Originally Posted by MILD THUNDER

These Fountain exaggerations regarding length is just ridiculous.

My boat is parked next to my buddies 38 Cigarette in the storage building. He has a bolt on platform on his cig. Saturday, I took a look at our prop nuts, standing from the side. Both prop nuts were within inches, maybe 2'' of each other. Then I walked to the front, and took a look, the tip of the beak on my boat was about even with the nose of his boat.

Theres something most people fail to look at, when the jump on the beak bandwagon. Take a look at a Fountain, from a side view. Where the line from the beak to the waterline is. It is very steep. Bajas, cigarettes, and other makes, this line is very gradual. Its all about running surface. Waterline to water line, my boat and my buddies 38 cig are close. Even if he has 1ft on me, my hull was originally called a 36FT Fever. Until the coast guard mandated the platform be included if it was part of the mold. So if anything, at the time, Fountain was being modest with its length. And to be honest, at 70,80,90, or 100mph, that one or two feet of length really doesnt mean squat. I'll take a good bottom design, balanced hull, over something that is just 1-2ft longer.

Platform to platform rafted up, our boats are almost identical, where the engine room bulkhead is, bolsters, and even fairing. My cockpit is a bit roomier, (fever), and the cig has me beat in the cabin department. Main thing is his layout, and the hull sides on a fountain get progessivley narrower on a fountain from the rub rail down. Where the cig is straight down from the rail, and then slightly angles in near the bottom.

Anyhow, to get off that soapbox, and back to the original question. Both the baja and fountain would be great boats for what your looking to do. If you forsee yourself wanting to go fast, the Fountain is the hull you want to do it in. The 500HP engine is a good engine, and when the time comes to add things, like better heads, supercharger, etc, you can. It has good parts inside, and based on the common 502 block, that they make a million parts for. The 496 is a great engine, but really not much on the table aftermarket wise.

You should have no problem planing pulling a tube with a stock 29 Fountain setup, esp with the right prop.

Personally, Id buy the boat with over 30 years of Championship offshore racing heritage, numerous world titles, numerous speed records, numerous boat of the year awards. If I was standing on the dock, and got invited to go on a 90mph ride in either one of those boats, I'd hop on the Fountain.

Originally Posted by 88bullet

if you line up the platforms my 28 pantera (bolt on platform) is as long as my friends 32 fever. he bought a nice boat. its a 92 32 but had very nice updates and was in great shape. fountians are great boats. but baja has come a long way too. drive them both and see what one you like better. buy the boat that meets your needs the best.

Originally Posted by rod2dknee

I would like to down the road to purchase some mods to increase speed on both boats a lil bit but nothing major..

Originally Posted by rod2dknee

Thats what im looking for 4BUS... Your honest opinion with documentation to support it... Thanks for your time and help... It is greatly appreciated!!!!