i still think the short drive is hurting that boat. at least from what i could tell is the 3 blade props and or short drives seem to blow out a lot on those boats and probably hurt you.

Yes it is

I m running a 4 blade 26P now with a 1 in short drive. What exactly do you mean when you say that the short drive hurts the boat? Speed wise maybe?

Putting your numbers into a prop slip calculator....I assume its a bravo one 4 blade? I put the pitch at 25 (they usually run about a pitch low), gear ratio 1.5, rpm 5200, speed 71mph gives you slip of 13%.
You will not get much more out of the boat with the power you have. Maybe 3-4 mph increase from here at best. There are a lot of Checkmate owners that have spent countless thousands chasing the last 3-4 mph. If your boat handles well, sounds good, looks good...enjoy it. And a 70mph 23 ft boat is nothing to sneeze at. Yeah there are boats on this site that go 100mph+ effortlessly, but they are designed to do it.
Sounds like you are very close to optimum for your hull.
imho.

GeeterB, Thanks for your support. I'm now running with a Bravo1 26P 4 blade and it works so much better over the 30P 4 blade prop. 71 Mph at 5,200 RPM. A gain of 1,000 RPM and 11 MPH increase on top end. I'm happy just where it is right now, can't see spending thousands more on the chance of picking up maybe 3 to 4 more MPH increase in speed. The last owner had the engine specked out for a Whipple Super Charger for around $10,000.00 plus the install. I'm not going to do that.

Funny you mention that. I was thinking it might get into 90's with a blower and a lot more work (fine tuning)..Stick with what you have and enjoy like you said :-)
My apology for coming off so gruff for your first post. Enjoy the forum, and the Checkmate section has a lot of good info for your boat. It's a great resource for mine (I own a 94 253 Convincor and love it)

Congrats, have fun and be safe.

your probably pretty close, maybe have the prop labbed but you will only pick up a few miles an hour, what did you do with your 30p? I have a 270 but I have a 1.65 drive and want to give a 30 a try in the spring and see if I can have that labbed down to what I need.

Did this happen to be a closed bow
 

Was this a close bow that was white a purple that end up in Missouri