"Dionysus Feldman" wrote in message
...
She's a 1977 Sea Ray 240 SRV, which is an enclosed cockpit with a cuddy-
type berth. In the catalog they call it a "sedan" boat (catalogs are
available from Sea Ray back for quite some time). She has a new bilge
pump, steering cables, the baffles are very recent and only 321 hours on
her. Her 255 Mercruiser passed a compression test.

I owned an 1974 SRV 240 Weekender with the 351 merc for 7 years.

Things we found:
1. Sharp changes in RPM cause her to veer sharply.

Check the leg for looseness.

2. I didn't notice a distinct "plane" point, as I have on smaller ski
boats. I don't know if that's a semi-displacement hull talking, or the
size of her or just the way she is. The transition between displacement
and plane isn't clear -- that it, the transition is so smooth as to be
indistinct.

That was the case with my boat also, she just gently came up. It is a heavy
hull, that may have something to do with it.

3. "Cruise" speed: there wasn't any obvious way to figure out where to
maximize mileage (knotage?). She got up to 3800 RPM and 27kts
(according to fish finder) at WOT, and I've read that cruising speed is
about 65% of RPMs, but she seems to need 3000 RPM to plane, and then
we're only going 17-18 knots.

Same as mine. I used the tabs to force a 2800 RPM cruise at 16-17 knots.
Max recommended RPM for this model was 4200 RPM but 3900 was all I could
get. you could try a lower pitch prop, but I don't know how much it would
help. I spend a lot of time at 1500 RPM and 7 knots - quiet, pleasant, and
economical.

Enjoy your boat

Larry