Here’s my cooking setup. I have Cisco Systems tracks on my boat. To attach my grill I used 1) Cisco’s Quick Release Mount (comes with a gunnel mounting plate and a release mechanism) and 2) Cisco’s Track Mount. I attached the gunnel mounting plate to the bottom of my trill. I also purchased and attached another gunnel mounting plate to the bottom of my fish cleaning table. For each item i’d like to mount to my track, all I need is another gunnel plate mounted to it’s bottom.

I had two standoffs custom made by Cisco to my desired length so when using my cleaning table it’s at a comfortable height. Cisco then attached the track mount to one end of he standoffs, and quick release mount to the other end. To mount my grill I slide the track mount into my track then slide the grill’s gunnel plate to it’s quick release mount. (I use Cisco’s quick release mount upside down compared to how it’s shown on Cisco’s website.) It’s a sweet system. The grill, my spice kit, propane tanks and mounting system is always in the bow of my WX2060. It fits perfectly under the flooring. In my bow removed the side panel that otherwise holds my boat’s night light & my grill slides completely out of the way when stored leaving great access to other stored items. Now that I have this system, I was surprised how many times I used it for both fishing and family days.

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Thought I’d do a friendly bump to this thread to try to get a few other real world 0-30 mph times from others with WX2060 and the Yamaha 250 Offshore. Since the last posts to this thread I looked at the Yamaha performance bulletins for the 250 SHO on Skeeter bass boats and compared them to the published Yamaha performance bulletin on the WX2060 with 250 Offshore. Here is the summary:

WX2060/250 Offshore: Weight as Tested: 4349 lbs 0-30mph: 4.85 Sec
FX20 / 250 SHO: Weight as Tested: 3321 lbs 0-30mph: 6.83 Sec
ZX20 / 250 SHO: Weight as Tested: 3300 lbs 0-30mph: 6.86 Sec
ZX21 / 250 SHO: Weight as Tested: 3160 lbs 0-30mph: 6.03 Sec
20i / 250 SHO: Weight as Tested: 3220 lbs 0-30mph: 5.87 Sec

So, for a WX2060 that weighs 1/3 & 1000 lbs more and has a top speed of 20 mph less than the bass boats it still gets 2 seconds better 0-30 mph time? I’m sorry this just supports my thought that the WX2060’s 4.85 seconds still just doesn’t pass my sniff test. On the flip side I’m elated that I was able to match the 6.8 seconds of the FX20 & ZX20 with my WX2060. Again, would still love to hear some real world figures from others. Skeeter20 & NDSkeeter, feel free to PM me if you’d like.

Thanks Dean. Also, a question… could you ask your contact how they measured fuel efficiency? Did they use readings from the Yamaha Smart Gauges or other measuring means?

Thanks to all for keeping a post of this nature friendly.

Still looking forward for others to post their real world 0-30 mph test result as skeeter20 and NDskeeter have offered.

Thanks for the prop ideas with the Pro Series & Turbo if they fit the hub kit for the E-TEC. My dealer also wants me to try the Rebel 3 blade 19″ pitch. I think I’m good for now for hole shot. My gut feel is my RX4 18″ will perform great on those days when I’m fishing in the AM, then swing in still loaded with fishing gear to pick up the family & a few friends for pulling up skiers. I’ll be carrying a spare prop, so it might as well be one for top end if one makes a difference enough. BRP took a look at my numbers via my dealer and even though I’m mounted correctly to try to move my motor up a hole for a bit better top end. Since my priority is hole shot, I’m going to leave it where it is for now until I can test the RX4 during one of those heavy family days and can also test a few of the props just mentioned for any possible top end improvement.

skeeter20… I grew up in Duluth and spend every weekend spring, summer & fall at my parent’s cabin on the Highbanks on Winnie. (Don’t own it now… was the 2nd cabin from the South end of all the Highbanks cabins.) I remember your area very well!

Rebel

Skeeter20

No jack plate. Garage was that close & it wouldn’t have fit. I tested an RX4 15×18 (4 blade) prop, an RX4 15×20 prop, and a Viper 14-3/4×19 prop. Max speed ranged from 52.0 mph on the 15×18 to 53.0 for the 15×20. Max RPM’s on the 15×20 were only 5380 though vs. 5900 range for other two. Yamaha had 53.3 mph at 5900 rpm on their performance bulletin with a 15-1/4×18 3 blade prop.

