Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

So....the wife convinced me to take a day off from work and go enjoy a day on the boat. 81 degrees, slight breeze, in other words PERFECT, she said. I love it when she is right and so does she!!!! LOL

I needed to redo the radio antennae with something that would actually work and install my new Tidy Up Bumper hangers. Man are those great or what!!! Plus, since we just bought it , we HAD to go play with it , right??? Of course we do!!!!! lol. Packed a cooler and lunch and off we went.

As we are cruisin around I figure, what the hell, lets see just how fast this pig is or isnt. Keep in mind we just came out of a 20ft Sea Ray bow rider w a 4.3 I/O. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much as a 21 ft pontoon with a 90 Merc isn't exactly built for speed.

So, I firewalled it , then backed it off slightly , trimmed it out , got the strakes up on plane and she topped out at 31 miles an hour, GPS. I was very surprised and pleased. I never thought she would get anywhere close to that, even with only two of us in it. Not that I will ever need it except for tubes and or every once in a while but its nice to know she can get out of her own way ..lol

Im liking this thing more and more....lol

What kind of boat do you have? With strakes and proper prop you can probably go faster.

brumbyvet wrote:What kind of boat do you have? With strakes and proper prop you can probably go faster.

Tracker 21 ft . I didnt stay in it for long. Might have gone faster who knows. As far as the prop, its whatever came on it. Been thinking of going to a 4 blade for puling tubes and better bite at cruising speeds. Top end isnt the end all for me

My straked Tracker 21 Merc 90 averages 36MPH GPS with two on board. Something is not right with your rig, likely your prop.
I have found that the best prop is a Merc 3 blade 13 1/8 16P.

id like to see that 21fter doing 36 with a 90hp on it, be very interesting to say the least, youd have a very strong 90 on there, most ive seen around here with 90s tri toons is 32 gps.

Meet me at Laurel Lake southern KY this weekend and I will take ya' for a spin.

The Tracker NV performance strakes are what make the speed and folks with the same specd boat on this board see the same results. About the motor, its just a run of the mill Merc 90 four stroke, nothing fancy there. When I put my 17P prop on I can reach 39MPH on smooth water but performance becomes much more inconsistent therefore it rarely gets used. Getting it out of the hole is much slower with that prop too. My highest recorded speed was 42MPH with a nice tailwind.


Wanna ask why I drove from Central KY to Dallas TX to buy this specific boat? The funky little wings on the toons.

Need Pics!

My 22' SunCatcher with a 90hp Yamaha, no strakes and two people has now shown top speed to be 24.6 GPS when properly trimmed.

So yours is definitely doing pretty good at that speed.

NonHyphenAmerican wrote:
So yours is definitely doing pretty good at that speed.

I agree! You can play with engine height for free! I guess I would start there, since you have a baseline speed set. Just remember to load your boat the same when testing from now on.
I love tweaking!!!

Your not doing no 42 with a little 90, tell that story to someone else lol, we here on this site know better.

wedge542 wrote:Your not doing no 42 with a little 90, tell that story to someone else lol, we here on this site know better.

Sorry man this has been brought up quite a bit in the last 4 years there is something about the NV logs tracker made around 07-11 that just make these smaller 21-22 footers fly....

My 2014 20' tritoon with a 115 won't touch that!! Tracker must have a patented secret for that specific year range....

Dusto wrote:My 2014 20' tritoon with a 115 won't touch that!! Tracker must have a patented secret for that specific year range....

They spray pam on the logs.

wedge542 wrote:Your not doing no 42 with a little 90, tell that story to someone else lol, we here on this site know better.

I am sure it is possible under the right conditions. When mine was new I had it to 39 gps. It will run 36 all day long as long as it's not loaded down with heavy people. In my opinion the only benefit a three logger has over mine is better performance with a bigger load. I've outrun a bunch of them with just me and the wife in the boat. I do love the fuel efficiency over a larger motor also.

LOL, was just getting a roar going, yea that nv package with that 90 will getit no doubt and with the right prop and load it will amaze you, it just sips gas is the best part and can enjoy speed to, i dont know how they squeeze so much from a 90 and rpm same as the rest but will go 2-3 times further on gas, if i had it to do over today id go for a 90 instead of this 225 for economy alone.

wedge542 wrote:LOL, was just getting a roar going, yea that nv package with that 90 will getit no doubt and with the right prop and load it will amaze you, it just sips gas is the best part and can enjoy speed to, i dont know how they squeeze so much from a 90 and rpm same as the rest but will go 2-3 times further on gas, if i had it to do over today id go for a 90 instead of this 225 for economy alone.

Well, how serious are you about that 90?
I'll trade you my 90hp motor, with some cash, for your 225. I don't care if my transom says 115 max limit. I'll rebuild it.