Got my boat 5 years ago and apparently the previous maintenance wasn’t that good. Need to change my twins Yamaha 225 (260kg) and locally my options are down to twin mercury 300 (246kg). The catalog said 500hp tops but the same boat in the canyon edition comes with twin 300. Any thoughts or advise will be appreciated
Repowering a 2004 273 Chase
- Thread starter Capt. Jack
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Does weather often permit you to fast cruise at 45 mph? Do you have the need? Correctly propped with Merc 300s you will have a 60 mph boat. No Grady from the factory is that fast. While it sounds impressive, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable running a boat designed to cruise at 30 mph that fast because so much of it will be out of the water at that speed. The hull of the 270 is similar to yours. IMO running this hull faster than 38 in anything over 2 footers is asking for trouble.
Everyone will also tell you to check to see if your insurer will still cover you if you over power the hull.
Structurally, I think the transom will be fine, but otherwise you might have too much of a good thing.
Everyone will also tell you to check to see if your insurer will still cover you if you over power the hull.
Structurally, I think the transom will be fine, but otherwise you might have too much of a good thing.
Thanks. My other option are twin Mercury 200 but it’s pretty much the same price. The weather allows me to cruise at 35/40 mph with no problem but I don’t like tu cruise faster than 30/32 mph. Would it be a problem not to take advantage/usage of the maximum power of the engines?
Mustang65fbk
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Not entirely an apples to apples comparison, but a brand new Grady White 271 Canyon with twin F300's on it will do 56.2 mph at WOT and that boat has a dry weight of 5,914 lbs. Whereas your boat only has a dry weight of 3,975 lbs... so a difference of almost exactly 2k lbs. If you put 300's on your boat, I think it would be extremely overkill for your setup in that you would easily hit over 60 mph, and as you mentioned you like to cruise at 30-32 mph. I think you'd be just fine with the 200's, but if you really wanted to get maximum horsepower then you could always try and get 225's or even 250's. What's the top speed of your boat currently with the F225's on it? I imagine probably in the low to mid 40's mph range at the minimum? I'm very similar to you in that I don't need the maximum horsepower available for boating, and I especially don't need to go 40-45+ mph when out on the water. Cruising around at 25 mph is just fine with me and the majority of what I do is trolling for salmon anyway, and I imagine the 200's would do everything you needed them to do and then some. If I were to repower at some point, I might increase the power from the current F225 up to 250, which is the maximum, just because if I were to sell the boat for some reason, then it might attract a few more potential buyers. But those are pretty big "what if's?" at this point as hopefully *knock on wood* I won't have to repower it anytime soon, as well as I don't intend on selling the boat at all in the near future, if at all.
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Thanks. My top speed with the 225,s is 38 knots. I like to run them at 4.200/4.300 rpm which gives me 28,5/30knots. I would prefer another 225’s or 250’s the most, but the thing is that I can’t get those engines here. so my option are down to the 200’s or 300’s and I believe that 200’s isn’t enough to cruise for 3 hours at 30knots
withought going to high in the rpm. Appreciate your feedback
Mustang65fbk
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Where are you located? Also, per Grady White the top speed of your boat with twin F200's on it is 46.3 mph at 6,100 rpm, and with a cruising speed of 27.3 mph at 3,500 rpm. Of course, those numbers are on a test boat and are going to likely be a bit "optimistic" but, they should be relatively "in the ballpark". I'd call or email Grady White and ask for their performance data sheet on your boat with twin 200's and see what the entirety of the numbers look like.
Grady-White Chase 273 | Salt Water Sportsman
Grady packs a whole lot of fishboat into 27 feet.
www.saltwatersportsman.com
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The Canyon 271 and your Chase 273 have different HP ratings because they are completely different boats. In addition to the weight difference the beam of the Canyon is a foot wider.
Mustang65fbk
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Well yeah, I understand that. What I was trying to convey was that if a much larger, wider, heavier 271 Canyon can go almost 60 mph with twin 300's on it, then I think that would be massively overkill for the OP's 273 Chase... who admittedly likes cruising in the low 30's mph range and doesn't need to go any faster than that.
If you liked how the boat ran with 225 Yamahas, you will miss nothing with 200 Merc v6s. The 225 Yamaha was not known to be a strong performer, whereas the 200 Mercs will make at least as much power but drop your transom weight by 250 lbs. Be sure to spring for the Merc Eco Enertia props. Well worth it.
Also your numbers seem off. Your boat with 225 Yamahas should be way faster than what you are experiencing. My boat with twin Suzuki 200s will top 50 mph. I know other 270 owners with 225s that will hit 53 mph. Maybe your Yamahas are more tired than you think.
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there is no point comparing your chase to a canyon. 100% different boat in every way.
your current numbers do seem low, very low. below is the spec for the chase with twin 225s.
your current numbers do seem low, very low. below is the spec for the chase with twin 225s.
Mustang65fbk
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I would disagree, as the OP's boat weighs around 2k lbs less than a 271 Canyon and has a greater horsepower to weight ratio than it does, yet he can for some reason only hit 38 knots when the Canyon can hit over 56 mph? I'd say that's indicative of a problem there, as well as at the time I hadn't found the other website I linked. Regardless... there's no reason why the OP's boat should be maxing out at 38 knots when the paged I linked earlier has a 273 Chase with twin F200's on it hitting 46.3 mph @ 6,100 rpm. Which is also 50 hp less than what the OP currently has.
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the OP was stating that since the 271 is rated for 600, that he should go to 600 hp. the 600 hp rating of the 271 has no relevance to his 273. if you just want to compare boat size, power, and speed, then i guess you can compare any two boats you want...
i dont disagree that there is a problem with the OPs boat. thats why i posted performance specs for his boat with his motors. that is what a comparison should be drawn to.
Mustang65fbk
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The OP stated that his options locally were either 300's, or 200's and nothing in between, which is I believe the reason why he was considering the 300's as they weren't too much more in terms of pricing than the 200's. He also stated in his first comment that he realizes his boat has a maximum horsepower rating of 500 hp per the brochure...
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i know what his options are. that is also irrelevant to what another completely different boat is rated for
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I mean in theory, if the OP really wanted to, he could always throw twin 300's on his boat and call it a day. They're lighter than his current outboards and would likely work, though I don't imagine the OP needs to hit 65-70 mph either.
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I have a 1999 Chase 263 (same exact hull as your 273...same 500hp rating). My boat came from the factory with a single 250 (2-stroke). I recently repowered with a Verado 350 and have only taken it out once....it's actually going back to the shop tomorrow to have the motor raised 2 holes. On that first run, top speed fully loaded (200g, my family of 7) was 40, cruise at 28 at 2mpg. I think those numbers will improve ever so slightly bc A) motor was waaayy too low with a lot of drag B) my trim tabs weren't working
I only say this to say that I know I'd want the 300s bc I love speed, but twin 200s are more than I'm playing with and should do everything you want. Not to mention you may have an issue with insurance if you exceed manufacturer's rating....
I only say this to say that I know I'd want the 300s bc I love speed, but twin 200s are more than I'm playing with and should do everything you want. Not to mention you may have an issue with insurance if you exceed manufacturer's rating....
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not to nitpick, but the hulls are ALMOST exactly the same. the '99 should have the euro transom / step 2 ft forward of the transom. the 273 has the full-length running surface
Old pic, but I have the full-length. Maybe it's a late 99, but title says 99.....
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