Frankly so far I am disappointed. It is slow, handles sluggish with a single and tends to growl at idle when in gear and cluncks when going into gear.
I have not opened it up yet but it is a hog in the hole. With twins it jumped onto plane like a 13' whaler. Torque is a noticeabele. Trim tabs are needed with this boat as a band-aid to fix this. (on order) With twins the boat always stays rock steady level in nearly all condtions and you never have to run them hard.
I can tell in order to really move I will need to push this engine hard. Just not enough power.
Also , you can't tilt the motor all the way up. Needs jack plate to do that
(not on order). With twins they are offset and sit higher on the stern and can come fully out of the water.
OK, lets talk noise. At idle in nutrual, the engine is very quiet even compared to a new FI 2 stroke....But that is it. Once in gear, my 2 strokes were nearly as quite. When running the 2 stroke Fichs were slightly louder...but I was running much faster, I bet at the same speed, it was a draw. It is a different sound though a deeper tone. When you start it, it sounds like your car. The big difference is in RPM...again with the twins @ 3300rpm I was crusing at 31-33mph or at 3300 the boat is not on plane...still in the hole...you need to goose it to 4500 to get it moving.
I doubt this boat will do anything near 40mph wot. I don't think I could hold it on plane at 4000. Maybe with the tabs. This is unacceptable IMO. ( with the twin 150's you were holding on hard @ 4000 and moving along at 39-40mph)
Live and learn... Will fix this problem next year with a new 05 rig and quite screwing around with this thing once and for all. I guess I am just a twin guy.
At least I am fishing now....
I'll post the numbers after break in and can get the tabs on.