Rough Riding Cougar

[Brownmaniac]

Was it bad because it was pounding you and getting wet or just rolling side to side? I thought my Puma had an incredibly smooth ride in slop and waves. Never had a jarring hit - not once. But it did slightly roll which took getting used to. IMO (which may or may not be correct from a design point), the roll was a by product of hull design which didn’t allow any of those hits that just rattle your teeth and spine. I’ll take the roll.

Yeah, it's pounding me. Feels like it's loosening the fillings in my teeth!

[barbarian]

Yeah, it's pounding me. Feels like it's loosening the fillings in my teeth!

Has to be you are going to fast. You don't have to go slow, but find the happy medium for that lake on that day. Its not the hull.

[Midnight Rider]

Regardless of the boat, you have to slow down and trim down to let the hull cut the waves instead of jumping from the top of one to the top of another. They are not evenly spaced so it's going to slap the face of the next one, depending on length of hull. My Sabre is 18'1" and on big lakes I just have to get down around 40 mph and trim down to the point of letting the V do it's job. The reverse curve on the outer front of a BassCat hull will force the water down and away, so you will very rarely get wet unless the wind is really howling and blowing the spray back towards you. The wake boats are what I hate the most.

[Louie]

Not running a Cougar, but a 16 Caracal, and its by far one of the best rough water boats I've been in. Just bumping the atlas down some running 45-55 mph in chop it really runs right though it. I did have to make the last 5 min of a tournament run once, pressed it out to 65 in pretty good chop, I about needed a seat belt to stay in the boat, but passed a few other brands that just could not do that in that given the conditions.

Are you running a hydraulic jack plate?

[J Risco]

Thanks J! I'll send you the PM...

Just realized my inbox wss full, I deleted a few. Try again

[Sports1]

I guess the question to ask is was your 201 and bullet beating you like that in rough water at those same speeds that you were driving?

[FastBird]

I guess the question to ask is was your 201 and bullet beating you like that in rough water at those same speeds that you were driving?

The bigger question is...which Bullet?

[billius]

I doubt there is any brand, or model of a brand, of bass boat that rides "smoothly" in rough water at high speeds. I've had two Cougars, a Baycat and now a Caracal. All of them, at high speeds, would pound you. If you slow down and run around 35-40 or so, they don't have that hard landing that knocks out your fillings. I'm surprised at how well my Caracal rides compared to the other BassCats I've had. I am very pleased with it. I don't think its quite as good as the Cougars I've had, but not enough difference to make me sorry I bought it.

[FastBird]

I doubt there is any brand, or model of a brand, of bass boat that rides "smoothly" in rough water at high speeds. I've had two Cougars, a Baycat and now a Caracal. All of them, at high speeds, would pound you. If you slow down and run around 35-40 or so, they don't have that hard landing that knocks out your fillings. I'm surprised at how well my Caracal rides compared to the other BassCats I've had. I am very pleased with it. I don't think its quite as good as the Cougars I've had, but not enough difference to make me sorry I bought it.

Depends on how rough. Plenty of Champ, Chargers and 21 Bullets that ride smooth in rough stuff at speed. I've spent quite a bit of time in my buddy's 21xdc. We have been in some stuff at 75mph that would hurt pretty bad in my Champ at 60. The buddy w the 21xdc rode in a caracal earlier this year in a bfl. He said the guy never got over 60, mainly kept it at 55. He said it was a very rough ride. The lake wasn't to bad that day, so I assume too much trim..

[Brownmaniac]

UPDATE:
For starters want to thank J Risco for taking half his day off and meeting up with me to troubleshoot. Dude really knows his stuff!
We were on the water 30 seconds and he realized the boat wasn’t lifting like it should at mid range speeds, and was slamming the waves. He brought tools and half a dozen props to try and Checked my prop to pad. Stuck on one of his worked on fury’s and the difference was unbelievable. Tried another scorpion prop and the ride was even better just wouldn’t come out of the hole.
He can chime in with more specifics that’s over my head but I never would have thought that the prop made that much difference in the ride! Never the less my 25 fury is on its way to the shop. Thanks again John and for every one that weighed in. Good to know there’s still quite a few good dudes out there willing to help a brother out.

[jusmangrum]

Yea I told you he knows what's going on and a good guy to have as a friend. He's always willing to help anyone out.

[mike464]

That's great!

[Brownmaniac]

Yea I told you he knows what's going on and a good guy to have as a friend. He's always willing to help anyone out.

Yeah he’s a real good dude! We will probably get together and do some fishin. We live maybe 15 min apart.

[J Risco]

Wow, I just typed a 3 paragraph detailed reply of everything we did (thinking people might enjoy the read) and BBC had an error while posting and deleted it (I should have copy pasted, my fault) so now Im going to RE-type it, but it will be the short version.

