What model Sundancers cruise nicely at slower speeds?

[Dave S]

When one owns a 260DA like I do, it's either comfortable up to about nine mph or it has to be going 25 mph or faster. There's just is no "comfort" at any speeds in between that and it drives me nuts sometimes. Are any of the bigger Sundancers comfortable (meaning when they are not on plane or don't have their bow stuck up in the air, or aren't vibrating or straining needlessly, etc) at lower speeds like 15-20 mph?

Maybe you could post your own experience and identify your model, year and engine configuration.

Dave

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

You will find that usually express cruisers with their engines further forward (midship) allow an easier slow cruise without a lot of bow rise. With these boats, there is no aft cabin since that's where the engines are located.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Scott mentioned the tabs. I know from your previous posts you don't like tabs, but have you tried with tabs down?

It's been a little while since I've had an 05+ 260DA out, but I really don't recall anything that felt different from other boats. It comes up on plane super-fast, which means it should be able to cruise at a slower speed - but you will need the tabs, depending on how slow you want to go.

I don't know the exact speed with my 260, but it is considerably slower than the 25mph you mentioned. But, IIRC, below about 20mph I'll need the tabs.

A friend of mine used to have a 2001 310DA with v-drives. I seem to recall that his favorite cruising speed was about 17mph. He could go slower, but that was what he found gave him the best GPH.

 

[Turtlesboat]

I went on cruise today in a 450da, that's the cruise you are looking for. Huge range of speeds compared to our boats.

 

[fwebster]

Bow stuck up in the air?........I didn't comment before Mike's post because I didn't want to start the whole big boat-little boat thing again, but our experience is just the opposite than Dave apparently experiences. There just is no uncomfortable speed........there are some inefficient power settings, but none where the boat is uncomfortable or unsafe to run. Generally, every power setting is good except for 1750 to 1950 RPM where the boat is working to get to planing speed.

 

[Dave S]

Frank's 450DA would probably be more to my liking :grin: and I think Mike hit the nail on the head as well with his observation of the 450DA versus our smaller boats. Anyone want to report on the 300DA with outdrives? Or how about the 320DA with outdrives and V-drives? How do the 340DA's with outdrives compare to the V-drives?


I am thinking outdrives may be the biggest culprit in trying to get the boat to feel "comfortable". I know from my rides on (v-drive equipped) 330DA and 340DA's, they just feel more comfortable at lower speeds. And yes, I can get my boat to run at 10-15 mph if I use full tabs but it is sucking down a lot of fuel and the rpms are way too high, and hence it is just not comfortable with all that thrashing and engine noise.

 

[Pakmule]

This sounds like a problem that a bigger boat would solve. Just keep going bigger until the problem goes away.

 

[sb in gp]

Frank's 450DA would probably be more to my liking :grin: and I think Mike hit the nail on the head as well with his observation of the 450DA versus our smaller boats. Anyone want to report on the 300DA with outdrives? Or how about the 320DA with outdrives and V-drives? How do the 340DA's with outdrives compare to the V-drives?


I am thinking outdrives may be the biggest culprit in trying to get the boat to feel "comfortable". I know from my rides on (v-drive equipped) 330DA and 340DA's, they just feel more comfortable at lower speeds. And yes, I can get my boat to run at 10-15 mph if I use full tabs but it is sucking down a lot of fuel and the rpms are way too high, and hence it is just not comfortable with all that thrashing and engine noise.

I can comment that you can run a 320DA V-drive 15-20 comfortably and stay on plane. For fuel economy you want 20 or so. It is heavy in the back, so coming on plane is a bit slow with the bow high.

I rode on a newer 330DA with 350s and outdrives last week, and the responsiveness was dramtatically better than the V-drives, especially steering in close quarters. Not sure if the slow-speed planing was any different.

Overall, IMHO the 320 is a much more comfortable cruise than the 260, because it does not suffer from the top-heavy tippy personality of the 260.

 

[Dave S]

For all of you guys who want to spend my money and think I ought to move up, there is another solution............go the other way and downsize. My 240SD was nice and comfortable running at slower speeds. :wow::wow:

Dang..........as much as I like my 260DA, I really miss that 240SD. :smt009

 

[Tail Chaser 661]

V drive boats, There drive is at an angle as to be pushing the stern up. Stronger drive but hurts the mpg and performance at speed.
I wander all over at off idle no wake speeds. Chug along around 10 mph nicely at displacement speeds. Very in efficient from 14mph to 17 mph. Then starts coming to life at 20 mph.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Dave, forgive me if you've already tried this, but have you ever experimented with tabs down (or maybe only 1/2 to 3/4 down) and drive up at about 1/4 - say around 3 on the SC gauge?

 

[Dave S]

Dave, forgive me if you've already tried this, but have you ever experimented with tabs down (or maybe only 1/2 to 3/4 down) and drive up at about 1/4 - say around 3 on the SC gauge?

Yes I have Dennis. And yes it will cruise OK given those parameters you mentioned but it's still straining and the RPMs wind up pretty high on the scale as well so it's just not comfortable. Maybe my choice of words doesn't describe what I am trying to express well but that particular speed and RPM ranges are not the 260DAs sweet spot for sure. It's either keep it under 9 mph or speed up to about 25 mph or faster ...............that's what feels "right".

