Lake Powell questions

[ahenderson432]

Well we’re home now. We didn’t have any issues thanks to all your input and being a little extra prepared for the unknown.

Spent two days on the lake and feel like we barely saw it. We covered about 115 miles but most of that was overlapping since we had to go back to the marina at night. Definitely going back next year and hopefully my wife and 3yr old will be up for a little longer high speed running as it was wearing them out a little on both days and limited our distance.

We crossed two of the smaller tour boats but caught them just before the channel to Antelope Point so no issues getting over their wakes. I sure wouldn’t want to deal with them in that channel though. Those things really go fast and toss a wake and that channel already had 2 ft waves without a boat in sight.

It turns out the range on this boat is looong. Granted we had perfect conditions but went 55 miles with the bimini up on Friday and burned 19.3 gallons of gas. That gives me a range of 142 miles, which exceeds Boat Tests longest range estimate of 130 miles at 5500 rpm. I tried to keep it around 5500-6000 on most of the long runs but we also had a couple miles of no wake zones and we were WOT at 7000 (all it had at the elevation) for about 15-20 miles coming home racing darkness.

https://boattest.com/boats/yamaha/212-limited-s-2019

Navionics free trial was a lifesaver as far as my comfort exploring a crazy place I’d never been.
@Ridesteady was also super nice to have for comfort/noise on such long runs and probably helped with the good gas mileage since we could just lock in an rpm for miles and miles.

There is NO place like Powell! I was able to cross off a bucket list and ran my Sea Doo RXTX-300 from Antelope Marina to Dangling Rope. Met up with family already on a 75' Houseboat and spent a few days. Then rode back on an early morning sunrise. Can't wait to go back once my Yamaha Boat arrives!!!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Well we’re home now. We didn’t have any issues thanks to all your input and being a little extra prepared for the unknown.

Spent two days on the lake and feel like we barely saw it. We covered about 115 miles but most of that was overlapping since we had to go back to the marina at night. Definitely going back next year and hopefully my wife and 3yr old will be up for a little longer high speed running as it was wearing them out a little on both days and limited our distance.

We crossed two of the smaller tour boats but caught them just before the channel to Antelope Point so no issues getting over their wakes. I sure wouldn’t want to deal with them in that channel though. Those things really go fast and toss a wake and that channel already had 2 ft waves without a boat in sight.

It turns out the range on this boat is looong. Granted we had perfect conditions but went 55 miles with the bimini up on Friday and burned 19.3 gallons of gas. That gives me a range of 142 miles, which exceeds Boat Tests longest range estimate of 130 miles at 5500 rpm. I tried to keep it around 5500-6000 on most of the long runs but we also had a couple miles of no wake zones and we were WOT at 7000 (all it had at the elevation) for about 15-20 miles coming home racing darkness.

https://boattest.com/boats/yamaha/212-limited-s-2019

Navionics free trial was a lifesaver as far as my comfort exploring a crazy place I’d never been.
@Ridesteady was also super nice to have for comfort/noise on such long runs and probably helped with the good gas mileage since we could just lock in an rpm for miles and miles.

Glad to see you had a successful trip!

You were right at 2.9 mpg which is great! Does your boat have the TR-1 engines or the 1.8’s?

I’ll echo what @JBehrens had to say about elevation and hp loss, and a set of high altitude impellers. When I was there two years ago about all I could get out of my TR-1‘s was 7000-7100 rpms with my friend Danielle and her teenage boy on board, plus my extra 22 gallon tank. Depending on what rpm‘s you are getting at your home lake, you could get a small tweak to the impellers to gain an extra 500-800 rpm for a bit more top speed, but, you mpg might suffer a bit. As it was you were getting a lot of bite and putting all the torque to use. If you go there during the summer when it is eleventy five thousand degrees you will have a bit more power loss, its all about compromising. Your range of 142 miles, is that with a 10% reserve? I’m not sure if Dangling rope marina will open again, hopefully it does since it was a mid lake fuel / fun stop, but I think with that range you could easily make it up to Bullfrog. You should also get greater mileage idling along as well…

Here’s a thought for you if the Missus and Gromet are up for it, take some camping gear and travel up lake a ways and find a nice sandy beach / cove to camp out on and spend the night or a few nights for that matter. As a fyi, per park rules you do have to have a porta potty when camping on the shore, and the floating bathrooms are a good place to empty it. Then you don’t have to go over the same water each day when you are exploring. When I went with my friends I slept on my boat, made coffee in the morning, but other than taking meals and hanging out on the houseboat we rented I was on my boat, I realized that I could do a week at least by myself on the water using back packer meals alone.

