My Introduction
 

Greetings, everyone. I am a new member and this is my first post. I am a proud owner of a 1996 Z209 Talari, green and white. My boat is all original. It has a 250 hp 5.7 Mercruiser with a 5 blade stainless prop. It jumps out of the hole like a rocket and tops out around 55. I bought it around 2005-6 and I am the second owner. It has never seen salt water. I have not run it since the 2007 season. I had brain surgery in Jan of 2008 and shortly thereafter, I lost my job. It wiped me out financially, but I kept my boat. I was pressured by others to sell it, but I knew that I would never again be able to afford a boat this nice. Since then, It has been sitting outside under a cover since then and I am looking at beginning the process of restoring her to her former beauty. I'm hoping and praying that the upholstery and the stringers held up to the weather. I've never seen a boat that has all of the options that she has. It's like a Rolls Royce on water. My only issues with it have been with porpoising and it not taking wakes as well as boats with deeper Vs. I tried a Dolfin, it helped, but not completely. I'm open to suggestions.

I'll be relying on the vast bank of knowledge here in the days to come to assist me with questions and suggestions as I begin the process of trying to get her fixed up. Thank you all for starting and supporting this site. It's such a valuable resource to honor and share appreciation for such a wonderful boat.

PS - Thank you to MikeyT for catching my brain cramp. I mistakenly listed my boat in my profile as being a 2006 instead of a 1996.

Re: My Introduction
 

Mikey will be back along shortly to sort out your porpoising problem :yes_grin:

Welcome to the MOC

Re: My Introduction
 

Yes he will... And we won't steal his joy before he has the pleasure of answering that question for you. Lol....

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Re: My Introduction
 

I still recon he's on commission :rolling_laugh:

Re: My Introduction
 

Welcome aboard! Glad to hear you have overcome your earlier difficulties. I'm going to rain on everyone's parade and not mention anything about RARinger and his "dolfin". I'll just assume that he's talking about the bottle nosed version.

Despite numerous comments made by those who routinely express their jealousy of my outstanding abilities and depth of knowledge (yes AndyB, i'm thinking of you) i am not on a retainer nor do i collect commissions from Nauticus for promoting their product. Excuse me while i finish taking my pills.

(long pause....)

Ok, now that my medication has started to take effect.....get rid of that damm dolfin. Sell it to a Bayliner owner or to Joe Fisherman down the street so he can put it on his 25hp Evinrude and get his tin can on plane faster. The best thing you can do for the porpoising issue is to install a pair of Smart Tabs. If you want to read up on the experiences of others here (and there are MANY) who saw the overwhelming wisdom of that advice, just enter 'Smart Tabs' in the search box at the top right corner of the screen.

:)

Re: My Introduction
 

Seriously dude, that was one of the funniest. I think they get better each time Mikey!!
RARinger, get the smart tabs. Read the smart tabs thread. They are the single best performance mod ove done to the boat. Wait a minute.... They are the ONLY performance mod I've done to the boat. Mostly because a wife and 4 kids suck up most of your disposable income but that's a different story... Welcome aboard RARinger!!

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Re: My Introduction
 

Wow. I love it here already. Thank you so much for the advice. I agree, the Dolfin was a waste of time and money. It was my brother's suggestion. Ironically, and fortunately, I was running along and one of the wings on the dolfin hit part of a submerged limb and it broke it off. Fortunately that was the only damage sustained. Now that I think about it - I want to share a problem with you all to get your input.

During the last season that I ran the boat, I was pulling a tuber. We had gone a fair distance, maybe a mile or so and suddenly the boat was losing speed. The throttle was the same, but it was slowly losing speed. I increased the throttle and the rpms increased, but not the speed. I shut it down and brought the tuber in. I limped back to the dock. My brother, who has much more boating experience than I have, checked it over and did a few things, which I confess that I don't remember (this was back in '07 before my surgery), but they did not work. I was able to get the boat out, and idle along, or run at a very slow speed, but the problem re-appeared. I have a buddy who knows a good deal about boats tell me that he thinks that the problem may be a shear pin. Does that seem plausible to you all?

Re: My Introduction
 

Prop hub spun , or coupler
Check the prop hub , you probably did more damage than just ripping off one side of the "whale tail":eek_animated:
Any damage on the prop?
Coupler usually smells like burnt rubber , and vibrates like there is no tomarrow

Just my opinion though:wink_thumbup:

P.S.: You guys are killin' me.............again!!:rolling_laugh:

Re: My Introduction
 

hmmm... does your buddy/brother own an Evinrude? ;) My thoughts lean towards a loosened prop hub. Borrow/try another similar prop on it & see if that makes a difference?

Re: My Introduction
 

The prop is fine, no vibration. We checked that. Apparently the branch just missed the outdrive and just hit the one wing of the Dolfin. Talk about a game of inches!

Re: My Introduction
 

A damaged coupler (or bent prop shaft) will cause vibration but a loosened prop hub likely wont. The loose hub will cause the hub to spin faster than the prop but not transmit full power to it.

Re: My Introduction
 

Evening Mikey :rolling_laugh:

Defo prop hub. If it's a rubber hub then even though it's spun you'll have trouble turning it by hand. If it's a flo-torq it'll just be trashed.....that's what they are there for.

Anything else would have other results as listed above like noise, vibration or smell of rubber under the hatch

Re: My Introduction
 

How expensive/and how difficult is that to repair?

Thank you so much for your insight.

Is there a way that I can test for that with the boat being out of the water?

I hope this isn't going to be a really expensive repair. I would love to get her back in the water this year. You have no idea how much I miss quality time with my Mariah.

Re: My Introduction
 

If its a rubber hub it will likely have to be pressed out and a new one pressed in but if its a Flo-Torq or a Michigan Wheel XHS style then its very easy to change. Maybe $75 for the rubber style and $50 for the Flo-Torq/XHS style.

Again, i'll suggest that if you have a buddy with a similar outdrive/prop then borrow his and try it to see if it makes a difference.

Re: My Introduction
 

UNfortunately I don't. Where I go boating, it's mostly ski boats or pontoon boats. I think I've only ever seen one other Mariah on the whole river.

How do I identify which one mine is?

Also, according to the Smart Tabs video, my boat is too big. Does that matter? They sure seem like a great idea.

Re: My Introduction
 

Ohh they make them for your Z209 RA. :wink_thumbup:

Smart Tabs SX Trim Tabs

Also have the stainlees steel ones if you want

http://www.nauticusinc.com/smart_tab..._trim_tabs.htm

Re: My Introduction
 

This isn't hard.....really. Here's a link to a You-Tube video showing what a spun rubber prop hub looks like vs a good one. And here's a link to a Flo-Torq hub kit. You should be able to easily see the difference between the two styles and note that the Flo-Torq (or Michigan Wheel XHS) system is MUCH better as it makes things very easy to fix yourself.

You also might want to take a couple of minutes and read my STICKY in the Prop Talk section for some insight on props.

Re: My Introduction
 

Thank you for a fantastic reply. I'm very appreciative of your help and your patience. I figured that the prop probably isn't ideally suited to the boat, but the previous owner put it on and they're expensive to replace. One thing's for sure, she jumps out on plane in a hurry.

It occurred to me that the gas has been in the tanks since 2007 and probably isn't a good thing to run through the engine. Is there a way to drain it out other than a siphon? I believe that the tank is also aluminum, so corrosion shouldn't be a concern, correct?

Does Mariah feature a drain for the tanks? If so, how do I access it?