I have always taken pride on having clean "stuff", cars, house, tolls, equipment, watercraft, etc. When I hear members talk of a "dirty" hull I picture some guy's boat that has been moored in the water for the entire season and basically has "fur" growing off to the entire underside of the hull. We live on a fresh water lake, boats are about 100' from my door and this season I have kept my 185 in the water as I am using the lift for my pontoon...that's a whole other story. But we run the 185 regularly, and regularly I clean the crap that the hull attracts in the water. Yesterday I took the boat out by myself for a change and was able to put the throttle down for a bit and let that massive 3.0 
:whistle: stretch her legs a bit. The "admiral" likes to stay about 3200 rpm all day. Anyway, I pinned the throttle to the dash and could only get to 4000 rpm and 31 mph via gps. Both directions on the lake. I was really terrified that something major was wrong and envisioned losing her to my mechanic for the rest of the season. I anchored at my swimming hole, and while in the water simply used a non-scratch pad on the freeboard and as much of the underside of the hull as I could reach while hanging onto the rubrail of the boat. The hull had some discoloration and what I call some grime on the underside of the hull. Certainly no "fur" but you could feel the "roughness" of buildup. I scrubbed as much as I could reach. On the way back home, I again pegged the throttle to see if it helped.....OMG...same lake, same conditions, same payload....I reached my wot number of 4750 rpm and gps speed of 42. She still had a little left could probably get 44 but ran out of lake. Both directions she ran identical.
So I can attest that the "dirty" hull is a HUGE factor in performance. I never in my wildest dreams thought that what I deemed as minor buildup could affect the boat that much. Just wanted to share as I am sure others have had the picture of a "dirty" hull as I had.
:whistle: stretch her legs a bit. The "admiral" likes to stay about 3200 rpm all day. Anyway, I pinned the throttle to the dash and could only get to 4000 rpm and 31 mph via gps. Both directions on the lake. I was really terrified that something major was wrong and envisioned losing her to my mechanic for the rest of the season. I anchored at my swimming hole, and while in the water simply used a non-scratch pad on the freeboard and as much of the underside of the hull as I could reach while hanging onto the rubrail of the boat. The hull had some discoloration and what I call some grime on the underside of the hull. Certainly no "fur" but you could feel the "roughness" of buildup. I scrubbed as much as I could reach. On the way back home, I again pegged the throttle to see if it helped.....OMG...same lake, same conditions, same payload....I reached my wot number of 4750 rpm and gps speed of 42. She still had a little left could probably get 44 but ran out of lake. Both directions she ran identical.So I can attest that the "dirty" hull is a HUGE factor in performance. I never in my wildest dreams thought that what I deemed as minor buildup could affect the boat that much. Just wanted to share as I am sure others have had the picture of a "dirty" hull as I had.
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