On a plane at 1750 RPM, ha ha it THAT ever sweet ! Sheesh, at that engine speed you could run the boat forever. I'll bet the fuel consumption is pretty sweet too. My pair of 427s in the 38 hull (with some overpitched 4-blades) will plane nicely just below 2500.
With an extra hundred horses over the max ever put into a 31' hull by Chris Craft, that boat has got to put a smile on your face. I was wondering about the back pressure issue too, and also about the sound of the boat without mufflers. I'm sure it wakes up the marina when you fire the motors, but how is she under way? In any case, larger pipes is not all that difficult on a 31 if you find it has to be done.
Although all of us love to blow the cobwebs out from time to time, the actual running time at higher speeds is generally pretty low. Most of the time we're running at efficient speeds unless we're trying to outrun a thunderstorm or something urgent.
Should be fun to see what the GPS really logs in. Mine Garmin 430 works on my runabout, but I don't necessarily trust the speed readings all that much. One day we took a 47' Fountain out for a sea trial, we had GPS aboard as a baseline and the buyer also took a hand held sports radar gun. We shot the gun down at the water and we were surprised to see the same 76-mph reading from the radar and the GPS, so GPS can certainly be dead on accurate too.
Don, you've done a great job bringing this boat back. The engine work, rudder work, everything shows how much experience you have with boats. It's quite obvious. Thanks again for sharing all of this with The Forum. Keep those photos coming!
regards,
Paul