Thanks for letting me rip your badass Cougar around Chris! First thing I did was measure P2P but it was an un-level bumpy lot so not perfect, but it was 3.5ish, good enough that I knew that prob wasnt the issue. We went for a ride and I could tell his prop, a stock 25p Fury3 that was a little rashed up but not too bad, wasnt providing any mid-range lift.

We threw on my Scorpion 25p that is heavily worked but setup for my 4 stroke hoping it would get on plane. I have the vent holes JB Welded shut for my 4 stroke. It only spooled up to 2K rpm and wouldnt get on plane unless one of us sat my the TM, but we got it on plane to test and immediately could tell the midrange lift was significantly better, and the ride was much improved. I think a lot of guys talk about holehot and top end when discussing props, but midrange lift and performance gets overlooked, and it's very important for ride, esp in the summer when you spend a lot of time at mid-speed. Also, with the proper venting, prob more than stock for the Scorpion, the 2 stroke should also prop right up on plane with this prop. The Scorpions when stock provide just as much lift as my modded one, the things we do to it just help top end. We also ran my worked 26p Fury3 and it ran way better than his stocker, but not quite as good as the Scorpion in mid-range. The Fury3's are awesome for top end but lack some mid-range performance due to their diameter mostly and also blade design. Another benefit of the Scorpion (and probably the Fury 4 but I havent tested one yet, buying one soon) is the economy improvements in the midrange. I get a mpg more when cruising which is nice.

I suggested that Chris get his worked for now, as it;s the fastest and easiest fix, but eventually get a Scorpion or Fury 4 for the Summer and run the Fury 3 during late fall, winter and spring. You might loose 2-3 mph with the mid-range monster props but the ride improvement is worth is and you dont get the run WOT often in summer anyway, at least here on Hartwell.

We then went and spent a bit setting up his electronics then scanning a hump, found some bait and fish so we fished for 20-30 min, caught one, great day!

Well that's the short of it, upset the the longer replay got lost but oh well... anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Thanks again for letting me drive your rig Chris, well get out this fall and see if we can get her to touch 80

[Wheelman]

Wow, I just typed a 3 paragraph detailed reply of everything we did (thinking people might enjoy the read) and BBC had an error while posting and deleted it (I should have copy pasted, my fault) so now Im going to RE-type it, but it will be the short version.

Thanks for letting me rip your badass Cougar around Chris! First thing I did was measure P2P but it was an un-level bumpy lot so not perfect, but it was 3.5ish, good enough that I knew that prob wasnt the issue. We went for a ride and I could tell his prop, a stock 25p Fury3 that was a little rashed up but not too bad, wasnt providing any mid-range lift.

We threw on my Scorpion 25p that is heavily worked but setup for my 4 stroke hoping it would get on plane. I have the vent holes JB Welded shut for my 4 stroke. It only spooled up to 2K rpm and wouldnt get on plane unless one of us sat my the TM, but we got it on plane to test and immediately could tell the midrange lift was significantly better, and the ride was much improved. I think a lot of guys talk about holehot and top end when discussing props, but midrange lift and performance gets overlooked, and it's very important for ride, esp in the summer when you spend a lot of time at mid-speed. Also, with the proper venting, prob more than stock for the Scorpion, the 2 stroke should also prop right up on plane with this prop. The Scorpions when stock provide just as much lift as my modded one, the things we do to it just help top end. We also ran my worked 26p Fury3 and it ran way better than his stocker, but not quite as good as the Scorpion in mid-range. The Fury3's are awesome for top end but lack some mid-range performance due to their diameter mostly and also blade design. Another benefit of the Scorpion (and probably the Fury 4 but I havent tested one yet, buying one soon) is the economy improvements in the midrange. I get a mpg more when cruising which is nice.

I suggested that Chris get his worked for now, as it;s the fastest and easiest fix, but eventually get a Scorpion or Fury 4 for the Summer and run the Fury 3 during late fall, winter and spring. You might loose 2-3 mph with the mid-range monster props but the ride improvement is worth is and you dont get the run WOT often in summer anyway, at least here on Hartwell.

We then went and spent a bit setting up his electronics then scanning a hump, found some bait and fish so we fished for 20-30 min, caught one, great day!

Well that's the short of it, upset the the longer replay got lost but oh well... anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Thanks again for letting me drive your rig Chris, well get out this fall and see if we can get her to touch 80

I hear ya on props carrying the hull differently and that's why I run the Fury 3-blade in the winter and Trophy 4-blade in the spring/summer/fall on my Sabre FTD the latter is less sensitive to trim as naturally lifts the boat out of water more especially in the hot months when the outboard is making less power than normal.