My seconds to plane ranged from 3.44 seconds (15×18 RX4) to 3.84 seconds (15×20 RX4). Viper 3 blade prop got 3.54 seconds. All times were averages over several runs. Yamaha bulletin had 3.96 seconds. Can’t make much “better than comments” because I don’t know what Yamaha’s criteria / definition of “on plane” was. Mine was the moment the bow made a very sudden drop after going through that “getting on plane” phase. This criteria was my most important one to me. My wife wants to be able to get up on a slalom ski while the boat is passenger loaded. I’m sure either motor would have done that from what I’ve experienced.

Fuel economy surprised me in a good way. I created a performance bulletin sheet in increments of 500 RPM. All three props on the E-TEC on this sheet had their best MPG at 3000 as did the Yamaha on it’s spec sheet. I got 4.5 MPG for the 14-3/4×18, 4.7 MPG for the 15×18 RX4, and 5.0 MPG for the 15×20 RX4. Yamaha bulletin had the 250 Offshore at 4.02 MPG at 3000 RPM. My measurements were taken from the E-TEC’s ICON 3.5C display… one of the three options of displays that come with the motor. I don’t know how Yamaha determines it’s fuel efficiency readings for it’s performance bulletin. As I went back to review these figures I still had my 15×18 RX4 prop on (the one that gave me my best hole shot). I wondered if it had better fuel efficiency somewhere between the 500 RPM increments for the bulletin data sheet I filled out. I found at 5300 RPM this prop also had 5.0 MPG on the ICON display.

At this point I questioned what my MPG was at max speed. I got between 2.6 and 2.7 MPG for all three props. Yamaha spec was at 2.19 MPG. Needless to say, I’m happy with the fuel economy figures. I was not expecting them to be this good.

A bit of history for the curious still reading this. I’m from Minnesota originally, but live in Spokane, WA. The dealer network for Skeeter boats was three strong in WA state as I was choosing to buy a boat. Once I decided to buy the Skeeter WX2060 my dealer network went from three to one, and the remaining dealer showed that in his bid being out of line with dealers in Utah, the Dakotas, or in MN / WI area. No, let me rephrase that, his prices were simply price gouging, and I felt even misrepresented the truth when discussing option pluses & minuses. Items clearly stated on the Skeeter option list (available on Skeeter website) as an option with a price deduct, he wasn’t even willing to apply a credit when every other dealer was. So, when I went home for Thanksgiving I had arranged to stop in and talk details with Justin at SBC. Their reputation going in, and through this day was and has been spectacular. That made a huge difference in my buying my hull and having my dealer prep done at SBC. For the long run though, I still had a preference for buying a motor local to Spokane for that direct to dealer relationship. It was one of those things that caused me to begin considering an E-TEC. After rebates and lower cost of install for rigging the E-TEC G2 (Internal steering saves some bucks), the cost for me to have an E-TEC vs. Yamaha was not appreciably more.

The Yamaha still has history on it’s side as a winner in long term reputation category vs the E-TEC G2. Time will tell if reliability will also be with the G2. As I’ve said before, In the end I’d probably be happy with either motor.

NDskeeter… thanks. Looking forward to your numbers.

James H… points well taken. Overall we as boater’s & fisherman are blessed to have many great brands of boats and especially quality brands of motors to choose from to match the variety of performance characteristics that we all want from them.

First off, I’m NOT here to bash any motor. I just had a Yamaha on my last boat of 18 years and LOVED it! For years I was eyeing the Offshore for my next boat. Their reliability and performance to me is VERY high from having driven them in the past, their reputation, from several friends who have them, etc. I’m more of one of those technology “early new-adaptor” guys who also saw a lot to be desired in the new E-TEC G2 when they were announced. So much that I decided to go through the possible pains of being an early adopter of the technology. I’m just here because I see a figure that doesn’t pass any of my sniff tests.

triplea:
I weighed he boat / trailer on a scale that AM. I also called the trailer manufacturer and they gave me a quote on the trailer weight to deduct from this scale weight. Don’t know how much more superior “testing equipment” can be on a 0-30 timed test. A stop watch was used over several runs and I averaged the results.

More thoughts:
Also, see the attached image showing the “advertised” power curve of the E-TEC G2 250 vs a 250 Yamaha SHO & Mercury Optimax 250 ProXS. The E-TEC is (again “advertised” to have 20% more mid (RPM) range HP than the others. Can only assume any similar relation applies to the Yamaha Offshore, but the SHO and Offshore are very similar motors in the power heads from what I’ve heard.

