Ron Pascucci, originally from Long Island, New York is used to rough conditions when boating. While he now resides on The St. Lawrence River near Lake Erie, save the salt, the conditions on the lake are really not much different from Long Island where the the water can be rough with whitecaps from time to time. Ron is the proud owner of a 308 Skater powered by twin 300XS outboards and was once featured in Powerboat Magazine back in 2006.
After a rebuild and new lowers, the boat’s stability and speed left a lot of room for improvement. There’s nothing like some engine work and new props to make a boat go from “Just another powerboat” to “How did you run that fast?”. Chris Overkamp of Bow and Stern Marine was no stranger to this, as he picked up 13 MPH in his 2000 Spectre 30 after making drive adjustments and adding new props from BBlades. (Link to other story)
So when Ron came to Chris to bring his boat from 90 MPH to 100 MPH and keep it nice and stable, Chris knew just what to do. First things first was to tune up the drives, height and toe adjustment were made. The ECM’s were also sent out to Dave Bush racing to be tuned. These efforts brought the Skater up to 98 MPH, but just couldn’t break the 100 MPH mark, and still the stability and handling was still not quite up to Ron’s desire:
“I love the boat with the older 300’s but with the newer ones I couldn’t get anywhere near a hundred. So he (Chris) worked on the trim, he worked on placement, he toyed with the engines a bit and each little thing he did he’d get a mile-an-hour but we could not get anywhere near breaking a hundred”
Chris knew his next call: Brett at BBlades Propellers. Brett’s help on Chris’s own Spectre got him just what he needed and now for Ron’s Skater, BBlades Props was sure to be the final touch perfecting this project. Chris went about working with Brett to find the right match for the boat. Selecting the right prop would make the difference between success and failure.
“We had a bunch of props re-worked and everything, but the Blasters that he (BBlades) has, cause they’re a such a sternlift prop, we were able to really get the motors up high. Cause it’s a 4-Blade for one, and two, also gets them back out of the water so you can turn it up a little more.”
In the latest test at the time of writing this, the boat pulled an 104 MPH top run and was handling quite smoothly. In Ron’s own words:
“These props need to hold me level on the water. They gave me a stern lift so I was able to have a better attitude running through the waves. That’s what I noticed right away, handling. The range was nice, the attitude of the boat was just beautiful and throttle response and mid-range was there with the 4 blades. So I got out of the river and into a lake and I couldn’t believe it. They did a great job.”
When asked his thoughts on the project Brett at BBlades said:
“I felt very strongly that the Blaster props would allow us to use the engine height settings at a height to take the boat to the next level.”
The work’s not done yet however, as Chris intends to keep working with Brett to fine tune the props to further increase speed and handling. We’re sure they got the knowledge and ability to push this 308 Skater to the absolute highest level.