My 260DA, as well as a lot of pocket cruisers, have a lot of compromises and I don't expect it to be as comfortable as a larger boat especially when trying to go slower than planing speed. I was just wondering where that doesn't become a factor in the larger boats. It sounds like the 320DAs and up may be OK as long as you are talking about V-drives. I would stilll like to hear from a few 300DA owners since those boats have outdrives.

Dave

 

[Lazy Daze]

Yes I have Dennis. And yes it will cruise OK given those parameters you mentioned but it's still straining and the RPMs wind up pretty high on the scale as well so it's just not comfortable. Maybe my choice of words doesn't describe what I am trying to express well but that particular speed and RPM ranges are not the 260DAs sweet spot for sure. It's either keep it under 9 mph or speed up to about 25 mph or faster ...............that's what feels "right".

OK, very good. It was just a thought I had. Plus, what may be comfortable for one person, may not be for another. Everyone's got their own comfort level - and there's nothing wrong with that.
When we're only dealing with the "written word" on these forums, it's sometimes hard to convey a particular thought or idea without writing a whole story - which most people will, at best, just skim through, you know? But, you're right, as nice as the 260 is, it's still small - only an 8'6" beam. It's amazing what 8" - 12" more of beam will do for a boat.

On edit: No, you were clear with what you wanted to know. You just got to understand that I get questions all the time about "why won't the bow of my boat come down - it takes me so long to get onto plane - do I really need to use that button on the throttle lever, etc". I know you are not asking anything that simple, but I've learned not to assume anything. So, my apologies if I was asking what seemed to be very basic questions.

 

[chuck1]

I was going to say my SD cruiser rides great at all speeds.:thumbsup:

For all of you guys who want to spend my money and think I ought to move up, there is another solution............go the other way and downsize. My 240SD was nice and comfortable running at slower speeds. :wow::wow:

Dang..........as much as I like my 260DA, I really miss that 240SD. :smt009

 

[Aerobaticflyer]

Since you asked I'll give my feedback with my 300DA. I can do 18 mph comfortably with tabs down (not all the way) but I do give up some fuel efficiency of course. The boat runs fine there and I have had to do it at length when taking a longer cruise with some large boats that didn't want to cruise at 28 mph like I'd like. It especially works well in some of the ICW when very calm. Very peaceful to cruise that slow yet still on plane some times. My previous boat was a 260 so I understand where you're coming from.

Now for the hook!.....my boat is on the classifieds here so you just need to make the move! :smt038

 

[fsudelt]

I can too cruise in the 16-20 mph range and stay on plane no problem, i usually run w/ my tabs down most times, cruising in that range for me would be 3200-3400 rpm. My sweet spot though i usually am is closer to 3700 rpm and about 22 mph.

 

[Bill Z]

I can run our 320 with V drives in the 18 to 22 range. It really depends on your fuel consumption. But as mentioned what is the difference between .7 and.9 . I think the significant difference between the 290 and the 320 is the weight differential. The 320 is somewhere in the 13400lb range depending upon add ons.

 

[Turtlesboat]

On my 280, I know when I plane, It's very apparent. you're either on going 20+mph or your off going 10. Under the right conditions you can cruise 15mph but if I take a big wake or the seas are bad, i'm off plane and doing 9mph or I throttle up and hope I don't have following seas with my tabs down.

On the 450DA, I couldn't tell if we were on plane or off without looking back. It was that seemless. Unbelievable ride compared to my 280. it's like driving a sports car and a cadilac. Sports cars are fun when you've got a great flat open road. Caddy's are sweet at anything below white knuckle speed.

 

[skibum]

On my way home yesterday evening I managed to cruise on plane at about 17 mph (GPS) and around 11.2 gph for a couple of miles. RPMs were just a little above 3K, but not much. It was a nice, smooth, quiet ride. I might have been able to go lower, but I started off from a normal no tab plane and backed the throttle down little by little adding tabs as I went. It was a nice solid plane, though.

However, this is not normal. I had less than 1/3 of a tank of fuel, full water, 3/4 holding tank, me alone in the boat, and unusually flat water for the area that I was in. My trim settings were pretty much dead on with what Dennis stated in post #12, except that I really don't know how far down the tabs were (no indicator). My guess is that they were only down 1/4 or less. It wasn't much. I don't think it would have worked as well with more passengers or a full fuel tank.

From a fuel economy standpoint, not good. When I get my boat trimmed normally, I run around 26kts at 3300 RPM and burn somewhere between 13 and 14 gph. That figures to about an extra 9 miles on just under 3 gallons of fuel when cruising at the speed where the boat is on plane due to speed only without the help of the tabs.

 

[Alex D]

When one owns a 260DA like I do, it's either comfortable up to about nine mph or it has to be going 25 mph or faster. There's just is no "comfort" at any speeds in between that and it drives me nuts sometimes. Are any of the bigger Sundancers comfortable (meaning when they are not on plane or don't have their bow stuck up in the air, or aren't vibrating or straining needlessly, etc) at lower speeds like 15-20 mph?

Maybe you could post your own experience and identify your model, year and engine configuration.

Dave

This is about the same for all planing hulls ... Displacement speed is fine between 5 and 10 mph depending on LOA and then you gotta get over the hum and cruise at 20 to 30 mph also depending on LOA. Most express cruisers need at least 20 to 23 mph to decently run on plane. Our 340DA is happiest at speeds over 25 mph and optimum run speed and efficiency is achieved at 27 - 30 mph.

If you want to cruise at speeds around 12 to 20 mph, look for an efficient trawler or other boat with displacement hull.