokes. Nope.

I called the factory and some bigshot there told me he planed a 26' ProKat with a single 115... that you had to zig-zag the boat to get it up. I tried when one overheated 65 miles out. No luck. We came in at 8mph, 3000 RPM. Got in close to midnight and had to call the USCG because my wife would report us missing at 9pm.

I have 14x22p props and have considered going to the 14x20p to see if that would do it. I'm at the lower end of my recommended range anyway.

[bully]

Freeman 33 custom cat will plane on one 300 Zuki with 16x20 props.

25mph loaded for fishing
35mph lite

[bigtuna]

dmartin1953 - 11/10/2007 9:09 AM

Bigtuna- The motor tilt comment was a weak humor- Do you guys trailer over to Grand Isle from Laffeyette? I grew up in Houma.

Do you have transom wedges? When I planed on 1 motor, the stock trim tabs were fully down, motor trimmed fully in and I have 5 degree transom wedges. I wasn't running as much ice as you were, but my 38 gal livewell was full (~304 lbs). Did you try moving the crew forward? What pitch props? All of my crew were at the leaning post or aside the console.



I don't remeber the rpm at WOT with 1 engine, but hopefully, I will get out this weekend for some grouper trolling and will see what the rpms are at WOT.

Haha...gotcha
No...neither my old 27 nor my buddies 25 have the wedges...which could make all the difference in the world!
We actually fish out west of you guys out of Cypremort Point...bottom fishing/diving is great...but anytime I want to go tuna fishing I pull to fouchon and hit green canyon...the 140 mile hike out of Cyp point is just a tad too much for me!

[SeaCoast]

My 2006 Pathfinder 23DV will plane on a single F150

[jmsavoie]

With no problem!

[M.E.K.]

I had an old (HEAVY) 32 Whitewater with 225 mercs that would plane with no problem on one motor.

[UBETRUN]

My Trophy will not plane on one motor but I never tried moving the crew forward or zig-zagging.

[Moby1]

1989 Hydra-Sport 33 vector would not plane with one 300 Johnson (1990 v-8) or one 225 Johnson (1996 v-6).

[ClarkLLC]

Plane with one engine or no plane...........the one instrument that you probably do not have on your panel...
MANIFOLD PRESSURE.........yes you will plane a boat with one engine in some cases or not...either way ....you are
pullling down the good engine and really looking at a serious problem with the good engine in the future by putting
that much stress............any pilot will tell you...single aircraft or twin....power up and climb without watching the
manifold pressure .....is trouble looking to happen..................twins on a vessel....and have a motor go down...
and ask the good engine to respond and put you on plane....is asking to much of a piece of equipment that is not
rated to run in such conditions (weight/speed).......I have lost an engine off shore....but took my time coming in
being concerned of the stress that the good engine is under.....

[Tom W Clark]

My Whaler Revenge 25 Walk Through will plane easily with only one of its 150 HP outboards.

[UaVaj]

The test boat with twin zuke 250 plane fine on one engine and ran ~20 knots. I will test mine soon with twin zuke 300 after she is broken in.

[kerno]

Manifold pressure? Perhaps if running turbocharged or supercharged engines. If you are referring to a vacuum gage, I can't honestly say at what reading I would begin to worry.

When you have the throttles all the way forward, the engines are putting out everything they can. If the boat is propped correctly, it should occur at about the HP peak. Certainly an engine that is propped to run as part of a pair will not be correctly propped to run as a single, BUT:

I can see the potential for damage on a carbureted motor running lean because inadequate air flow to achieve proper fuel metering as a result of the throttle being wide open and the engine still being at an unusually low rpm due to the load, but once you have a mass air flow sensor and a computer, I would not be concerned about running one motor at a higher than normal load. I'd watch the temperature gage and plane my way home if I had the right combination of horsepower and deadrise to be able to do it.

My Parker 25 with twin 150 Mercs and My 29 Stamas with twin 225 Hondas would do it no sweat. I have not tried to see if the Venture 34 will do it with a single 208, but I'm betting that with 24 degrees of deadrise, the answer is a resounding "no".

[Back-in-Black]

25 Contender with twin 250XS. I'm runing 24" Bravos now and it won't plane on those props with 1 motor. When I first put these motors on I was running 23" Mirage+ props. With no wedges and full fishing load with 4 guys, up on plane fairly easy. The only problem was getting out of the water without the props blowing out. Once up, how fast you wanta go? Could run 35 mph at about 3/4 throttle. The blowout problem was why I went to the Bravos. The Mirages would blowout while up on full plane with both motors.

I'm having my Mirages tweaked so I can keep them in the boat for emergencies. I also have wedges now, so hopefully getting up won't be a problem. As far as overloading my one engine... why would you think that? I've seen this exact same boat for sale, factory rigged with single 250's, so why would running my boat on a single 250 be stressing it?

[Trav4011]

MakoMyDay - 11/8/2007 8:23 PM

Heh... mine will soon plane on one engine too.. As a matter of fact, my engines look a lot like yours.