23" Scepter I/O performance

[BigLew]

Happy New Year to all.

I was out with the dog this morning and looked over at my Scepter that I fervently hope will become a WIP (work in progress) soon. She has a 140 gal fuel tank, tabs, etc.; much like most others. I have a 260 HP volvo penta out drive on it and intend to keep it that way. I DO intend to replace the motor however and am thinking about taking up over 300 HP. Someplace between 315 and 350 depending on whether I go normal carb (somewhat repairable on the water if it should fail) or Injected (which I understand little about and less in terms of repair.) I likely may adust the fuel tankage to something a little more realistic for my purposes, say fore and aft mounted dual tanks of say 80 and 50 with the smaller mounted aft and not kept empty unless I should feel the need to carry more fuel at one time for whatever reason. By my calcs that would give substantially over 200 mile range. I live in norhern Mass. and would likely not venture more that 40 miles offshore, but I may venture as much as far down to Long Island/New York or up to Camden, ME.

My question is what are real perfomance numbers for various power options. It is no speed demon, but in the past I was cruising at 21-23 @ 3200 RPM and about 32-34 WOT. That may have been a bit conservative, but the extra two carb barrels weren't open at cruise and I was getting about 5-7 gal/hour burn rates overall.

I hope to hear from all and I wish everyone of us a better year, no matter what your 2011 was like. Be well!