Stratos boat hull question

[QUICKSILVER]

I ran up on an 18' closed bow Stratos today. It has a 150 Mariner on it. The motor is locked up, but everything else looks good. For $1000 it followed me home. The hull looks like the Y-T Hydrostreams. Anybody now anything about these boats. I think OMC owned the company at one time.

[woodco]

Yes they where owned by OMC before the bankruptcy deal.Now they are under the same parent company that owns Javelin Boats.

As for quality the Stratos was produced to be like a Walmart or KMart special back then.So quality was not job one just pump
em out boats.I'm not saying they are junk just have thier issues.

The current Stratos boats are alot more geared towards quality
and not quanity.

Hope this helps

[ncst8er]

a Stratos VT Rocket. I don't have any personal experience with them, but look at the following link to see if this is what you have. Also you may search Liqui-fly's posts, I think he has one.

http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8727

[dan agnew]

the boat you questioning about is called the vt-rocket it is a copy of the old round nose laser that was built by summerford in texas and then in our part of the world by roark as a stv.
the problem is they are a heavy as a large stump and hard to make run. as in all airtrap boats weight seems to kill performance and these seem to fit the porky bill nicely

Danny

[QUICKSILVER]

Hell, if it looks fast sitting on the trailer, someone will buy it. I bought a new V-King in 1982. A friend came over and looked at it, he said that it looked like should have barbed wire wrapped around it. I guess he was thinking something to hold it still.

[Steve Zuckerman]

Guys:
Earl Bentz started Stratos as an INDEPENDENTLY owned company
after he had worked for Joe Reeves at Hydra Sports here in NashVegas. About that same time, Roark Summerford had unloaded Lazer (of Texas) Boats. Roark had a well deserved
reputation for designing fast hulls, and Earl hired Roark to design
some hulls for his then new company, with mixed results.
Roark moved to NashVegas, designed/consulted with/for Earl, and
the company took off. When the boat manufacturing/buying rash
set in with the motor OEMs, OMC bought Stratos. Frustrated with
OMC/corporate life, Earl left and started Triton, stealing dealers
and market share from OMC/Stratos in the process.
Roark built up STV in nearby suburban Hendersonville, across the
lake from my suburb, Old Hickory, where Stratos was located.
Earl had raced for Team Mercury during the heydeys, running under Mariner banner. Many of his early boats were Mariner powered, because of this connection. Only after the OMC deal, did the boats become exclusively OMC powered. This too has
passed. They are now made in Murfreesboro by Genmar. Any
flavor motor may now be had on them since they've been "liberated".
Roark has sold STV, now in Wally's hands after a few years in
Mississipi.
Earl and Roark have teamed up again, and are selling the hell out of Tritons.
So, your Lazer/STV looking v-bow, modVP is a true early Stratos.
Earl was a hotrodder, and wanted a hotrod in the line. Roark was
happy to copy his Lazer, much to the chagrin of the guys he sold
Lazer to.
Regards,
Steve

;)
Got Merc? Don't be ridiculous:rolleyes: !!!!!!!!!!!
Need rope? Only to tow in JohnRudes:rolleyes:

[dan agnew]

yeah what steve said!!! true the boats look good on the trailer and even in the water just dont take a guy that wants a hotrod boat for a speed run unless he will sit in boat while you haulass down I-85 at speed.
seriously they are good "beginner" boats and as such will set the hook for a later real fast bost. they are easy to drive and very forgiving in trim arena as you have to work HARD to blow one over but some of em would hang up nicely if the bottom was fixed.

Danny

[Steve Zuckerman]

Yeah, what Dan said:
What Roark found when he began building "production" weight
hulls, was that boats that ran well @ 500/600 lbs, don't always
run well at 1000+ lbs.
Your boat was built in a bass deck also, with the promise of
incredible performance. It was even heavier with all the lids and
plumbing and batteries. The Stratos vee hull, similarly powered,
was 3-5 MPH faster, and much smoother riding.
Don't let this discourage you. Like Dan said, it's a great starter
hotrod. I think you'll need some more HP (like 200+) to make it
run properly.
Regards,
Steve;)

[QUICKSILVER]

I bought the boat to resell. I have plenty of seat time in boats and over 350hp plus nitros. If I need to make it go faster. Thanks for the replys. I wanted to be able to tell a buyer what to expect.

[QUICKSILVER]

I pulled the cowling off the Mariner today. The owner said it was locked . The flywheel turned easily. The engine is a 200 with 150 cowling. Sr# is correct for 200 also. Recently rebuilt, the head bolts are already loose. I pulled the heads, all the cyls. look excellent, #2 has recent sleeve. The rest are chrome. The head gaskets didn't look right, found 3.5 on gasket surface, should say 3.375. Someone put 2.5 instead of 2.4 head gaskets on. Unless the crank is damaged I don't see any more problems. I can't be that lucky.

[Steve Zuckerman]

Quicksilver:
Sounds like you came out smelling like a rose. He probably hydrolocked the motor, and thought he'd blown it.
I would check the compression carefully after installing new
head gaskets. Good luck.
Steve

[GPRACING]

QUICKSILVER,I got this boat from you last july.I finally got the boat finished!It turned out great.Ill have to get you some pics.Its come along way since it left your yard with trees growing up through the floor!We completey redid everything.New transom,stringers ,floor -everything...We painted it with white Algrip.We also redid the bottom and did some mods to the pad.Now I just have to finish up the motor-A 1999 Evinrude 225 fitch convetered to carbs,yamaha ignition,etc.All of Bob Kottmans tricks less porting.The powerhead was like new so I didnt want to tear it down,besides I wanted to to see how fast the stock ports will take it.Anyways I just wanted to let you know I did fix the boat & Ill keep ya updated with some pics as soon as I get it rigged up.Thanks!

[GPRACING]

Hows your boat running???

[mike bryan]

i have a 85 rocket vt. i bought it in 96 had a 86 merc mod vp on it with a worked merc chopper. the boat was not much fun set up like i got it. the boat wouldn't even think about taking off unless the motor was trimmed absolutely all the way against the transom and it didn't plane out really good until about 35 or 40 mph. this motor didn't last long and i was sick of high performance motors so i repowered it with a new 99 johnson 150 eagle. the dealer lent me a 19 inch omc viper (high bite) prop to break in the engine and i think they had lowered the engine a little on the jackplate. this transformed the boat. i have had 2 ski nautiques and this combo planed out faster than either of them. it ran exactly 10 mph for every 1000 rpms. i bought a 23 inch viper for my prop and you couldn't even tell any difference in the hole shot. boat fully planes in about 2 boat lengths and leaves a ski quality wake. i am going to experiment on raisin the engine because you have to trim it a lot to get good speed. my boat is silver/grey metalflake and has a completely smooth deck. there are no cleats or combing pads or anything on deck except bow light and rear socket.