Boating in the new bigger boat

We've had the new to us Larson 248 LXI out several times already this year, and it's been awesome.

My wife and I love all of the room on the boat. Being as wide and long as this boat is, there's a ton of room. The shower on the back swim deck really is useful, as well as the wet bar.


This boat really handles the bigger waves well. We had a new super air nautique throwing a massive wave at us, and the Larson just laughed at the wake.

From today on Okauchee lake.



A bonus visitor from Sunday


She'll easily hit 50mph. Had it to to about 45 today. It had plenty left and I could've gotten more with trimming it up a little.

The boat seems to sip fuel, as the gauge hasn't really moved much from a little over a half tank. The truck however does drink more fuel towing. That's all fine though.

 

Looks like a LOT of fun!

 

As I went out to put the curves on it before it got dark outside, I looked at the hour meter. We've put nearly 7 hrs of run time on it since we bought it, isy just about to click over to 200 hrs.

 

Nice boat Tom!

 

The nautique? Nope. I couldn't ever sell that boat.

 

If it was warm out, I could be found sitting in this spot regularly as a lil feller on an 18' Lund. Sunburn? Windburn? Meh. lol Best seat in the house. Great memories growing up a 'river rat'.

This is me circa 80 or 81 sitting on the back of that Lund waiting to get through a lock. Yep shoes on a boat major faux pas but I was still probably learning to swim.

 

That's a nice boat, my friend. Y'all should have plenty of fun and memories on it

 

Nice!
How about a couple pictures of the power plant for us gear head's?

 

I'll get some this weekend. It's a multiport EFI Volvo Penta marinized GM 350. 300 HP. It sips fuel. Glad I got this over a 454 that literally only has a couple HP more. Sure there's more tq from a big block, but this thing will do 50 mph, so that's totally fine. I need to clean up the out drive and primer and paint the out drive. That's about the only flaw on the boat, but it's easy to fix. Later this summer I'll take some time and do that.

 

Sorry for the bright sun.



Took the cover off to prove to someone on a different forum that this wasn't a TBI engine...

I've never seen an injector for each cylinder on a TBI engine.

202 hours on her now.

 

204 hrs on it now. Took it out twice over the long weekend. I got 5 gallons of gas for it, used a gas can. 54 g tank barely moved the needle with that 5 gallons. Lol. I wanted to see what that 5g would do. It still has a 1/4 tank.

 

Check that, we took it out three times over the long holiday weekend.

We've got an upcoming vacation at the end of the month in Door County where we will take the boat along to cruise with and when do a little fishing in lake Michigan. We'll pick an afternoon in the next could of weeks to go and drop the boat in the water at Port Washington which is about 10 miles from my house to do a maiden lake Michigan run before the door county trip. Then right after we get back from door county, the Milwaukee air and water show will be going on July 27+28. I'm planning on putting the boat in the lake and drive down the shoreline to watch the air and water show from the boat with a few friends.

 

Power/torque can be somewhat modulated by Prop choice. We ran two different props. One was for 'fun'...skiing, tubing etc. Other was for 'travel'. Smaller OD. More speed but give up pulling power. A super fun afternoon is diving to bottom, 'looking' (feeling) for the castle nut that holds the prop on that was dropped during a quick change.

 

Lol. I'm a certified open water diver, but no thanks.

I actually have 2 stainless steel counter rotating props on this Volvo Penta out drive. I shouldn't have any issues with pulling anything. I have yet to wakeboard tube or anything behind it yet, but will soon. It should be pretty fun to rube behind because the size and deep v hull make a nice wake. I don't have a tower on it yet, but I plan on that eventually, even though it was never really bought to be a wakeboarding busy. I already have one of those. A tower can hold the Bimini, speakers, boards, lights, and are nice for grab handles.

 

Are you calling a tower the stainless rails that arch over back of boat.. we refer to them as Radar arches. Nice to have

 

Oh man. A tower was the stuff of millionaires back in the day. Still only a few real Ski Rigs that I see on the river these days. Was watching a younger boy learning to single this weekend. His Dad's boat had a tower which looked to help him a bunch for getting up. Way less 'sport' boats now. Pontoons rule the day with a few twin hulls and the occasional jet boat scattered amongst the cabin cruisers. House boats and sternwheelers have all but disappeared. Miss seeing them. Had 4-5 sternwheelers just in one pool back in the early 90s, mostly home built on old barge hulls.

 

Yes. A radar arch is if it's made of fiberglass or similar. I guess some are SS or alloy now too Radar arches are not equipped with tow points, well not originally. A wake tower has a tow point up top so that you can get more air when wakeboarding. They are always SS or aluminum. There's racks for speakers and wakeboards on a tower.

Yeah towers on real ski boats are really great to use. Now I won't put a tower on my classic nautique, because it wouldn't look right. I use a fly high pole for that boat.

I went wakeboarding the other weekend behind my friends 90's supra ski boat. Got right up. What a few laps and guy she ok air. 49 years young. I'll be doing this until I'm 80.

 

We spent the day in my boat and a couple of other friends came out to the to the lake in their own boats. What a great day on the lake.

 

Putting the hours on this boat.

We took the day off of work Friday and went to Pewaukee lake. We met friends there at the public dock and park, which is on the opposite end of this large inland lake from where the launch is. We found a nice sandy shallow area on the end of an island that people use to tie out at. Finally I was able to take my boat up to top speed with these props. The hyper local lakes have a 35 mph limit. However this lake has a speed limit of 50 mph.

From Friday

Tomorrow we'll be at our local lake we bought a is yearly launch pass for. Then we'll be up in Door County in lake Michigan boating and other fun stuff for a couple of days.