New to me Etec 200 setup help

[Gordon02]

McGinnis, I'm white haired and have been chasing this speed thing a long, long time now. Horsepower is only part of the equation.

You must "fly" not "float" your boat to go faster. Air is 814 times less dense than water, so going faster means getting the boat up and out of the water. I'm not a fluid dynamics engineer, but I've learned by asking, listening, trying hundreds of changes, and careful documentation and study of those changes.

There was a fantastic article that I read 20+ years ago on surface area and drag. I did not save that article (wish I had), but it explained the affects of drag in water. Using a standard sized gearcase and a modern performance 20 foot hull, the surface drag of the submerged lower unit was more than the boat's entire frontal area being pushed through the air. As I remember, that speed trade off was in the upper 70's. The point here is that you must focus on getting your boat's hull to perform it's best at the "magic" angle of attack of 4 degrees positive to the water's surface. Just as a waterski, this angle produces great hydrodynamic lift while minimizing surface drag of the hull. Moving weight to the back near the transom and careful use of your power-trim!

Getting your gearcase up and reducing the amount of it sticking down in the water is also very important. A water pressure gauge is absolutely required and don't be surprised if you'll need to plug the upper holes of the water inlets to prevent them sucking air. Don't jump to add LWP as extended gearcases generate even more drag than a stock/normal gearcase due to the longer surface (increased surface area). The real purpose of the extended (nose coned LWP) gearcase is to open the hole (V) earlier so that it closes ahead of the prop to prevent blowout of the propeller. Normally this occurs at 82~83 mph so you'll be fine with the stock gearcase as long as it can feed water to the powerhead as you raise. While you concentrate on the hull's angle, you'll need those high-rake props like the before mentioned Rakers and Trophy's. The Raker 24~26 pitch would be my choice unless you need the quicker holeshots of the 4 blades. My #1 prop of choice for all-round duty is the Trophy, but our boats are different.

If you want to get a better idea of water's affect on drag, do this simple experiment. Using an old, manual boat speedometer with a bourdon tube mechanism, apply different air pressures to the tube feeding the speedometer and you'll see the required pressures go up exponentially - nothing close to linear……If memory serves me, going 40 MPH took some 22 psi, but 82 MPH took 125 psi - 4 times more pressure to go 2 times faster, so it's not linear. Another quick illustration of drag - stick your hand out the window at 60 with your palm vertical. Now imagine that air was water and 814 times more dense - your arm would be ripped from your torso. Keep the fact that "water drag" is way worse than air drag then make sure you set-up to minimize it. Never think some trim is good, so more is better. You want 100% of your prop shaft thrust pushing forward and the hull surface at 4 degrees, so setting your trim gauge to monitor neutral trim +4 is worth memorizing and getting right. A hull at 8 degrees and your prop thrust pushing the stern downward more than doubles the amount of wetted surface and the load you're trying to push through the water. You want to go over it - not through it. I've made a little guide to finding neutral trim and you can use it to help you center your gauge around it.


Write down all the changes and study every result. There is no 1 propeller, 1 height, 1 setback dimension, 1 horsepower number that makes a boat fly. Be it 60, 70, 80, or 90+……it all takes careful set-up.