Originally Posted by BowenCT

Nice! We took the boat over to Hope Town last April. I would love to run a go-fast down there.......must be awesome.

Originally Posted by sate888

Hey, I’ve also posted this on the hull truth so if you’re multi-forum types, yes, it’s the same idiot. I’m looking for your opinions on the best combo of speed, fuel efficiency, build quality and sea-keeping ability (esp. head seas) in a boat, 25-30’, to run in settled weather from Florida to the Abacos, Eleuthera and Out Islands. I have gone across the board in my own opinions, from powercats, to outright ex-race boats, the intrepid/contender types, Seavee/Regulator diesels, and general purpose boats like Whaler, Dusky and Mako, and also from twin outboards, to single outboard & kicker (less weight, more fuel efficiency) to single diesel. My goal is to run 25-35knots, at 2.0mpg or better in an honest gulfstream 2-4’. Of course faster is always a bonus. Range is also desirable, to avoid too much expensive Bahamian fuel, but I figure bladders will always work if the tankage can’t be expanded easily. I’d also like to have some sort of cuddy.
While I’ve looked into all these boats, the ones I drool over tend toward the go-fast world, like the awesome rebuilt ex full race Banana boat I never got up to NC to see last year. I hesitated on it, because, like some of the posts here agonizing between cc’s and go fasts, I figured it might not be versatile enough for fishing, diving, etc. But it had 2x200 Merc o/b’s so no IO maintenance issues. I’ve also been looking at an Intrepid 24WA (made only a few in the 90’s) with a single 250.
So are there boats like that you guys would recommend? Either cc’s or boats like the banana boat or maybe the Fountain 27SF (the 31SF isn’t fast enough with the 250’s to get over 2mpg according to the performance bulletins). I’ve seen people recommend Donzi’s (and Concepts -- but not for way offshore though, unless it’s self bailing). Yacht Auctions has a cheap Donzi ZF26, probably could get it for $18k or so. http://www.yachtauctions.com/detail.asp?stockNo=18887
Other related important questions……
How fast can you really go in a 25-30 footer in honest 2-4’ conditions without pounding your kidneys out? I watched some utube videos of a pantera 24 in what looked like 2-4 or 3-5 in a race, but no clue how fast he was going.
Also, I’d keep the boat in the water, which is another strike against the IO…but from reading this forum I’m getting the sense that IO’s v. O/B’s the outboards have much fewer maintenance requirements?
Thanks for your thoughts.