Hey guys, No, I have not sold her yet. Not really trying too hard either.
When leaving out on a trip loaded with 200 gal fuel, 7-8 barrels of ice and bait, plus all my LL gear.... she is just too heavy to plane out even with 12x18 lencos so I usually just wind up the 250 to about 25-2800 rpms which gives me a cruise of around 9 mph or so depending on wind and currents.
Before I actually started fishing her though and during trials she comfortably cruised along at 20 mph though I can't remember at what rpm.
She can top out at about 30mph even with all the gear aboard and half a fuel load(258gal total capacity).
It scares me to think of what her top end would be minus the LL reel and power unit aboard. The reel and frame are quite heavy gauge stainless and the reel core is 8" diameter schedule 80 pipe. In hindsight I probably could gotten away with building it out of aluminum.
The reel holds 4 miles of 900# mono which is 50#/mile but I carry sash weights to hold it down on the bottom. I also fish for tilefish with 3/32" stainless cable which is pretty heavy stuff.
This would make a great sportfish boat or cruiser with all that fuel capacity and good speeds minus the heavy comm. gear.
Time will tell. I've got a few buddies concidering her depending where regs end up this year, and a few others pondering making a dive boat out of her.
We'll SEA......Jo