I’m hoping for another great winter water year to bring the lake up further as I’d really like to go back next year!

 

[AZMark]

Glad to see you had a successful trip!

You were right at 2.9 mpg which is great! Does your boat have the TR-1 engines or the 1.8’s?

I’ll echo what @JBehrens had to say about elevation and hp loss, and a set of high altitude impellers. When I was there two years ago about all I could get out of my TR-1‘s was 7000-7100 rpms with my friend Danielle and her teenage boy on board, plus my extra 22 gallon tank. Depending on what rpm‘s you are getting at your home lake, you could get a small tweak to the impellers to gain an extra 500-800 rpm for a bit more top speed, but, you mpg might suffer a bit. As it was you were getting a lot of bite and putting all the torque to use. If you go there during the summer when it is eleventy five thousand degrees you will have a bit more power loss, its all about compromising. Your range of 142 miles, is that with a 10% reserve? I’m not sure if Dangling rope marina will open again, hopefully it does since it was a mid lake fuel / fun stop, but I think with that range you could easily make it up to Bullfrog. You should also get greater mileage idling along as well…

Here’s a thought for you if the Missus and Gromet are up for it, take some camping gear and travel up lake a ways and find a nice sandy beach / cove to camp out on and spend the night or a few nights for that matter. As a fyi, per park rules you do have to have a porta potty when camping on the shore, and the floating bathrooms are a good place to empty it. Then you don’t have to go over the same water each day when you are exploring. When I went with my friends I slept on my boat, made coffee in the morning, but other than taking meals and hanging out on the houseboat we rented I was on my boat, I realized that I could do a week at least by myself on the water using back packer meals alone.

I’m hoping for another great winter water year to bring the lake up further as I’d really like to go back next year!

Ah crap I forgot about the 10% reserve from Boat Test so I guess they are still overstated!

I have the 1.8s.


Camping would always be my preference. I unfortunately married a non-camper so it takes some convincing every time. Now that she’s seen that there are nice sand beaches there I have a much better chance for next time!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Ah crap I forgot about the 10% reserve from Boat Test so I guess they are still overstated!

I have the 1.8s.


Camping would always be my preference. I unfortunately married a non-camper so it takes some convincing every time. Now that she’s seen that there are nice sand beaches there I have a much better chance for next time!

Well then, you’re going to have to make the tent full of comfy cushions!

Then you are not far off on max rpm I think, they only rev to 7400?

 

[AZMark]

Well then, you’re going to have to make the tent full of comfy cushions!

Then you are not far off on max rpm I think, they only rev to 7400?

Not sure on the peak rpm since I rarely go wot. I lost about 5-6 mph from my previous top speed

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Not sure on the peak rpm since I rarely go wot. I lost about 5-6 mph from my previous top speed

I’m pretty sure max rpm on the 1.8’s is 7400-7600… perhaps a 1.8’er will chime in here for confirmation. If that is the case then a slight re pitch would help your performance. How many revs do you get at your usual boating area? When I did mine, I bought a set of Solas impellers and had them pitched and kept my OEM’s ones to run with just in case the repitched needed to be sent back for more tweaking.

 

[AZMark]

I’m pretty sure max rpm on the 1.8’s is 7400-7600… perhaps a 1.8’er will chime in here for confirmation. If that is the case then a slight re pitch would help your performance. How many revs do you get at your usual boating area? When I did mine, I bought a set of Solas impellers and had them pitched and kept my OEM’s ones to run with just in case the repitched needed to be sent back for more tweaking.

I can damn near swim across my usual areas so I honestly don’t know haha. We usually cruise out to a beach at 5500 and then just water sports or floating from there.

I love this boat but the only reason we have the fast model is that someone had just turned it in at the dealer with 10 hours when we were going to take our first look at an ar190. We barely even made it inside the dealer to keep looking.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I can damn near swim across my usual areas so I honestly don’t know haha. We usually cruise out to a beach at 5500 and then just water sports or floating from there.

I love this boat but the only reason we have the fast model is that someone had just turned it in at the dealer with 10 hours when we were going to take our first look at an ar190. We barely even made it inside the dealer to keep looking.

I missed the link you put in for the boat test review before… here’s a screen shot of the wot / best cruise numbers. This was with three people and a full tank of fuel.



That’s at Lake Altoona in GA, 750’ of elevation if I’m not mistaken. Your mpg numbers are in line with the tests’ which is great to see. Looks like your LP rpm’s were down 500 from BT’s max, not very far off, so if you’re happy with the performance great! With a slight tweak to the pitch you could pick up a few hundred rpm’s at LP, but your mpg could go down a little bit.