So with this, I get up on plane faster, have a motor that I think has a margin higher grunt at mid-RPM, and just when I am in that sweet spot the Yamaha Offshore passes me then out performs in their published 0-30 MPH test by 2 seconds. Doesn’t pass my sniff test.

Similarly.. Yamaha is claiming on their bulletin that the Offshore 250 accelerated the WX2060 from planing speed to 30 mph in 0.89 seconds. I found this planing speed to be in the high teens in MPH. So from years of being in boats watching my guages I can’t say it again passes my sniff test for a boat to accelerate an additional 12-13 mph in less time than you can “one-mississi…”. Even sitting in chair saying that I can’t imagine that much acceleration in any engine.

This is why I’m wondering if anyone has conducted actual prop tests to measure 0-30 on their WX2060 like I have.

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I just picked up a WX2060 from SBC last week and trailered it home to Washington State. The ski pylon is very BEEFY! I couldn’t imagine a stronger ski pylon on any boat that is still removable. It would definitely be strong enough to hold a seat. What I’m going to try to do is have a locale machine shop fabricate the bottom half of the ski pylon up to the point where it is about level with the top of rear casting deck. The top of this custom pole will have a receptacle sized to accept the pin from a 3/4″ pin style seat. I’ll probably get the teflon liner and have it inserted into the post top. I’ll be able to insert a seat (either a captain’s chair or a bicycle seat) into this retrofitted ski pylon seat post adapter. As I haven’t yet had the work done I cannot tell you of the final result, but thus far I can’t see any reason that it won’t work.

I’ve been having the same thoughts about seat bases on the rear casting deck on a WX2060… here’s the link to that IDO forum discussion.

http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/wx2060-seat-mounts-on-rear-casting-deck-possible/

I talked to my garage door guy, and I’ll have him “on call” the day I bring my boat home just in case there are any clearance issues with any parts of the garage door, tracks, pulling arm, etc. He would install the 90 degree curved track with a 15″ radius instead of the current 12″ radius, and all parts would be raised 3″… clearing the header is the main issue.

Also on day 1 I’ll be attempting to garage the boat with no equipment and minimum gas in it’s tank. Truck will also not have a camper on it. I’ll be recreating the maximum height the boat will have on the trailer so the springs aren’t compressed and tongue is as high as it would ever be with a my standard hitch.

Thanks Mel… after reading Eric’s reply yesterday it was nice to wake up to a positive answer… not definitive in my case, but at least more positive. I’m not at all agreeable to airing up & airing down the tires every time I use the boat… I’d rather install a set of these on the trailer!

Eric… thanks for taking the time to do the measurement!

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Thanks Reddog… am aware of the difference in the back ends of the MX and WX series. For me it’s a compromise of family better off with jump seats on the WX, versus I’d prefer the larger rear casting deck and raised pedestal seat mounts available on the MX… as i said, I’m sure either of them will fish well, even when understanding issues like added depth of WX will mean higher step ups all day long and “longer arms” needed to land fish, etc. Nice to have choices!

Thanks Eric… I agree, there might be clearance issues. As I go through my boat choice decisions, your answer will be thrown in along with all other features we are looking or. Nice to know it is at least an option. Pro / con’s / placement can be work out later.

Sadness on that 30’comment as I left behind my 32’x40′ “toy” garage a year ago, and family is now in a temporary home rental with a standard single car garage door to get my boat through. Depth of my garage is exactly 23′. I didn’t know the “length on trailer” was with motor trimmed up as described above… that info helps. Looks like either boat would fit in my garage. On the good side, the width either boat on trailer is a whopping 2″ less than my current boat… a situation where every inch is a blessing. Any info on the WX2060, or total length to the bow of boat versus tip of stowed trolling motor questions anyone?

Mind sharing how much needing to pay for that boat motor combination? Which electronics are on it? I understand if you’d rather not share the price. From a dealer or private party?

Thanks for the data James. I’m currently driving a Triton 18DV (center console) that has a Yamaha Saltwater 130 2 stroke on it and am eyeing the Skeeter Multispecies series for my next purchase. My boat and motor were purchased new by me in 1998, so it’s 15 years old. I had a trip last summer where I’d be doing a bit of long distance running so I checked my fuel efficiency. Daily runs were about 60 miles per day and I got an average of 3.4MPG running at about 38-40 MPH (a few MPH below max for my boat). Interesting that with a much larger boat and a much larger motor the 2190 with F300 has very similar efficiency at the same speeds as my much smaller boat / motor combination. Gotta LOVE how far technology has taken us!…. wow, gas costs “could” be the same with a new boat upgrade… NOT! I’m sure there is no way I could temper my enthusiasm to not want to max out the speed of the F300 “now and then”.

