Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Some of you might could tell that i'm trying so squeeze everything i can out of my pontoon. I know they're not meant to be fast and they are meant to cruise, but turning up the wick everyonce in a while feels great on any boat. Since joining this forum i've gained 5mph and raised my cruising speed by raising my motor and going with a bigger prop.

Strakes- I've talked to some on here that have the 21' party barges with the NV strakes just to get some opinions. They seemed to like them except when they have more than 4 or so on board. I rarely have more than 4 on my boat and it's usually just me and my wife. They also explained that they couldn't get above 20mph with over 4 on board because it won't get on plane. My boat will probably run 25-27 with 4 on board, but it will only run 30 with just me on it while they're going 36-39 and getting on plane around 20-22 to cruise. While my boat has 23" toons compared to the NV's 26" toons, i'm pretty light. My boat is pretty basic with nothing special and is 20' with 90hp.

IF i decided to do it, i would probably go with 5-6" strakes starting at the back of the nose cone and going either all the way back or most of the way. The guy i would have do the welding and fabrication will TIG it and is a professional. I'm not worried about the strength of the welds or any leaks with him. He has built enough for me in the past and i've seen how beautiful his work it.

It seems that while placement of the strakes is important, it's not rocket science. I've seen some 4", 5", 5.5", etc all at different placements. Some 5 and 7 o clock, some 4 and 8 o clock. I'd probably do some variation of that.

So what do you guys think with my set up? Would i be wasting my time? Do you guys think i would gain 3-5mph? The boat feels very free right now and it feels like it would not take much to get it up on plane. Thanks in advance!

If you do decide to go with strakes, go and find strakes on a boat made by your manufacturer and copy what they've done--size, length, widths and angles.

Strakes are not just thrown on boats. Manufacturers do quite a bit of trial and error research on what does the job for their boats. There is quite a bit of thought put into them.

I'm just glad you've got a good fabricator. Hopefully he's also a good copier.

I agree with Bamaman on doing some research as to where to place the strikes, and what size..... However, I don't think it's rocket science, and finding a boat of the same make with strikes isn't that important. As long as you mimic the placement of the strakes, and the size on a similar boat, you should be good to go.

I say go for it. Sounds like you have a good fabricator and the means to do so, so pull the trigger.

Thanks for the input. There's a dealership pretty near me that has benningtons and when i was there a few weeks ago atleast 2 of them had strakes. Hopefully they won't mind me coming in with a tape measure, camera, and angle finder . The only thing about trying to find a boat like mine with strakes is they're pretty rare. I had never heard of Odyssey until i bought my boat. It is made by Forest River though, maybe i can find another brand that they put out now since 2007 was that last year for Odyssey.

Something like this is what i had in mind:

Man, I wish I had strakes!!! DO EET!!!

Forset River now makes the South Bay, Etc lines. Their strakes are extruded and have a slight cup to the bottom and side, so I doubt you could replicate them:

This is a Bennington tube that had factory inside strakes, and I added the outside strakes. This boat would run a solid 40 on good water with an old school 83 Johnson 140:

your welder must take out the drain plug when he welds them. if he dos not the air in the tube expands as it heats up, pressurizing the tube and can make pin holes in the molten base metal that he will miss as he welds them. the bad thing about it is that some of them will be under or behind the strakes making it a bitch to fix

I have "U" shaped tubed, with strakes, let me know if you need pics. JT

ToonGuy wrote:This is a Bennington tube that had factory inside strakes, and I added the outside strakes. This boat would run a solid 40 on good water with an old school 83 Johnson 140:

Thanks for the pics/info! How long was the bennington that you put the outside strakes on? The placement on those strakes is about what i would do. I have 2x6 bunks and i'd have to redo my whole trailer brackets and bunks to put the strakes on any lower. In either case i may have to unbolt my bunks and move them inward an inch or two to fit the strakes.

pond tuuunes wrote:I have "U" shaped tubed, with strakes, let me know if you need pics. JT

If you don't mind i'd like to see pics. I appreciate it!

Unless the boat will go 30, the strakes won't do much at all. So with 3-4 people, it will be a waste of time unless you want to re-power.

ToonGuy do you have any more info on that boat going 40mph with a 140, I have a 1990 140 and it went 28mph on my 25ft pontoon and now it is on my 20' deckboat and only got it up to 31mph...any idea what prop was on it?

schmeg wrote:Unless the boat will go 30, the strakes won't do much at all. So with 3-4 people, it will be a waste of time unless you want to re-power.

My boat does 30 and is at max rated hp(90). I thought with strakes it would get into the mid-upper 30s since i would get the nose cones out of the water?

DRock wrote:

schmeg wrote:Unless the boat will go 30, the strakes won't do much at all. So with 3-4 people, it will be a waste of time unless you want to re-power.

My boat does 30 and is at max rated hp(90). I thought with strakes it would get into the mid-upper 30s since i would get the nose cones out of the water?

At 30 you will probably do well with strakes. At 25/26 you are right on the edge of strakes not doing any good, or maybe be a hindrance. If the boat is light (1700lbs or so empty) you may get something out of it. This is the reason why I didn't spec out strakes on my new boat. It weighs 2450 dry without motor and with a 115, it is only good for 24.5mph GPS with 1-4 people. There just isn't enough lift generated under the tubes to get them out of the water at that speed at that weight. A 150 would get me to that magical 30mph zone with 4-6 bodies on board which makes all the difference. But the cost was too much for my wallet. You may be able to pull it off. Just be careful and not wreck your tubes.

schmeg wrote:

DRock wrote:

schmeg wrote:Unless the boat will go 30, the strakes won't do much at all. So with 3-4 people, it will be a waste of time unless you want to re-power.

My boat does 30 and is at max rated hp(90). I thought with strakes it would get into the mid-upper 30s since i would get the nose cones out of the water?

At 30 you will probably do well with strakes. At 25/26 you are right on the edge of strakes not doing any good, or maybe be a hindrance. If the boat is light (1700lbs or so empty) you may get something out of it. This is the reason why I didn't spec out strakes on my new boat. It weighs 2450 dry without motor and with a 115, it is only good for 24.5mph GPS with 1-4 people. There just isn't enough lift generated under the tubes to get them out of the water at that speed at that weight. A 150 would get me to that magical 30mph zone with 4-6 bodies on board which makes all the difference. But the cost was too much for my wallet. You may be able to pull it off. Just be careful and not wreck your tubes.

I understand where you're coming from. According to NADA my boat weighs 1660 dry. I do have underskinning but very few other things on board. Just an anchor, 10 life jackets, etc. Motor weighs 386 and then just add the fuel weight. Looks like i should be pretty light?