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New Transmission, New Performance

 
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neverending
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:42 am    Post subject: New Transmission, New Performance Reply with quote

Today I had the first opportunity to run Never Ending following a transmission refit coupled with other maintenance items which included a Floscan installation. Since I didn't have the Floscan with the old tranny I can't do comparative numbers, but the "seat-of-the-pant" comparison is dramatic improvement.

The Before specs:

25' Alglas Custom Sport Fisherman, single 7.3L Mercruiser, ZF 63A 2.51:1, 1.25" SS shaft, 16x18 3-blade prop.

The After specs:

Just the transmission changed to ZF 63A 1.56:1

The old tranny was leaking when I bought the vessel and so this was an anticipated repair. What was a surprise to find when the engine and tranny came out was the 2.56:1 gear reduction. Joebobb, familiar to some here, helped me out by sending me a couple of spreadsheets to calculate the needed gear reduction and some photos of the underside of his and another's boats. The latter was of help because I have yet to have the boat hauled and was curious to see how much clearance there would be should I need to adjust later with a bigger prop.

At the point of selecting the gear reduction for the new tranny I did not know which prop the boat had under it, but literally on the same day the trans was ordered my diver called and gave me the good news on the prop... 16x18, and my calculations had been for 16x19. Perfect. I new from Joebobb's photos that a 16x16 4-blade would fit in the space, and therefore I knew I had some wiggle room.

My target was 22 knots cruise at 3000 RPM and 27 knots tops speed. These are the original Pacemaker specs and no need to try to exceed the designed hull speed. There was one other gear avaliable that could be of interest of 1.26:1, but according to my calculations this gear would bring my minimum speed too high and I just couldn't imagine that it would be good to double the shaft speed from the 2.51 that came out of the boat. I figured that with the overpowered 454 it would be better to turn as big a prop as possible and keep the shaft speed down.

I don't have GPS on board so I can't give any speed numbers yet, but the speedometer in my head tells me I hit the nail on the head. Minimum speed at 650 RPM is around 3-4 knots. Maybe a little high for some live bait trolling, but manageable. I can always pull a couple or drones to slow it down when needed. Manuevering speed is nearly perfect. Cruising speed I would say is right on. My best guess is 20 knots at 2800 RPM with a full load of fuel and trimmed neutral.

I'll publish some better numbers later, but here are the preliminary fuel flow numbers:

650 RPM 2.0 GPH
1000 RPM 3.5 GPH
1500 RPM 5.5 GPH
2000 RPM 8.0 GPH
2800 RPM 14.5 GPH
3000 RPM 16.0 GPH

Note:

There is a calibration cycle required for the fuel flow indicator that requires a minimum of 20 gallons be consumed and I've only burned about half of that so far. Therefore these number could change following calibration.
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Dennis Sherod
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leokow
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like a winner Dennis,as far as trolling slower, instead of using a drag drone , which tends to get tangled in fishing lines, you could just drop her in and out of gear and it moves you along just right...Later...Leo
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neverending
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gets a little old after about 6 hours of trolling. To keep the drones out of the lines they are towed from the bow and run just aft of midship.
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leokow
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Man, you west coast guys do everything different ! What kind of fish do you troll for at such a slow speed ? Over here,when we fish for flounder we just drift and use the drogue as you call it tied amidships to slow down the drift if we can't hold bottom with a decent amount of weight. Usually if we troll for tuna or mahi we run between 6and 8 knots, if its wahoo were targeting then it goes up to 10 to 11 knots. If were using live bait we usually chum and drift or anchor and let the bait swim on its own. Myself, I prefer nite fishing for tuna ,wahoo,and shark, and that's either at anchor or drifting.Usually catch live squid and small flying fish in the lights around the boat and just let them swim out there.
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neverending
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not that different. I've fished the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Carribean, and Mediterranean, and have found that while techniques do vary in small ways there is much more in common that not.

The slow trolling here is derived from the fact that in Southern California there is a healthy enterprise of live bait sales readily available in most of the harbors. Some are open 24 hours a day 365 days a year. A scoop (loosely measured) of bait will cost $30 and is sufficient for a day trip for a couple of anglers. For this reason you will usually find west coast boats outfitted with large capacity high-flow bait systems. Mine is 50 gallons and can sustain about three scoops of bait (about 120 pieces of 5"-8" sardines). When anchovies are available, I usually get a little extra so I can have a fresh anchovy fry after the trip. Mmmm good.

The bait sales business is so lucrative that they use aircraft to locate bait and have dedicated vessels that harvest the bait and supply the barges. The bait is stored in pens located at the mouth of the harbors and fresh bait is "cured" for several days before it is sold. This allows the traumatized bait to settle into its new environment and shed any loose scales and grow a new slime.

A healthy sardine can be hooked with a 1/0 or 2/0 hook through the nostrils and trolled all day and still be alive if the speed does not exceed 3 knots. Of course, you'd rather it got swallowed by something bigger Smile.

Live bait, either trolled or drifted as you've described is the preferred tactic for just about any inshore species. The local ones are yellowtail, bonito, thresher, mako and dorado (mahi mahi, dolphinfish). Tactics for tuna are trolling feathers at around 6-8 knots close to the boat and then live bait drifting once a jig strike is made.

Squid is also a favorite and we fish for squid as you have described. Anchor at night in 15 fathoms with bright lights hung over the side and use special jigs to catch enough for the next day's fishing plan. Very popular and productive for white seabass (croaker) around Catalina Island during the Loligo squid spawning season in spring.

I think you'll find that bait availability and type accounts for most of the "tribal" differences in fishing tactics. When I was in Italy making live bait was very time consuming and usually amounted to trolling for garfish close to the shoreline and you'd be lucky to have 1 or two pieces for the day. More often we would meet the commercial boats as they were unloading catch at the local market and buy whatever was available, usually dead sardines in 2 gallon wooden crates, or occassionally live sepia. Depending on what was for sale, the tactics changed.

That being said, there's always something to learn from another region. For example, wire trolling is popular in the Mediteeranean and parts of the East Coast, but has not been employed on the West Coast (Southern California) for years. We have a resurgent White Seabass population and I plan to give the wire a try this year.
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leokow
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nice reply ,Dennis, it was a very interesting read and I agree there's much more in common than there are differences. When I was living in Florida, I used to do your anchovie thing with the shrimp we had left over
after a redfish /trout trip.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Leo,

When I am trolling for striped bass I troll between 3 and 4 mph. This is also the speed that I use when trolling for blues ( I am really looking to catch a bass ), but I "goose" it up every so often to encourage a strike.

John
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