New boat -top speed?

[Dusto]

I just purchased a 2014 Harris Flotebote 20' cruiser tritoon with strakes and the nose deflectors (not sure technical term). HF calls it the performance plus package. The toon is equipped with a Mercury 115 efi 4 stroke.

I am wondering if anyone out there has this boat, what is the top speed? I expecting minimum 30mph in optimal conditions.

Very excited to test the boat once to 24" of ice melts on our lakes.

[cwag911]

I think you should get low 30's.

[Bamaman]

I agree with Carl--low 30's.

The Harris is a fine brand of boat. Too bad you didn't go the Mercury FourStroke 150 hp motor, as we seldom see 20' high performance tritoon boats. You would be up in the 40's with the max. engine.

[Dusto]

Haha. 150hp wasn't in the budget, but that doesn't mean I can't upgrade down the road. Something to look forward to I suppose. Likely once the toddlers want to get into water sports.

[hoosierhick]

I have a 2013 200 cruiser pontoon with a 90 4 stoke . It will do 26 mph. with 2 people
Clocked by gps. You should get in the low 30's easy.

[ROLAND]

Yeah, gotta go with the flow on this one, reasonable to expect low 30's... I've got a 20 footer with a 75 on the back... 2 people on the boat, full tank of fuel and with the lake smooth as glass, I top out around 23-24 mph.... so yeah, I think you can expect low 30's with your rig.... congrats on the new boat

[Dusto]

I have a 2013 200 cruiser pontoon with a 90 4 stoke . It will do 26 mph. with 2 people
Clocked by gps. You should get in the low 30's easy.

hoosierhick, I assume your 2013 200 cruiser is the tritoon with the performance package?

I have never been on a pontoon/tritoon that goes any faster than 10-15mph. 35mph with no wind protection must feel like 50-60mph. Any comments?

[hoosierhick]

I have a 2013 200 cruiser pontoon with a 90 4 stoke . It will do 26 mph. with 2 people
Clocked by gps. You should get in the low 30's easy.

hoosierhick, I assume your 2013 200 cruiser is the tritoon with the performance package?

I have never been on a pontoon/tritoon that goes any faster than 10-15mph. 35mph with no wind protection must feel like 50-60mph. Any comments?

Nope just two toons on the fishing model. we can only do it on clam mornings also.Cant do it once the water gets choppy.
I under skinned a good part of it also.

[Dusto]

Cool. Low 30's for my boat definitely sounds doable...

[Mosnowman]

Congrats on your new boat! You will LOVE it!

My 2012 24 FootHarris Tritoon with Mercury Verado 150 hits mid 30's fully loaded...and when I say fully loaded...I mean heavy! I've got waaay to much "stuff" on board...grills...extra gas...and of course a lot of family.

I agree with these guys and think you should be low 30 's ....have fun! We just got i to it a couple of years ago and I wish I would have done it years ago!!! Already making some great memories! Welcome to Harris!

[rancherlee]

I'd say mid 30's if your running light. My homemade triple with the 70 runs 26-27mph with just me on it, and that's with a 9.9 kicker hanging off the back and a 2 deep cycle trollers up front. Can wait to get a 115hp on it, fully expecting to hit 35-36 with it and be able to plane a full load, can only plane 4-5 adults right now.

[jayw]

I think 30ish is a reasonable guess, but it's just that. Your top speed on your setup will depend on prop, conditions and load.

It's not possible to say X boat will do Y speed without knowing all factors and running the boat. I have a 2009 21' JC Neptoon triple toon with a 2010 Suzuki DF150, max for the boat, we can run 35 to 38 depending on the 3 factors above: my prop, conditions, and load. I know this engine on other pontoons may do better or worse. I see 150s around the lakes (I am on the busiest inland waterway per capita in the US, there are 1000s of toons) do slightly better or worse than me. Prop for speed, reduce your ability to carry load. Prop for load, reduce your top end. So far that equation seems a constant. Trick is to find that perfect prop balance - which can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Yamahas motors do seem fastest so far. I think the Suzi is up there, with the rest following, but maybe I am biased.

I'm getting my reworked prop back in a week or two, if we ever thaw out in IL we will see how that does. But pretty much, the 38 mark has been my ceiling. I have no strakes but the JC U supertoons give a TON of lift. I'm pricing strakes but I bet its cost prohibitive for my purposes. 36, 37 is fast enough on the pontoon for us. 40 would be cool (if only psychologically) but I'm pretty sure that would require strakes or getting an Enertia on there (thus reducing prop diam and blade surface) and keeping load SUPER LIGHT (like shoring the cover, anchors, coolers, wife, etc.)

I've seen 150s that beat me, I've seen many that can't keep up with me. I've seen fast 115s too. That said, with all the people who claim high 30s or even better with a 115 I've never seen a single one yet on our lakes (I bet we have 2000 pontoons with 115s on our chain, no exaggeration) that can even come close to keeping up with me. I usually skip the wake right past them as they are slamming chop unable to "plane". I'm sure there are tricked out or ultralight 115 setups out there that would prove me a liar, just haven't seen one in person yet.

It's also true, there's a "terminal velocity" where drag ultimately overwhelms propulsion. "A 70 does 20 so a 140 must do 40" is erroneous thinking. Advances in pontoon technology (strakes, sport toons etc) are moving us away from the conventional displacement hull constraints but AFAIK that's still largely true.

I've seen people all over the internet claim GPS speeds for all sorts of pontoon configurations, some of which I buy and some I would have to see for myself with my GPS in hand. GPS's can be out of "calibration", or whatever it is that makes them wrong. I have 3 GPS devices, they vary in speed by about 1 MPH each. I've heard other people report more pronounced deviation.

[jayw]

One more thing, strakes are not the catch-all for more speed. I've heard reports of them slowing boats that lack the HP to get the weight on top of them. They create additional drag at lower speeds so this only makes sense.

Not to suggest this would happen in your case but just throwing that out there as food for thought.

[Dusto]

Motor options... A little off topic, but I still have a month or so before the boat gets prep’d and I have been tossing around different motor options

My budget will allow for 3 options:

2014 115hp mercury 4 stroke efi
2014 115hp mercury optimax 2 stroke
2014 125hp mercury optimax 2 stroke (MAY be over budget)

Should I stick with the 115hp 4 stroke?

[fergusmj]

have you thought about going used? You can easily get into the 150's for under budget.