Originally Posted by Sydwayz

Congrats on loving your boat. Forget the naysayers. I gave up on what other people think many years ago, and when I want an opinion; I'll ask for it.

What's the best thing about a twin engine boat? Starting the second engine.
What's the best thing about a triple engine boat? Staring the third engine! (That, and you can usually get home on plane with two of the three; most twin engine boats can't do such.)

Originally Posted by 4bus

Mike.......you had good luck all year so now you want to mess that up by playing with things? LOL

That is a clean boat, with a great previous owner, and that ride has been local for as long as I can remember. I think you took some of the criticism a little too much to heart. What people were trying to tell you is a slightly newer twin step, full stag twin gives the same performance as a trip without the extra hassle of the third engine..and gas. The twins are also easier to resell.

I also agree to not swap the drives, being that you have trips its actually easier on drives. And standard bravos are dirt cheap to replace/ rebuild compared to an XR. Buy a spare bravo 1 of the same vintage, have it serviced and keep it in the barn.

Its a nice ride, enjoy it!

Originally Posted by 1000 islander

Ron, that's what I am going to do. I am going to have Jimmy Raymond grab me a couple and go thru them and keep one at camp and one home in the garage. I do want to run this thing with stock lowers and my 4 blades and see what it will do. I can never leave anything alone though, and I would love to see this old flat bottom girl top 90 next summer. If I have another good spring at the nuke plant maybe we will hunt for the mid 90's.

Originally Posted by pstorti

You might actually pick up some speed and better mpg with the props lower in the water if it isn't a stepped hull. When you trim up now does the bow come up or the props just start to break loose? If the drives are to high to carry the bow then you have all that hull in the water causing drag, get the props lower in the water so they have more leverage and can get the bow up and you'll see better speed and mpg.

Originally Posted by 1000 islander

All I heard from everyone when making the decision this past spring to sell my SR-1 292 Formula with twin 502's and buy my 91 Fountain 42 with triple n/a 500hp's (was repowered with the newer hp500's bumped up to 570ish apiece) was that I was insane and would have nothing but headaches. Granted, most of my critics were the older non high performance crowd that have a hard time doing a tuneup on a Bayliner, but even some hardcore performance boat guys thought I was crazy, it would be a gas hog, and it would break down every other time out. Well here we are at the end of our boating season and all I can say is you were all wrong! Used a total of 5 quarts of motor oil, and repaired one broken power wire on the center motor MSD box all season. No drive issues, no motor issues, and the only annoying problem was the damn IPod cord from the stereo needed to be replaced. I didn't abuse it getting on plane but I didn't baby it either. It stays on plane and will cruise at a whopping 1900 rpms and burns the same amount of fuel my Formula did. Now it's time to plan a few winter upgrades. First up is to hang some newer XR drives on it in place of the original old style Bravos, then maybe bump the motors up a hair. It runs mid 80's now in the right conditions with the 4 blades on it, but 90% of the time I run the 5 blades at lower rpm's and it just tickles 80. The best part about this boat is the safety factor. My 12 year old son would get a little scared in the Formula at anything over 50, especially in the rough. Total opposite in the Fountain, as he has held onto the GPS at 79 and was grinning from ear to ear. Girlfriend still thinks I'm nuts and that it's way too big, but like my helmet sticker says.......size matters!

Originally Posted by mcprodesign

if you are running bravo xrs.. stay with 2004 and older drives. This us the b1 style. I have been told these back to around 2002ish or there about are the strongest xrs. I have 700 hp per side. Just check them every 20 hours fir chips or metal shavings... and always baby it up to speed

Originally Posted by BLUEMAGIC

loong beak with a small cock pit