My wife and I had a chance to perform some final testing before taking the Z up to Red Wing. Most everything is working well; however, one nagging issue remains. The Z has a tough time getting on plane. It’s certainly not for lack of power. I changed the prop from a 21 since I could bang the rev limiter at Rathbun, to a 25p prop of similar design, stainless, Mercruiser, not exactly certain which model but I could post a pic later. When I go to accelerate out of the hole, the weight transfers to the stern and a wheelie occurs. With the 21p prop I could simply apply more throttle to “jump over the bubble” but the 25p will cavitate when I apply more power. It seems to do best with drive all the way down, any tilt up only magnifies the wheelie. Halfway trimmed up, it feels like the boat is nearly vertical. When I finally give up a planing attempt, I wait for the wave to catch up, then apply throttle when the wave catches the stern and then it will pop up and go on plane. Goofy sensation for certain. At this point I am considering moving as much weight forward as possible, batteries, anchor, etc….
BTW, the Z does well at speed, hit 65mph, but have not seen the RPM end yet, so no idea if 25p is big enough. The rev limit is set to 5800 and I did not hit that. The look of concern on my brides face told me not to press the craft any faster than that. Kind of a “God I hope my husband knows what he is doing” kind of look. Anyone else see that look from their passenger?
Maybe some good campfire fodder for Red Wing.
