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Checkmate summer

C

Chillinthemost

Member
I decided a few months ago that I wanted a checkmate to play with. I have a center console that we fish and dive from but I wanted some thin fun to run around in. I wanted a 24 pulsare but the only ones I found on the net were already sold. I found a couple of 21s but none that were any where near me.
I took a road trip from Florida to New Jersey to check out a 21. Fortunately the boat was everything the seller claimed and I returned to Florida with it.
To those of you that live up that way, sucks to be you. As soon as I hit Richmond Virginia the world turned to ****. I have never seen so much traffic, scary bridges and tunnels in my 48 years. That was the most stressful drive ever, and even worse pulling a boat on the way back. I tried a different return route to avoid traffic around D.C. And that route had even scarier bridges. I was born and raised in Florida and our traffic is getting bad compared to 20 years ago but nothing compared to up there.
I have had the boat out a few times now and am getting the feel for it, everything about it is so much different than my 25' skiff. It has a 250xs for power and a cmc jack plate running a 25 tempest plus.
So far I have bought for it: anchor shade, this fit the boat perfect and is a Florida boating necessity. Control cables, old ones were a little stiff. Installing a fusion blue tooth radio this week and some new speakers. More setback, maybe a trophy prop and trim tabs are on the list.
It's amazing the attention that this boat gets. Everywhere you go, gas station, boat ramp, waterside restaurants, people come up and ask me about it. A lot of people that had a checkmate "back in the day".
Thank you to everyone on this forum, I did a ton of reading here prior to my purchase. Looking forward to burning up west Florida this summer.
 
Welcome and enjoy your new toy! What Fusion radio are you installing? I'm looking to upgrade my Clarion and the Fusion is what I was leaning towards the MS-RA205 or MS-RA70.
 
I have the fusion 205 in my fish boat but I bought the ra70 for the mate because it will fit right in the existing single din opening. I'll give a review after I get it installed.
 
I live on the Virginia side of DC and yes the traffic is horrible. You have to plan around it. One time I did not plan correctly and I was headed to our Checkmate meetup near Annapolis (due west 50 miles) and I decided not to use the beltway but went right through the heart of DC right past the Capitol. Well I tried anyway. Just as I was trying to go through a light it turned yellow so I naturally gunned it and cops entered the road and stopped me. I was unable to haul a boat past the Capitol building. Now I know, lol.

Congrats on the boat by the way. I really enjoyed my Pulsare. And just a notable mention, you probably don’t need trim tabs. Most are not running them unless your using your boat down low a lot and are getting the bounce.
 
ckaluger said:
Ditto, with Drop Top, never have seen a pulsare with tabs.
Click to expand...

I have noticed that because I can't find any info on it but I don't think you have places like Tampa bay and Charlotte harbor and of course the whole Gulf of Mexico in Ohio. There are just times that you have to slow down to keep from going airborne and beating the crap out of your passengers. It is during these times that it seems a little tab would really help the ride and when not needed and retracted there is no downside. We will see.
 
There is at least one 2100br with tabs.

Mike (mh2508) in South Dakota put them on his 2008 with a Evenrude 225. He did quite a few improvements to the boat when he bought it as it was a new boat that sat unsold and had faded a bit. He documented most of the changes with pictures in a thread here and then a few years later was selling the boat also with a bunch of pictures.( not sure if the photobucket mess would have ruined the threads)

Haven’t seen him post in a while, but I think I remember that he said the tabs were very helpful in certain water conditions and with certain boat load conditions.
 
Thanks Karzrus, I went back and read all of mikes old post and it was very helpful. I didn't see any pics of his tabs though or mention of what size he used.
I see you have a 21 with a 250xs, what are you running for prop and setback?
 
Mine is a Roberts Marine (Wisconsin) boat and it was either set up by him or ordered the way by it is by him from Checkmate.

My motor is on a CMC 10” setback power jack plate. When the plate is all the way to the top of the travel the propeller shaft centreline is dead even with the bottom of the pad.

It had a 27P Trophy Plus that has been worked by DAH also from Wisconsin. Not a bad set up but the chine walk is more prominent than if you run 14-16” of setback and get the motor an inch higher.

I did not like how it got out of the hole or pull tubes and no amount of playing with the vent holes helped much.

I went to a lower pitch 23 Trophy Plus and that helped a lot but it still didn’t plane out quickly like I thought it should. One day I noticed that there was a lot of water kicking up through the jack plate while pulling a tube with the jackplate about 3/4 of the way down. I figured out that there was a fairly large surface of the jackplate dragging in the water perpendicular to the direction of travel.

I decided to trim/modify the plate and removed about 41/2”off the bottom of the sliding section. What a difference that made.

I still run the 23pitch because I have it, but really want a 25P for tubing. The boat starts out very well now with the 27P when I run it and even tubing with the 27 is decent now. I also run the vent holes mostly closed now.
 
I'm late to the conversation, but welcome and enjoy the boat. I lived in Pensacola for about 4 years, but didn't have the time for a boat. That's one of my few regrets in life...P-Cola has some awesome boating and I missed it entirely.

Don't overlook the Bravo props...in my opinion it'e the best prop Mercury makes. Enjoy the boat! Oh yeah, we're all pic whores on here so post em' up!
 
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