Stringy said earlier that when motoring, the TI goes a little faster with your wieght in the front seat vs the back seat. Well.. I needed to run the Suziki 2.5 since it had not been started since last April so went out yesterday and duplicated that same test.
And.. the TI is a little faster from the front seat but by only a slight amount. What I did was to set the throttle to about 1/2 which is cruising at sort of the higher end speed wise of what I normally run at. I have a GPS/fishfinder mounted on the boat and I know the speed reading will jump around so for both the front and back speed measurements, I took a bunch of readings and then averaged them. I made a attempt to keep everything constant except the front to back seat and also took care to accurately measure speed. I think it was a good test.
Results.. TI is a 2015 and I weigh around 205 pnds
Rear seat 5.83 knots
Front seat 6.18 knots
Delta is .35 knots - faster from the front seat.
The front seat is faster by about 6 percent! Im not going to start sitting in the front seat now to motor as that is not really much and I could have just clicked up the throttle if that little bit of speed were important. Plus the hassle of moving back and forth.
What is more interesting about that is that in light wind, and for in the range of my weight, the 2015 hull may be a little less drag when sailed from the front seat - and the boat would be faster. However, I think the TI has a lot better control (and a lot dryer) when sailed from the back seat when the wind picks up so Im not changing anything. But. it is interesting.
I haven't moved my motor mount since the first post in this thread - its just behind me. That spot is a little better weight wise and the closer access to the motor was nice since it took a few pulls to get the outboard started after sitting for likely four months. But simply getting the outboard away from your head even a few feet makes a difference for noise level as can be easily noticed by just leaning forward. Anyhow.. happy with that location.
Took some pictures from yesterday. With the motor forward, you need a splash guard and you can see mine doing a perfect job of keeping water off the rear round hatch. My hull was bone dry after the sailing and motoring day.