16ft Baja with 200 Merc

[cooperider]

It will be cool to see where this goes.

[SKATER241]

I Had A 17 1/2 Foot Baja With A 150 Merc On It.this Thing Was A Handful To Drive With Positive Trim.chinewalked Like A Mother.once I Learned To Drive Thru It Things Got Better But I Came The Closest I Have Ever Come To Crashing A Boat With This Rig.i Added Some Weight To The Front End And The Boat Settled Down A Little.if You Carry Thru With Your Plans Be Careful And Play Around With Weight Distribution.everyone I Have Talked To With This Style Of Baja Has Had Chine Walking Issues.

[qmaster023]

i guess i should not comment but what the H ll. i had a 1985 sport 160 baja 16 foot boat for years. I mounted a 200 2.4 on the back with a hydro jack plate. i had solid motor mounts and all the safty you could ask for on that boat. I did not have a pad. none. that boat would sit on that little V with no problem. i would drag race that boat with a 24 prop at 87 miles an Hour. With a 30 pitch cleaver that boat ran in the mid 90's everytime. Before anyone says no. I have a lot of people who can back those numbers. yes they were gps #s. I sold that boat to buy my allison and sometimes i wish i had it back. I will say that the 200 did put stress on the transome. I saw gel-coat cracks starting and the owner now has it in canada getting a new transome. a 16 foot Baja will run 70 with the motor on the transome. I have done that too. good luck with your boat. If you want any help e-mail at [email protected] i can send you pictures of mine. see ya

[Checkmate2.5]

I have a 16'7'' 850lb Checkmate Sportfire with a 200+ V6 and 7'' setback. Im shooting for best top end possible. Gonna try a 28'' chopper hoping for anything close to 80. I really want to to break 80mph.

[JWTjr.]

I'm the current owner of Ben's 16' Baja. Ben traded it to me in 2002 for my Allison (of course not straight across!). We then completely derigged it, and re-rigged it with a 1993 Johnson GT100 crossflow as a "first boat" for my then-13 year old daughter.

She beat the snot out of it for three years and the transom finally cracked. I'm sure Ben's years with a 200 didn't help, but it then saw 3 summers on rough Lake George with a 13/14/15-year old behind the wheel. To anyone who says these Bajas are not built well, I can attest that they are (at least this one is/was). It is now, as Ben noted, getting a new transom (and whatever else it needs--yound girls are hard on carpet and rubrail too) at John Spaeth's shop. It will ride again this summer complete with new interior, now piloted by my younger daughter who will be 12 when she first takes the wheel. It still looks almost brand-new. The girls are proud of this boat, as they participated fully in it's re-rigging and also the asselbmy of the outboard (from a pile of spare parts).

I can attest to Ben's handling and driving of this boat. I have seen it perform before I took it in trade, and it indeed run well into the high 80s in a quarter mile, and Ben drove it well. Of course today with 1/2 the power, it "only" runs 54 on GPS with two aboard, but it handles and drives like a dream.

Funny, when I was a kid and into HydtoStreams and Allisons, we used to snort with laughter at the mere mention of a Baja. But, this one is really a great boat. You'd never know it just had it's 20th birthday.

JWTjr.

[qmaster023]

thanks john for the great comments on the Baja. That is a great little boat, and i am glad your kids enjoy it. When I first bought it i took some jokes about buying a Baja but when that little thing went by you look out. Jim tells me you keep it all fixed up and that is great. The allison looks the same. Still inside and still in perfect condition. I bought a quartermaster this year to compliment it. trying to run them both. i guess i am in for some punishment. talk to you later Ben

[Juggernaut]

baja and checkmate are both good companies in my opinion. many people i have talked to who drove a baja and a checkmate always come up with the same opinion. the baja's feel more loose. the checkmates were more stable. also, if you look around, you see old checkmates a lot.(atleast where i live). baja's on the other hand, seem to be harder to find. buyt lets get one thing strait, if i had a choice between the 2, i'd take checkmate, hands down.

[Checkmate2.5]

I got my first boat when I was 9 yrs old. It was a 13' searaider with a 40merc. did just over 40mph. can you send me any pics of yours?.
It is the same boat as a mx 13
[email protected]
ps: are you a member of Checkmate-boats.com???

[natzx7]

15 baja w/ a 245 hp carb 104 on the gun. no bs i've ridden in this boat. ain't pretty, but nobody ever suspected it

[mr.clean]

I had a 16ss baja and the boat was absolutely bulletproof! airborne,stuffed the nose numerous times (180 ),crashed into a buoy,a bridge,hit by a 4runner on the trailer and run over by a bayliner all with nothing more than a scratch. started to walk at about 50mph

[Juggernaut]

I got my first boat when I was 9 yrs old. It was a 13' searaider with a 40merc. did just over 40mph. can you send me any pics of yours?.
It is the same boat as a mx 13
[email protected]
ps: are you a member of Checkmate-boats.com???

sorry i took soo long to respond.. what is it,5 months? o well. anyways, i have pictures @
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m100/juggernaut67/ they are very similar to the mx13, but in another thread i started about a month and a half ago, i found out the molds for the mx13 were destroyed in 1972, so besides looking somewhat similar, they have nothing in common.
on another note, a friend of mine has a 16.5" baja sport with a worked 135 merc on it, puting out close to 150 (im told), and he let me take it out for a gps run. i got 62.5. the boat did best with the engine jacked up about 2", and it didnt take much trim to get it to fly. chinewalking was not bad, but sometimes, the boat would catch, and hook of to the right hard. scared the crap outta me the 1st time it did it. he wants to get a 200. i think it would be a better all around boat (and easier to drive) with a 175. any opinions? im pretty sure he doesnt know he'll be seeing 90's with the 200.

[New Smyrna Craig]

My 16' 1984 baja is only rated for up to 120hp but it's had alot more on it before I got a hold of it. in case your wondering what it's actually rated at baja's web site has old promo for alot of their boats.

Oh and I'd much rather have my brother's 2008 410 velocity it pretty much trumps all. You can check out the pics I took of it on Velocity's web site under a boat for everyone or something like that it's been designed around his wheel chair but it's still tons of fun even with only 850 hp.