Yesterday was the day for sea trials for my wife and me on the new Tournament 275 with a single Yamaha F350 that we ordered. The trial was out of Beverly, MA; conditions were 40 deg air temp, 15 MPH wind out of the W, seas were calm inshore and were 2-3 ft every 3 seconds with occasional 3-4 ft mixed in outside of Marblehead Neck.
My first impressions of the boat/engine combination were that they are a perfect fit. The engine did not look like an elephant hanging off the end of a dingy as I had feared. It looked proportional to the size of the boat. The boat as it sits in the water is very good looking astatically. The condition of the boat as delivered from Grady was as it should be, neat, clean and the fit and finish looked good, more intense inspection to come. When the engine started it was quite and commanding, the new fly by wire controls were excellent, much better than the Verado system where you never know if you were in gear or not as there was no defined detent. The boat handled very well at slow speed and responded smoothly and quickly to the massive propulsion of the prop. At the harbor entrance we keep the lid on the RPM’s as the engine had less than two hours on it so speed to plane took a while. The hull went on plane at about 3500 rpm and established a speed of 25 mph at that RPM and then held plane down to 18 mph. The hull behaved as it should in the calm conditions in shore, one notable comment was that you could hear the water against the hull as the engine noise did not drown it out as it had in my pervious two stroke. Needless to say the engine was quite, it was also very powerful with a slight increase in RPM it was clear that there was plenty of power for the application. In the chop water the boat performed well in all four quarters and try as I would I could not take spray over the bow or rails. At 25 mph and the above described conditions with a little bit of trim from the tabs the ride was smooth enough that my wife was comfortable (if she was not she would have let me know). After one and a half hours on the water the engine had enough time on it to bring it up to 4,000 RPM were the speed was clocked at 29 mph, again at 3,500 it clock out at 25 mph both points are slightly under the Grady curve but I do not know the boat and did not have it trimmed as well as it could have been. One negative that I noted during the trial was that the trim tabs were not very effective until speeds of around 25 mph, below that they were sluggish to ineffective.
Overall the boat’s performance was good and was about what I expected with the exception of the trim tabs, the engine controls were outstanding and the engine unreal. The layout of the boat is exceptional, everything is accessible and it will be a great fly fishing platform for both in and off shore for two fisherman at once. The boat will also excel on the family days which with this platform will increase in number.
Two final notes, first, clearly this engine is going to change the way boats in the 24-27 foot range are powered. Second, some look at this boat and snub it as a bow rider, a design with a very negative history (thanks to the likes of Bayliner). This boat is anything but. I spend hundreds of hours a year on the water in all types of boats, my last boat was a Pursuit 21’ DC and it fished as well as any CC and did the family gig much better. We had a fantastic deal offered to us on a Pursuit 26’ CC but turned it down as it did not fulfill the family aspect and quite frankly was a compromise for the other 80% of its use fly fishing.
PS Sea trail passed, boat will be closed on this week.
My first impressions of the boat/engine combination were that they are a perfect fit. The engine did not look like an elephant hanging off the end of a dingy as I had feared. It looked proportional to the size of the boat. The boat as it sits in the water is very good looking astatically. The condition of the boat as delivered from Grady was as it should be, neat, clean and the fit and finish looked good, more intense inspection to come. When the engine started it was quite and commanding, the new fly by wire controls were excellent, much better than the Verado system where you never know if you were in gear or not as there was no defined detent. The boat handled very well at slow speed and responded smoothly and quickly to the massive propulsion of the prop. At the harbor entrance we keep the lid on the RPM’s as the engine had less than two hours on it so speed to plane took a while. The hull went on plane at about 3500 rpm and established a speed of 25 mph at that RPM and then held plane down to 18 mph. The hull behaved as it should in the calm conditions in shore, one notable comment was that you could hear the water against the hull as the engine noise did not drown it out as it had in my pervious two stroke. Needless to say the engine was quite, it was also very powerful with a slight increase in RPM it was clear that there was plenty of power for the application. In the chop water the boat performed well in all four quarters and try as I would I could not take spray over the bow or rails. At 25 mph and the above described conditions with a little bit of trim from the tabs the ride was smooth enough that my wife was comfortable (if she was not she would have let me know). After one and a half hours on the water the engine had enough time on it to bring it up to 4,000 RPM were the speed was clocked at 29 mph, again at 3,500 it clock out at 25 mph both points are slightly under the Grady curve but I do not know the boat and did not have it trimmed as well as it could have been. One negative that I noted during the trial was that the trim tabs were not very effective until speeds of around 25 mph, below that they were sluggish to ineffective.
Overall the boat’s performance was good and was about what I expected with the exception of the trim tabs, the engine controls were outstanding and the engine unreal. The layout of the boat is exceptional, everything is accessible and it will be a great fly fishing platform for both in and off shore for two fisherman at once. The boat will also excel on the family days which with this platform will increase in number.
Two final notes, first, clearly this engine is going to change the way boats in the 24-27 foot range are powered. Second, some look at this boat and snub it as a bow rider, a design with a very negative history (thanks to the likes of Bayliner). This boat is anything but. I spend hundreds of hours a year on the water in all types of boats, my last boat was a Pursuit 21’ DC and it fished as well as any CC and did the family gig much better. We had a fantastic deal offered to us on a Pursuit 26’ CC but turned it down as it did not fulfill the family aspect and quite frankly was a compromise for the other 80% of its use fly fishing.
PS Sea trail passed, boat will be closed on this week.
