Lady Moon - Petecraft 20 customized

[Moonwalker]

Finally my dream boat is ready. (See pictures in gallery)
This is a Petecraft 20 sports hull, with extended deck, hardtop cabin and outboard platform making it  effectively a 22ft boat. Its powered by twin Mariner 4stroke 150HP 3ltr engines (new model).

Boat was tested on Monday and it was a real success. Best performance was achieved with 19P propellers with top speed of 42knts and 20knts cruising consuming just 13.5ltr per hr (each motor). However max revving was 5400rpm which is a little under the recommended.
With the 17P max revving was 5800rpm, top speed 40ktns and consumption at 20knts of 15ltr per hr. The real boost with the 17P is that boat can get to plane very easy with 1 motor only and makes a good 28knt with 5ppl on board.
Finally we tested the 17P 4 bladed. These gave similar performance of the 3 bladed but are much smooter. (maybe Skip can comment about this).

I will be getting the Gateway to connect outboards to GPS soon so will give it another more detailed test later on.

I must say a very big thanks to Petecraft boats for their dedication in trying to meet all my wishes.
You can see all boat photos here - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Petecraft-Boats/177718136316

[benri]

Beautiful boat indeed Moonwalker! Prosit and good luck!

[bigboy]

One word !!!! WOwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[shanook]

Prosit moon may it bring u joy and satisfaction....well done

[busumark]

proset julian . ha tadina zgur issa

[baghira]

Ir risq habib...

[malvizzu]

What a boat!!!! Already seen the photos on Facebook. Hope you enjoy it to the full and as the Maltese say: IR-RIZQ habib. Some day race your boat against my Petecraft 14 footer loooollllll !!!!!

[Moonwalker]

Thanks guys for the compliments. Now waiting for some fine weather to have another run

[skip]

What a fantastic Xmas present!! Looks like the boys at Petecraft worked hard to get you the boat in time for the Xmas period and wow what a beauty especially with those twin 150's on the back.

Performance numbers are pretty damn impressive..... with the 19P you tested, Prop slip is only 4% (that's hard to beat) @ 0.74nm/litre for the pair (27 litres per hour), whereas the 17's are giving you a Prop Slip still of only 5% reflected in your fuel consumption numbers, marginally higher @ 0.66nm/litre (30 litres per hour).

Were you testing with stainless props or Alu and same prop? The 4 bladers like the Mercury Rev4 are often the favourite offshore prop for twins and by their very nature a 4 bladed prop is better balanced than a 3. You should also get some stern lift as well with a 4 and better grip in the rough stuff.

What was the mid-range like with the 4 bladed props? The 19's are giving you more bit and so a better mid-range cruise as well and depending on the loading you were carrying when testing either 19's or 18's seem ideal and a good starting point. What was your load?

[Moonwalker]

Yes I have to thanks Petecraft boys again for their hard work. Since this is not a production model, it had to be assembled from different moulds and some parts had to be build from scratch. I also had my "requests" which they did their best to satisfy, so more work was involved. But the final product is very nice so it was all worthed.

Performace was very good with the 19P and now, that I read the motor specs again, the full throttle RPM is listed as 5000-5800, so the 19P should be fine too. However it struggled a bit to get to plane with 1 motor at 19P and since the whole idea of the twins is especially redundancy, the 19P is a little big.
With the 17P 4 bladed we did not notice any real difference to the 17p 3 bladed in all ranges except being much smoother.

We were 5-6 ppl on board and fuel was at 30%. I didn't know that 18's were available, so I think I  should test an 18p before deciding which to buy. Or do you think I should go for the 19p 4 bladed (since 18p are only 3 bladed it seems)?

[skip]

- Can you list the models of props you tested with?
- 19P Four Blade Would be Too much and prob drop you down to 5200 or perhaps a bit lower
- Try and do all your prop testing with the engines fully run in and your typical fishing load (Fuel/Water/Equip/People) as that would be your benchmark to set up the boat.

18's would be on the Mirage Plus (These are 3 blade S/S), 5400 is ideal if you were running your typical load and most of the Merc S/S props have the PVS (performance venting system) which would address your planing issue, albeit on 1 engine.

Were you testing with Aluminium or Stainless Props?

[Moonwalker]

The models we tested were Mirage Plus 19P, Mirage Plus 17P and Rev4 17P. These are all SS (the 19p was sprayed blue so I had to confirm that it was ss).

Will do another test at typical load then. Do you think the PVS would help with the planing on a single engine with 19P?

[skip]

Great set of props you were lucky enough to test with; who supplied them Petecraft of Mariner?

I would focus on the Rev4's as they should give you the best mid-range performance...they won't be as fast as the Mirage Plus but they should give a better holeshot, lower min planing speed, less blowout and better grip in turns and rough seas.

Read up about the Mercury PVS, it's pretty interesting stuff and allows you to tweak your holeshot. Probably with full fuel, full water, fishing gear and say 2-3 ppl (how many do u tend to be when out fishing), you won't manage to run more than 17 4 bladers.

Do you notice how the PVS plugs were set on the test props?

[redhead]

If you are to keep the boat at sea keep in mind that the boat will get heavier and will have more drag with time due to fouling. Therefore if the boat struggled to plane with a single motor when new, after 20 weeks in the water it will not plane at all. I notice that on my boat (which is 20ft long and has a single 225 e-tec motor) after 25 weeks at sea, I loose around 20% in top speed and fuel economy due to fouling. My top speed when the hull is perfectly clean is 42knts.

[benri]

Good point Redhead! Very well worth keeping in mind!