stratos 176xt

[zooker]

i took a ride last night in shag nasty's spanking new stratos.
this is the 100% glass ride new for stratos also it is advertised as a $12k boat rigged with a 50.

imo the storage was first rate. the center locking rod box was roomy. shag had 15, 6'6'' rigged rods in it.. rode great for it's size. fished ok - a deck level troller pan would have made it fish great- now shag is 300+ i weigh 360. the 75 horse e-tech was bustin it butt to get us on plane and when it did plane out it ran good and pushed the gps up to 40 mph which is ok.. this boat is 84" wide it fishes alot like a bigger boat.. it has a funtional passanger rod ramp. the small lowance-x50- on the dash was just begging for an upgrade but funtionable. there is plenty of room up front to put an additional graph up there.

the down sides imo are.
probly the biggest down side is the max horse rating-75-..
no insuated ice chest -this is a must for summer angling in the south..
though it has room to up grade your gauges comes with just 3 installed.
gas gauge, tach,speedo..which was off by 2 mph..

zooker

[weaverml34]

Why is it that what I would call tournament boats, 19-21 foot fiberglass rigs are normally rated at 250 HP plus. But many of the 16-18 foot fiberglass and aluminum rigs are only rated at 75-100 HP? It seems like that is an aweful large disparity. In my mind it seems like the Stratos like your buddy bought would be rated at least at 100 HP max. If not 125-150. I was reading Bassmaster's review of the new boat lineups coming out this year and the HP rating disparity really caught my eye.

[Christopherkeene9]

Tournament boats are built to handle that kind of power. Hence the needed power to get back to the weigh-ins quicker allowing more time to fish!

The smaller boats not as strong in the transom not allow as much HP used.

[zooker]

ck is right
imo a bigger barge of a boat is harder to fish from.as you can not move it around easily. imo a 18 foot boat is the best size you don't have to tow it with a big truck. most have a 150-175 which means average speed is 60 mph. plenty fast enough for the average angler fishing in local tournys.

the ONLY things a 20-21 foot boat has better than the 17-18 footers is storage space and ride..

if you stand on a 21 foot boat with 250 all day you will burn 50 gallon of gas in a tourny in them 50 gallon of gas 2.5 gallons of oil will be burnt.

in an 18 foot boat with a 150 just putting around -running 50 or so-we burnt 20 gallon of gas and about 1 gallon of oil in 8 hours.

zooker

[1FASTLASER]

OR...........you could do like me and take that 75 apart and do some black magic to it and WHOLLA!!!!!!!.........125hp at the propshaft. LMAO!!!!! Seriously though that 17ftr is definatley underpowered.