Boat Speed Question

The boat is running pretty good. My amigo and I took it out yesterday and ran it with the new stabilizer on the motor, with just he and I in the boat, it hit a plane almost instantly.

We caught up with a guy on a jetski with a speedometer and he paced us and said it was floating around 20-21mph.

Does that sound about right? 1648 Basstracker with a 240lbs and 160lbs guy, no gear, and the decking is 3/4" plywood, not sure what grade.

Also, last week, before the stabilizer, the wife, kids and I went fishing with all the gear we usually carry, it took a while, but the boat planed out after about 10 seconds or so. Today, same gear, same wife, same kids, took the boat out with the stabilizer and I couldn't get it to plane at all and it didn't seem like it was going near as fast as it was last week.

I don't expect it to be a speed demon by any means, but it feels as though it's going about 3/4's of the speed it was last week.

I guess I should add that it has a 40hp Johnson selectric motor.

Seems alittle slow to me.
Take a handheld GPS out with you,the numbers may be wrong.

Small boats are really suceptible to changes in how the load is distributed.

I'll bet you and your buddy were able to get yourselves situated correctly.

If your family is anything like mine they were all over the place and the boat didn't have a chance.

Those basstrackers have a lot of plywood in them. If its holding water, your boat is carrying a LOT of extra weight.

I had a 40HP Johnson on a 16 v-hull Grumman that was pretty lightweight. It ran about 31 in smooth water with three guys and gear in it.

If you could lighten the boat up a bit, I'm sure you could get the speeds into the mid 20s.

This thing has 3/4" plywood all over it, deck, floor, rear storage lids #-o

Over the winter I plan on taking it down to the hull and rebuilding it the way I want it.

As for water, it took on quite a bit compared to usual(higher than usual waves) and I probably pumped out 8-10 gallons every time we moved more than a mile.

Usually I'll only get about 1/3-1/2 a gallon for 2-3 hours of fishing. I've never used the bilge pump until the other day.

The boat isn't leaking, just water splashing over the sides.