Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Bought a New Fishing Boat

Nice rig:)

I never regretted buying any boat I've owned and that included 24 foot Ocean boat to a 25 foot inboard jet. Most people buy a boat then find reasons not to use it.

Agreed, I've owned probably 8 boats and enjoyed all of them. I have moved away from the more complex boats in an attempt to keep it simple.

The water pump came in on Wednesday and I got it installed. Old impeller was Fubar. Spent the 4th with the family in the mountains. Took the Crestliner out for a shakedown run today. Spent a few hours on the water confirming that everything is ready to go. Still have a couple of small items, but nothing worth mentioning. With just me and my gear I saw a top speed of 24 mph on my GPS. She comes up on plane easy and I had no problem cruising on plane at 15 mph or so. Trolling motor is solid and the livewell is sweet. I may try the other prop to see what difference it makes.

I did not like where I mounted the seat so I'll be moving it back to a pedestal inside the boat. Other than that life was good and it's basically ready for some fishin'!

Bring another thousand.

Sock: What horse power? Thanks

25 HP 2-Stroke

I am getting similar speeds with a 25 hp Yamaha 4 stroke in my 14 foot Crestliner which is lighter than your boat. Regarding props Yamaha stamps the diameter of the prop on the side of the hub but you have to remove the prop to find the pitch. My prop is 9 7/8" diameter but I will let you know what the pitch is when I pull it off.
Optimizing a propeller is hard to do if you do not have a tachometer to see full throttle throttle RPM . If it is below the recommended operating range you need less pitch. If it is above recommended you need greater pitch. Evinrude motors have a chip hat can be read by dealers that shows max rpm but I do not know if Yamaha has the same feature.
The most common cause of water pump failure is running the motor with no cooling water which lubricates the vanes of the displacement pump. Even a quick bump of the starter to check the battery connection will wipe material off the vanes and affect pump efficiency.

The stamps on my props are a bit difficult to read, but the one on the motor appears to be a 9 1/4 X 9 pitch. The other, which I haven't tried yet, appears to be a 9 1/4 X 11. While looking at prop selectors, most props for this engine are listed as 9 7/8" diameter, so either mine are just old or I can't clearly make out the stamps. At 6K elevation, I doubt I'll see any improvement with the 11 pitch but I may give it a shot in the future. I have a tach connected to the motor, and while I don't think it's terribly accurate, it will run close to 6K RPM at WOT.

One inch in prop diameter absorbs the torque of two to three inches of pitch. On a fishing boat I do not want too large a prop because of exposure to rocks in the shallows. I believe my prop is 9-7/8 x 10-1/2. WOT limit is 6000 rpm. If you go on the Yamaha website and look at your motor they have Performance Bulletins for the motor on different boats. If you find a boat like yours they show the prop pitch and diameter..