C-24 sea trial with SeaKeeper RIDE done

Yesterday I had the first hour of SeaKeeper RIDE on my 2020 C-24., tested it with the installing tech who also has the SKR on his personal boat and has installed a good many of them. The conditions were a little benign to really give it a go, but the first hour or so was quite enlightening. This C24 has the Yammy 250 engine and I switched to a 15P 4-blade prop about 18 months ago, from the SWS 3 blade 16P. That was a big improvement, so we kept the 4 blade on the boat with the SKR.

The initial impression: in calm waters: the list and overly strong steering torque were mostly gone, and the habit of veering was also gone. This made it more pleasurable to operate right off the bat. We ran the boat with the "even par" setting on the SKR to start, and trimmed the engine as we normally would.

After some playing around, we set the nose down a bit more than the standard setting and trimmed the engine up a bit. That seemed to be the happy spot....which was good info. The tech who ran with me did indeed agree with me that the C24 wants to run. I had told him it was happier at 5100 rpm than it was at 42-44....and more efficient. He believes me now. This is still true with the SKR though I am convinced I can tinker with rpm and SKR and engine trim and find more efficiency at lower RPM...just gonna take some tinkering.

The mind blowing part was crossing wakes, which using this boat in the ICW is something we do constantly. Crossing incoming wakes this boat tends to slam and land hard unless you slow down a good bit. The SKR allowed us to cross faster with no slam. Pretty impressive. The following sea wake crossing was even more interesting. My worst moment on the C24 was crossing some wakes while passing a boat in some narrow channels on maybe my second trip on it. The boat had totally become disconnected form the water on one side of the steps and almost turned sideways. Scared the ever livin F out of me......I have generally avoided passing boats unless they were very small since then.

With the SKR, it took the following sea wakes no problem. So the ability to handle those wakes tells me a lot about how this system will work to improve the boat significantly. Very anxious to get it back out of the shop - and run her with the SKR in some of the tougher conditions we face. Also exciting is that there is a learning curve on these....so they tend to just work better as the AI part of their system learns your boat, and as you learn the SKR system too.

I cannot recommend these highly enough....

I’m so glad you are already seeing benefits from the system. Congrats on the upgrade.

Great feedback, thanks! All of the conditions you're describing are exactly the scenarios that catch me off guard the most in the R-25, which is probably just the nature of a narrow beam relatively small boat. But sounds like the SKR makes a huge difference so far.

Looking forward to your report when you get it out in hairier conditions.

brtnstrns said:

Great feedback, thanks! All of the conditions you're describing are exactly the scenarios that catch me off guard the most in the R-25, which is probably just the nature of a narrow beam relatively small boat. But sounds like the SKR makes a huge difference so far.

Looking forward to your report when you get it out in hairier conditions.

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Looking forward to testing it with a very normal 90 degree beam wind / sea on one of our normal routes into town...also complicating this area are all the 50-60-70-80 foot Carolina Flare sporties coming in and out of the very large and busy Jarrett Bay Boat Yard with massive wakes.

have the boat back after other work done, and wouldn't you know the conditions are so mild.....I had to go looking for wakes to cross LOL.....and I can tell you that the hole shot is a dramatic improvement and much flatter of course. - and that holds true for mid range acceleration. Also the boat runs better at the 44-4500 mark...quieter, flatter, happier.

So I hear the NE blow is coming next week.......so the Neuse River will be a snot show. Also the local dealer for Cut/Ranger/Solara is back in town next week and he wants to run it with me so that'll be fun.

In other news, the tech who put it on pointed out the difference in the chine configuration port versus starboard in the stern...I'd never noticed that before. That explains the list and the wandering.....the SKR did solve that problem.

How much does that thing weigh?

NorthernFocus said:

How much does that thing weigh?

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The boat? 6K or so.
The SKR system? Not much at all. This is the RIDE tab system by SK not the gyro....uses the same information technology to determine the pitch and yawl of the hull, but feeds that info to a dynamic tab system on the stern instead of a gyro mid ships. Also the tab system is more for at speed while the gyro was initially for troll speed or anchor....

I can't remember if you stated it in the other thread or not: what was your overall installation cost for the system? Did you also get the keypad installed? (edit: just saw from another forum you went with the 525s - suppose that changes things as well)

brtnstrns said:

I can't remember if you stated it in the other thread or not: what was your overall installation cost for the system? Did you also get the keypad installed? (edit: just saw from another forum you went with the 525s - suppose that changes things as well)

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Had this work done with a lot of other work....but the SKR installed, the 525, with the glass work, was about 9K. I also had to upgrade the Garmin, so that was another 3K - and I have another boat I can use the Garmin in that we removed. Yes, had the keypad too- which I highly recommend..it allows you to take a huge improvement and up it a notch...as well as to learn more about your own boat as you experiment with it. Off the cuff, I'd say the boat is 35% better boat with this.

Continued to play with the new SKR system....as the water around NC's Crystal Coast stays a bit benign, which is normal for September into early October. That said the Neuse River did get a little bit snotty today and was able to stay more comfortable than normal. Also, got her dialed in on the calms....seems very happy now 4700 RPM and 35-365 mph with 1.9 mpg....that's with the SKR adjusted two notches in the direction of lowering the nose - while trimming the engine up a bit more than normal. Steering got really easy and she rode light. Pre SKR she didn't seem happy til 5 or 51K rpm....

For those not familiar with the system, there is a "par" setting that does 90 per cent of the adjustments, but you can tweak it a bit off of "par" as you learn how your boat reacts.

Also passed one of those mega heavy Sea Ray 36-37 type Sundanders in the narrows...probably early 2000 vintage....plowing with huge rollers. Without the SKR I would have just stayed behind, (had a scary moment couple years ago) - no longer... I took it outside to starboard and hammered it and we got a little air over the biggest roller but settled quickly on splash down and started tracking again and we were on our way.

Finally had some snotty conditions today with some pretty snappy North winds in the Neuse River / Adams Creek areas of NC where - like all areas of open water - sometimes the wind is pushing you one way and the tide is pushing another. The C 24s list badly and have very tight steering in those conditions - and the SKR really helps all that...you can see on the SK indicator when the system is tabbing hard to one side to keep the boat level. Saw a lot of hard tab to one side with virtually no tab to the other...depending on direction.

Into a head sea - the SKR will keep your bow down on the auto setting, but you want to increase the bow down more than the par setting -and then leave it at par setting with a following sea. One thing I noticed is that by trimming the engine up...you can get the steering to react very lightly. Makes operating a lot more fun and a lot easier. Once you dial that in, it's fantastic.

One thing I would note is that while the C 24 is kind of on the borderline of being able to use the smallest set of SKR system - or the middle size - I am convinced the middle size is what you want. Glad I bit the bullet to do that.