I know this isn’t an MX1825 with an Etec, but as info, here is a thread about a guy who put an Etec on his WX2100. Perhaps the overlap in subject matter will still find some of the info in the thread useful to you.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182798&highlight=skeeter

It is a thread on walleyecentral.com by alwaysffb titled “’08 Skeeter just had a “heart” transplant – anyone done this? Results?”

Actuall, you don’t really need to find just a Skeeter dealer that also sells Etec’s. I was seriously entertaining the MX1825 / Etec 200 combo this spring until my wife and I decided to wait a year / wait to see that the 20 foot MX will be like. I was thinking of purchasing the boat from one (possibly distant) dealer, and have the motor purchased and installed from another local dealer… the Etec dealer needs to be a full service dealer (think there is actually another name for that). Some Etec dealers are able to buy boxed motors and rig on boats, others can only do servicing of the motors. I had a local dealer that I found to be reputable. Big bonus was this last spring Etec incentives with free rigging including controls, and a 2 year warranty upgrade added up to some serious cash savings… that was one of the reasons I was entertaining the idea so seriously.

A recipe that I made up myself:
Use walleye, or any other white meat fish. (Perch, striped bass, etc.)
1) Take the top off a broiler pan.
2) Pour some white cooking wine and water in the bottom of the pan.
3) Spray PAM or other cooking oil onto the top of the broiler pan.
4) Lay fish on the pan so that the fillets are bunched together.
5) Heavily season with Lawry’s Season Salt, lemon pepper, sweet basil, or a mix of your own.
6) Take several oranges and a few lemons and slice them with the skins on.
7) Layer the oranges and lemons over the fish so that the citrus slices overlap & completely cover the fish.
8) Place tin foil over the entire pan.
Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, or until fish is opaque.

This recipe uses the citrus to eliminate any objectional fishy taste, either due to a stronger flavored fish, a saltwater fish, etc. The fish will actually end up steamed, and will be very light and delicate when done. It is an excellent table presentation too. Bring the entire covered broiler pan to the table, and uncover in front of your guests. The colors of the citrus layered over the fish is awesome. I don’t eat the citrus, but scrape it off to the side, but I guess you could eat it if you’d like.

Thanks for the reply Eric, however, I don’t really know how to ask the question any differently than I did originally (copied from my original post):

3) From reading the Skeeter website & other articles, one hears much of Skeeter’s boat design including their use of Ex-Cel composites, their dry flake & armor gel finish system, and especially their aluminum torque transfer transom & stringer system that adheres aircraft aluminum to the Ex-Cel transom. But all of the writings I’ve found refer to how they are used on the i-Class and ZX boats. Do they apply to the WX and MX series as well?

Or, since the WX has been around for a bit to be field tested for several years, is the WX core construction mirrored in the MX? I’m not concerned with small design issues such as finish in storage areas or cup holders, I’m more asking questions about structural strength, hull longevity, etc. Since the boat was a bow to transom redesign, but also had a design criteria to be in a certain price point, I’m trying to verify that shortcuts were not taken in areas of the boat we can’t easily see just to meet that price point. I understand it is a hard question to answer. The question came up when discussing the boat with fishing/boating friends who wondered if corners were cut when they heard of the price of it.

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While I haven’t used the LOW structure scan I have fished with it and I have never said “WOW, I wish I had that.”

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Wade… I’m assuming you meant StructureMap in this sentence. Thanks for your detailed response. As I think about it more, I agree with you… there may be times that I find myself thinking “what is that” on my side imaging & may resort to StructureMap to sort it all out, but either those times will be far & few between, or in the near long run, HB will probably have it’s version. This along with the LakeMaster availability (even though I live in MN, I have family thru-out LakeMaster territory), customer service increases my lean towards HB. I predict I’d feel the same as you regarding the soft keys as well.

To really stretch this discussion… Imagine the engine that would result if Evinrude were to apply similar SHO technologies like plasma infused sleevless cylinders to the E-tec? Anyone for a 300 lb 200HP outboard?

I agree… Those items sound better to be options. I’d prefer to keep the lower base price tag.

Eric, as you mentioned in your post, do you have any insights from the Skeeter engineers as to the method of construction on the MX / WX series? Any details will be appreciated. It is surprising how silent the literature is on the main construction details on this series. Gee, since internet / Skeeter sales literature is silent on the issue, that does not rule out that there is wood used in it’s construction & isn’t 100? glass.

