Speeding 53MY

[dastahl]

We are cruising the Chesapeake Bay in July on our 42 LRC. My new radar has MARPA and can calculate closing speeds. I saw a 53 MY about 2 miles off that seemed to me to be flying. She had a large rooster tail and the bow spray was way back from what I've seen of these boats before.

The Radar MARPA said 32 knots closing speed, and I was going 8 knots. How does one get a 53 MY to go 26 or so knots? Have many of the 15' 10s been repowered?

David - We just ran from Cape Charles VA to Cristfield MD in 6 hours, I'm thinking 2 hours would be even more fun.

[Pascal]

"David - We just ran from Cape Charles VA to Cristfield MD in 6 hours, I'm thinking 2 hours would be even more fun."

..until you get the fuel bill. Iguess if you put enough HP these old hulls could get to 24kts... ERs are big enough !

[SKYCHENEY]

Call the radar service man. These boats just don't go that fast. You must have some sort of problem. Maybe it's metric

[neosin]

I have a hella rooster tail at 18kts... Maybe he was just running WOT...

We are cruising the Chesapeake Bay in July on our 42 LRC. My new radar has MARPA and can calculate closing speeds. I saw a 53 MY about 2 miles off that seemed to me to be flying. She had a large rooster tail and the bow spray was way back from what I've seen of these boats before.

The Radar MARPA said 32 knots closing speed, and I was going 8 knots. How does one get a 53 MY to go 26 or so knots? Have many of the 15' 10s been repowered?

David - We just ran from Cape Charles VA to Cristfield MD in 6 hours, I'm thinking 2 hours would be even more fun.

[tomrealest]

Fastest 53MY I've seen is Lady Krista that has 6v71TIB's. I think 475 or 485HP and a lot lighter than the 8v71TI's. I think she tops out at 24 or 25 knots but the handling gets tricky. She's made the Great Loop but I don't know where she is now.

[gflane]

Ask any tech-ie, a 53' FBMY turning 871's at max. governed speed of 2250 to 2350 RPM is going to give pretty much the same speed (with equal pitch props between the various vessels) ........

My 53' "FAST LANE" gives us about 19 knots steady on any given (cold) day for the past 20-years during which I have owned her. (ground speed as measured by GPS on a steady heading during slack tide with the trim tabs adjusted for max. speed). Even then, there are way to many variables like air temp, wave height, fuel and water loads, wind speed etc to ever be totally accurate on speed and keep things equivalent from test run to next test run.

This past Saturday, in Gardiner's Bay (East Hampton), with a south westerly head wind of 35mph and the boat running approx 20+mph the relative windspeed would equal 55 + mph and was enough to unsnap and blow the cushions off the bow seat and into the water while my guest held on to the rail for his life!

When I stopped to retrieve the cushion, other boaters asked me what kind of power I had to run like a bat out of hell ...and at what looked like the bow wake spraying out at just above the legal speed limit on US 495 (LIExprswy).....
.. simply the best engine I have been blessed with ............. the Detroit 871 TI's....

Afterall, who can believe that a 671 at 6 times 71 cubic inches is better than 8 times 71 cubic inches in my 871's? do the math. You are talking about 1/3 more (33.3%) cubic inches and 33.3% more POWER .......... and you can always check the fuel consumption.... it is very close to exactly proportional to the Horsepower being delivered to the props. Most properly running 871 TI's consume approx. 40 gph when pushing a 53' FBMY.

Maybe you could turbo boost the intake air to 1.33 times the current values to achieve the equivalent H.P. on that hypothetical 671 TIB and get enough power to equal our 871's ............ but I bet you burn out the valves and heads in 10 minutes or less because you could never push 33% more exhaust heat out the fire deck with the existing engine cooling system abilities.

Just look back at the problems which Detroit created when they went to the first 92 cu. inch cylinders, as in the 892 TI engines ............ lots of warranty claims for cracked heads, burnt valves and worse problems.
Think about it ......... 92 cu. in. is approx 30% addnl horse power over the orig. 72 cu in displacement ........ NOW that would prob. add to the speed ....... 24 knots would be a logical outcome in that case, no?

My conclusion, the boat you saw may have been retro'd with 892's not 671's. That would be a sweat upgrade!

[jim rosenthal]

I have never heard of a 53MY going that fast, but it is possible....time for someone to pop their head up and 'fess up to hotrodding one of those boats?
Tom Slane denies doing it. Come to think of it, what happened to the pair of 16v149s that I had sitting around the shed? I haven't seen them lately.

[Red Hatt]

I heard that years ago that Hurley Hatteras in Urbanna Va. had put 8v92 Ti in a 53 Hatt.

[captwoodyb]

Several years ago a 53Hatt MY, older boat, that use to berth at our marina "The Anchorage " in Baltimore got hit with lightning. Fried here running gear and motors real bad. She was eventually repowered with new ,higher hp and lighter cummings . I was told by a pretty reliable Capt. she would get up over 30kts.
Real skittish but could do it easy. Can't remember the name of the Hatt, 1970's vintage. Understand she is eastern Baltimore Co now. Might have been her.