Zodiac zoom 285 (9.35 feet), rated at 8 HP max....
Anyone with experience with putting on a bigger one?
I got a 2005 J-8 (Johnson 8) on it, and it does well
with one person (20 Mph), and just recently got it to
plane with two people (2 @ 210 Lbs), but it takes a
lot of work and shifting your weight around to get it
to plane with two people. When it does, damn near
get full speed, and tops out at about 18-19 Mph.
So I was wondering what the implications were of
putting something bigger on it, say a 9.9 ? Is it transom
strength, max weight? Their ain't no sinking a Zodiac, right ?
(are they even sinkable at all?) What's the fastest anyone's
ever got one of these 9 foot(-ish) things going?
Another thing, on this new J-8 with a little over 10 hrs,
what's the longest time I can safely run WOT? Is say
15 minutes or so at WOT too much, or too long or
anything? This new 2005 J-8 just runs so dam smooth,
I just can't keep my wrist out of WOT. Is this bad?
(I try to do cool down periods after coming out of
these extended periods of WOT). I'm pretty new to
boats, but it seems like I'm having too much fun with
this Zodiac, seems too easy - just waiting for the other
shoe to drop. Will the thing disintegrate in like a year ?