SmallJaw
Active Member
My new boat is a 2018 and is my 3rd Bassport. It is the first I've owned with a 300 on the back. I've ridden and driven in several others over the years so I am not an inexperienced owner. Not that I have anything bad to say about the new boat just some comments and such to solicit some input from you guys. First, when I took the boat out for the inaugural test drive there were 2 grown men and a half tank of fuel. We were in Dallas picking it up and ran over to Lake Grapevine for a motor test. Immediately I realized this boat felt light. I ran it a few miles and turned the wheel over to Johnny Johnson. I don't think I mentioned anything to him about how it felt as I wanted to get his unbiased reaction. Johnny ran it several miles and when we stopped he said "Man, this boat feels so light". It told him that was my exact reaction too. I brought it home and filled the tank to full, and took it out for the break in period on the engine. It was just me in the boat BTW. It still felt light and very agile/fast etc. even with the motor buried down. I had the trim up to 5.5 which is still negative so that the front of the boat wouldn't grab and give me a hook. Ok here is the next big thing I noticed at speeds above 70. (It was easy to get to 70 even at low rpm's buried on the back). The noise from water hitting the bottom of the boat was really loud. Much louder than any of the other boat's I've owned. This kind of leads me to think there is either less material in the floors these days or a different structural layout. Regardless, it was louder than I expected. When I got to 5400 rpm's per the break in recommendation, the boat was on the back of the pad running 84 mph. She was moving along pretty well for a buried jackplate and negative trim. The noise went away. So, has anyone else noticed the noise? I'm not worried or concerned but feeling a lighter boat and hearing noise would, using none informational deduction, lead one to believe the build of the boats has changed.
