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Hey guys, my dad and I have been giving some thought to widening the pad on our 17 panther and blueprinting at the same time. I know this will change the boat completely, less slide in the corners, better stability at speed etc. now what we don't know is if anyone has tried this or how wide to actually make the pad. We are thinking about going to about 7 inch wide pad, similar to the deltas/critchfields. Would this be too wide? Would I gain much more top end? Just trying to get a better idea if it will work and if we should flip the boat before we run it this summer. Any input would be greatly appreciated, Ryan.

hi 13 checkmate;
in my opinion i would not spend the money on the panther. i own a 17' panther and i'm running in the 80's with it . BALANCE AND SET UP is all you need to do. i straighten the the last 3' of my pad with a long straight edge and a long sanding block. that is it . i did do alot of work to the stock omc case and have reached speeds to were i need to install a nose cone..

spend the money on a hull that has a pad on it all ready and modify from there..again just my opion. the panther is a great boat set it up.



in this pic steve and i are running in the 80's. very stable at speed very little rooster tale out the back and has alot left in it on top end

i agree with Mark.... some what. i would say if you have the perfect setup on the panther already and your looking for more speed and drive-ability then widen the pad.

me and a nameless man from the south paid a bit of money to figure out how many pounds per square inch it would take at 80mph to lift 1000 pounds out of the water to achieve the total square inches we would need. there was also a C.A.D program involved. shit ain't cheap when you want real gains.

A couple point:

-a wider pad takes away from rough water handling.

-flat pads are fastest

-Dihedral pads are more forgiving

- you will have chime walking at lower speeds due to more boat out of the water at slower speeds

- more boat will sit out of the water at speeds

Thanks for the input guys, these are the things I was hoping to find out. We haven't run a gps in the boat, but my dad figures were doing about 80 mphish, from his past experience. As for setup, it's bolted to the transom as high as it'll go, dual ride guide and a 28 chopper but could probably swing a 30-32 without issue. It runs about 5900 rpm with me in the boat and still had more to go. The boat is ridiculously fast imo for a basic setup.

before you go any further gps the boat for top speed. and get a good base line . then you can start to improve on your set up and top end numbers..remeber to play it safe. have fun

80ish with a 28 at 5900 bolted to the transom? I doubt it but I could be wrong.. Probably more like 68-72mph with. Instead of spending the money on the pad stuff.. Find a faster hull and re-do it.

Your hull is pretty ... So it should sell easy. People dig that old school flake stuff.

Haha yep she is a pretty one. Keep in mind I did say 80ish lol, the only reason I say that is the boat was lightened( about 200 pounds of wet foam and wood) and my dads driven a few boats at the 80 mph mark and says it feels about the same. We walk away from 70 mph+ jet skis lol. A buddy of his had a 72 mph checkmate with the same setup (200 hp Merc though)on the same hull years ago and he says its faster. Just things I've heard people say not 100% sure but I can't wait to gps it. By the way I love the look of your triad, it just screams badass hahaha.

Water pressure equation is as follows:
Velocity squared x 0.0147 = pressure in PSI

So 80 mph is 80x80x0.0147 = 94.08 psi.

Another way to see what is going on under your boat. No factor for deviation in the host surface, so redundancy is required. But to figure what is required to lift your 1000 lbs is some backward extrapolation. What isn't considered is the effects of air. But fun theory.

Oh and I don't agree with flat being fastest.

RT

Your so smart it hurts. We wanted to lift more weight out of the water so backwards maybe but not wasteful.

What do you think is fastest ?