As it turns out the guy with the Ranger 620 & 25″ 250 SHO lives a few miles from me. He used a kit purchased from Bay Manufacturing in Milan Ohio. As stated on Walleye Central it was installed by Spokane Valley Marine. I called SVM & total kit & labor for the extension would be about $3,000. I didn’t call Bay MFR, but the boat owner stated materials were several hundred dollars including three cans of some pretty expensive (spray?) paint to match the rest of the motor. The boat owner personally worked with SVM (has contacts there I guess). One steps required a special jig he made in order to ream out an existing hole in the motor… that was the tricky part it sounds like. (Sorry I can’t be more specific than that.) Other than that, it was a pretty straight forward job.

Results were fantastic… he would walk away from all other 250’s in the local tourneys. He would also best the 300 equipped boats in the tourneys as well. Hole shot he described as instantaneous, even with a very heavy tourney load.

Hope this info helps those that may be so inclined to spend the bucks before factory 25″ shafts are available on 200 SHO’s.

With measured speeds of the MX1825 hitched to a HPDI 200 in the upper 50’s, I bet the SHO 200 (with the SHO bottom end… is different than the Offshore botom) would easily be solidly in the 60’s. Sounds like the hole shot would be equally amazing.

Only think I could think of that would make the MX1825 fall a (VERY small) bit short of the perfect tourney boat is the smaller gas tank size. Hmmm, what size tank might be on the awaited 20′ MX?

I did call Skeeter Boat Center on the outside chance that they could get factory rigged from Skeeter an MX1825 with a 200 SHO 20″ shaft. They did call Skeeter & as suspected, the answer was no. Versus purchasing separate boat & motor, I thought it was a shot at purchasing a factory packaged boat / motor combo & saving $$’s to cover some of the expenses of extending the shaft after I got the boat home.

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To add to this conversation, someone from Washington state rigged his Ranger 620 with the 250 VMaxSHO (yes SHO and dealer with authorized kit from Yamaha changed shaft to 25in.) This was discussed on WC and confirmed it was a VMaxSHO and not the Offshore. So maybe there might be way around the weight issue since the VMaxSho 200 is 505lbs and add maybe 11 lbs for longer shaft and midsection.

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Being from WA state, I’d love to talk to this guy! I’d quickly join the 1825/200SHO camp.

Thanks for the research… sounds like they applied to the F200 some of the gains of the “moving parts” (in GENERAL) of the SHO without applying the weight savings in how the head, etc is made.

Thanks Eric,
Interesting that Skeeter won’t factory rig the F200… good info.

One thought I had was with the effort the engineers took to design a boat that would sit level on the water while off plane, drift sideways to the wind, track straight, etc., the heavier the motor, the more these characteristics may be compromised. Besides, compared to an F150, adding that much weight to the back of the boat would probably negate some of the benefits of the additional 50 HP.

Thanks again for the replies.

Sounds like Yamaha, since they own Skeeter would be shooting themselves in the foot if they decided to drop the 200 HPDI. They would be producing what may become a very popular boat (MX1825), but have no motor available that would maximize the boat’s HP rating and hull characteristics.

My decision as to what motor to put on my boat would be so easy if the SHO/Offshore head were available in a 200HP, 25″ shaft! Yamaha, I will extend the personal invitation to use me / my boat as your test subject if you would like to try the MX1825 / 200 SHO out in the real world before official public release of the 200 / 25″ SHO!

Regarding the lack of jump seats on the MX1825… looks like it may be pretty easy to fabricate a very good looking backrest with posts that sit in the available seat bases on the rear casting platform. One would just use the existing top to the livewell as a seat. Could even order some seat cover materials from Skeeter to have the padding match your existing seats. Would be nice for the times where one may be going for a cruise with family plus a few friends…. just thinking about all of the uses the boat will see besides fishing! Any thoughts as to how stable the seat bases would be when two people would be leaning laterally back against such a back? (I don’t know how the seat bases are designed, thus can’t vision if this idea would work or not.)

Thanks Wade,
I know my current Triton 18DV will turn tail to the wind as soon as I stop controlling it with a drift sock or the trolling motor. In addition, my current boat, being a deep V has a pivot point just under the front casting deck when being pulled by a front mounted trolling motor. iPilot on my Minnkota has been a true lifesaver because of this! Definitely sounds like neither the MX or WX have a fish-tailing problem when using the TM.