jmackin

iTrader: (1)

I no longer have the 97 pictured above, now have a 2000. As far as the tabs, they didnt seem to slow you down as much as wider shorter ones but it didnt seem to bring nose down as much either???

barron

Hey that was my boat to .Didn't care for that boat?

jmackin

iTrader: (1)

You only owned it for a short time right? It took me along time to figure it out. My 2000 is a totally different animal.

barron

About a year,I didn't care for it ,mostly handling.

The Menace

This is mine. Currently for sale at Big Thunder Marine. The boat has served me well for many years.

Only 7 Top Guns made in 97. All were Kevlar. Most, if not all, had the Hawk 600 engine package. Mine was recently upgraded to 700 HP's with XR/Imco sportmaster drives.

Lucky Strike Jr

We drove over to St. Pete to look at the "Fanny Doctor" (96 TG-Kevlar-Cover Girl Cabin) a few years ago which is the identical boat to your old boat. I believe your friend owned it at the time, I think his name was Bill. The boat was nice condition wise, but there were a few other things we didn't like about it. The main thing was the two 4 barrels. My dad was watching the fuel flow meters and at 4200RPM we were burning approx. 45 gallons per engine There were a few other things we didn't like too....as you said "handling."

WildWarrior

We spent a lot of time when re rigging our 97 Gun last summer to make her handle better.
The big problem with these boats before 75mph is how they porpoise like flipper,especially the lighter Cover Girls.
We experimented with drive heights as well as some minor glass work on her pad until I was happy with her.. It took us two months of testing, now unless the water is dead flat she is a dream to run.
Our boat was rigged by Lip Ship in Aug of 97 with factory Merc 600SC power and @ 3400 rpms's she uses 15 gallons per hr per engine.
Following our Diamond Marine Performance 600SC new builds we have seen a best of 94.4 GPS in heavy bay chop
.Great rough water ride, these boats can take way more than most of our bodies care to take, solid as a rock!

The Menace

I agree with Warrior that these things are solid as a rock. No stress cracks. These hulls only understand horse power and speed.

barron

Mine had stress crack where the deck met the fairing.

seahawk

This is why you have to have big power to make them work correctly. Mine is a 2000 with 650hp and I have to run tab until 55-60mph just to keep the front down so I can see where I'm going after that no tab and a little trim and get ready to fly. The hardest thing about these hulls are keeping the props in the water so you don't keep breaking drives. If everything is OK after 75mph then that's great. These hulls were designed for racing. At 75-80mph mine is like a 10,000 pound torpedo flying (straight as an arrow) across the top of the water. Anybody that has one with stock power (500hp) will never see the boat work correctly.