Ft. Myers Boat Show
Handymans342
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Handymans342
Member Posts: 10,375 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
PC BYC, Holland, MI
I saw that boat and a 45 formula at the Annapolis boat show. A local marina preps them and I was chatting with the owner. He had said the 45 could be had for somewhere in the $600s. I guess not bad for something that had a sticker close to $1.2M. It ends up my dock neighbor bought that 45.
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express
MT: What is the top speed, best cruise speed, and engine size on your 360?
@MDboater. RE: Top Speed - you are a knowledgeable guy so you know that temperature and humidity play a significant role in the performance (or lack of) in internal combustion engines. With that as a caveat, this past May on a day that was about 75 degrees F and had a humidity of about 40% my boat - 2014 EC 360 with twin Mercury Magnum 8.2s with Bravo lll X drives with XR SS props - I hit a GPS speed of 50.1 mph at 4875 rpm. I had about 80 gallons of gas, no waste and about 30 gallons of water on board. There were two people on board. There was no discernible breeze and just a light ripple on the lake surface. There were no wakes. I trimmed the drives up until the boat started to porpoise then tapped them down. This was the first time I had it at WOT long enough to take a reading. It was after the boat had 90 hours on it - "broken" - in "by the book and then some" and I only kept it there for about 10 seconds - just up and down! I do not like to run marine engines at WOT, other than to check proper set-up of props etc. which was what I was doing.
Now, for me, it's cruising speeds of 3300 to 3600 rpm. That run did confirm my long held belief that Rinker builds the fastest hulls around. Sea Rays are definitely very strong hulls but, in my opinion, are flared at the bow to repel water in ocean-like environments and with most of them having direct drives they haven't a prayer of catching a Rinker with stern drives - or even a Rinker with direct drives. I have owned 6 Rinker models: 190, 192, 226XL, 232, EC 310, EC 360 - ALL of them could outrun ANY other manufacturer's boat in their class size. Closest run I ever had was a Stingray, but my Rinker beat that too.
RE: Best Cruise: On short trips I usually start out at 3400rpm and take a look at rpm and fuel flow. I use Axius to change the rpm in small increments to see what differences occur and set accordingly. We often head-out from our home marina for 7 day cruises so the boat is loaded with food, drink, water and the Admiral's shoe collection! It's not light. When doing that - If I like the feel of the boat at say 3400 rpm I will go into programming on the Vessel View 7 and select ECO. At that point the Mercury programming system will access data and if I click yes, will "hunt" until it finds the closest setting to maintain the boat's attitude but get the best mileage. It can be significant with a loaded boat.
Having boated so long with so many boats and having had different engines in the same boat - example - I had a 190 Rinker which came from Rinker with a Mercury 4.3LX/Alpha 1 then I switched to a Mercury 350 Magnum/Alpha 1 with nose cone and drive showers and finally a high performance custom built 390Hp 383/Bravo l. Doing all of this, I have come to several conclusions: Often going a bit faster in a boat actually saves gas (hitting its "sweet spot") and often - within reason - bigger engines will result in a boat getting better gas mileage (not to mention performance) than smaller engines that have to work harder.
Long post, MD, but love talking boats! :-)
@BMXZ yes, those 350s are good engines. My boat will haul for an 8+ ton gal but I spend most of my time around at low cruise 1200 rpm or up on plane at 3400 rpm. Where the 8.2s really shine is in getting the loaded boat onto plane. They just whip it up! As Roger Penske once said "There is no substitute for cubic inches."
MT: Thank you for the thoughtful and comprehensive reply!! My only data point on the 360 was the Boattest.com test results but that boat had the 6.2s. It's great to get real world feedback from an owner. 50 mph is fast indeed for a boat of that size!
@LaRea There are 370s 390s and 400s in my area. I believe all of them have 496s and man do they move! Nothing their size in the area I boat can touch them. I'm sure it's the Rinker hull design as no other boats that size move like that - and sound so good doing it LOL.....and yes my 360 really goes with the 502s but also because of that Rinker hull design. Value, looks and speed = Rinker! :-)
@MDboater. There is a guy at our marina who has a 350 Rinker (essentially the same boat as my 360). He has twin 6.2s. He told me it was great for displacement cruising but when he took it on trips the 6.2s had to work way too hard, He had to have people move to the front and he got far worse gas mileage than mine. So, that's another perspective of the same model of boat with different engines.
Now to be honest there is quite a price gap between new 6.2s and 8.2s - a price difference that will buy a lot of gas. Therefore, before we decided on engines for our 2014 EC 360 I "interviewed" more than a dozen 350 and 360 owners before deciding on the 8.2s.
For us the ability to get onto plane very quickly and cruise a considerable distance comfortably with decent gas mileage justified the extra expense.....and as I heard the Admiral tell a guy who was asking her questions about our boat last summer - "It takes over a $1,000.00 to fill-up our boat so I think we'll get the price difference back on those engines due to their performance, quite quickly". Love that girl!
Now to be honest there is quite a price gap between new 6.2s and 8.2s - a price difference that will buy a lot of gas. Therefore, before we decided on engines for our 2014 EC 360 I "interviewed" more than a dozen 350 and 360 owners before deciding on the 8.2s.
For us the ability to get onto plane very quickly and cruise a considerable distance comfortably with decent gas mileage justified the extra expense.....and as I heard the Admiral tell a guy who was asking her questions about our boat last summer - "It takes over a $1,000.00 to fill-up our boat so I think we'll get the price difference back on those engines due to their performance, quite quickly". Love that girl!
Should have got the diesels MT with this reasoning
I anyone doing engine conversions? Like swapping out these engines for LB7 diesels? or swapping out these old school gas v8's for modern LS engines?
these engine upgrade prices seem crazy