After a full season and over 125 hours per motor on the repower from 5.7L carbureted Volvo engines to 2007 5.7L multi-port fuel injected Crusader engines, it makes sense to revisit the process and the performance of this substantial investment in the boat.

The only way to describe the experience working with Johnson’s Supreme Marine in Ludington and the performance of the boat with the new power is amazing.  Enough cannot be said about Don and Todd Johnson for their incredible technical knowledge, attention to detail, and on time completion.  Although Don and Todd has noted that after the repower there would be a significant improvement in both speed and fuel economy with the new more efficient engines and the appropriately matched stainless steel Volvo duoprops, there was nothing that can prepare us for the dramatic increase in performance.  The most immediate change was the speed at which the boat now comes to plane which is quickly followed by a substantial improvement in speed at wide open throttle.   With the old power the boat ran about 33 to 34 mph measured by the GPS, but after the installation of the Crusaders we experienced speeds of over 42 mph with five crew, gear, and over 250 gallons of fuel.  With a lighter load we saw even faster speeds.   Even with the increase in speed, we have also gained an increase in fuel economy.  While historically our best cruise of approximately 1.0 mpg was found running 3000 rpms and 24 mph, we now cruise at 30 mph at 3700 rpms with fuel economy at 1.3 mpg!  That means not only did we increase our cruising  speed by 25%, we also realized a 30% increase in fuel economy.  Needless to say, this is truly amazing performance. With all this data collected early in the season through water testing and the break in process mandated by Crusader, the team was very anxious to test the performance of the boat in real world conditions against the competition.  In our first event in South Haven the vast majority of the boats had located fish approximately 10 miles northwest of port which provided a prime opportunity to see how we would fair.  The results went beyond our wildest imagination.  I would describe the drag race that ensued as a tie between our boat and Hour Time from Sturgeon Bay in their 56’ Viking convertible as we sat down on the first simultaneously.  This scenario played out many more times during the course of 2007 as we consistently we able to outrun the competition to the fish which, in our opinion, has become a significant advantage over the field. In summary, what originally was undertaken to ensure the team ultimate reliability by installing new power also netted a dramatic increase in speed and fuel economy at all rpms.  The overall performance of the boat cannot be understated.