Kevlar TGs
 

Question for the Cig aficionados. I see in one of the classifieds that there were only 7 Kevlar TGs built in 97. If so, roughly half of them must be for sale on OSO. Can you tell by the HIN if it is actually a Kevlar boat? I'm sure you could call the HIN in to Cigarette but that could take months and cost thousands of lives. :D

Re: Kevlar TGs
 

I'm not 100% positive...but I think that there were only 6 or 7 TG's built in 1997. Maybe it was '96.

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It was 1997. All the TopGun built were Kevlar.

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On my 97 Kevlar Gun , you can clearly tell the difference of kevlar vrs fiberglass by tapping on the hull as well as the different color of their lay up.
Not to mention that they are stronger and way lighter than glass,when the lay up is right..

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Well, if all the 97 Guns were Kevlar that settles that. The way I took the ad it sounded like there were only 7 Kevlar boats built not 7 boats built total.

Thanks guys.

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Were all Guns 97 and after Kevlar?

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Mine was

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Jmackin, What year is yours? How do you like those big tabs?

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Its a 2000.

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The one in his pics is a 1997 and I believe his current one is a 2000

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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???

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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 :eek: :eek: There were a few other things we didn't like too....as you said "handling."

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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!

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

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Mine had stress crack where the deck met the fairing. :rolleyes:

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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.

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GREAT POST!!!!

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Thanks.

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I may have just bought a 2000 tg with 500 efi's. I read the last post and am wondering what is meant by saying that the boat with that power will never see the boat run correctly? Is that combination with a flat nonstep hull a good one?

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Is that the one at the marina??? Did you not like the Fountain??

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Before I owned my 2000 TG (nonstep 650+hp) I would read threads about porpoising problems with them and it would make me wonder what they are talking about! These boats have got to be better than that! Well they are. They just need a lot of power to see the full potential or the reason why they are such a HOT boat. The boat needs to go 75-80+mph to see this. Now this does mean you have to go 80mph all the time it just means you have had gone 80mph to understand why the boat works the way it does. Now when I drive mine I usually cruise about 55-65mph which is perfect. The part about the boat that appears to be the problem to a lot Owner is the porpoising. The porpoising is because the boat is going to slow this is fixed with tab (until you are going about 55mph) and tab slows you down. If you have a TG that only go 65 you will never see the best part of what the TG is all about. Yes it will still be fun but it's like driving a plane down the runway and trying to take off at half speed. It probably won't work correctly!! When you here stories about porpoising and running a lot of tab and hard to handle it is because the boat wants to go fast. Get use to tab and enjoy!!

Re: Kevlar TGs
 

jmackin my friend owns your old top gun keyed up it lives in jersey now

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How is he and boat doing?

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great boat still looks like new.he had the motors out this year to clean up the bilge and fix gimble rings and paint transom assemblies. he bought it last summer .

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that boat is hot and looks like it is new, everything that needed to be done on that boat is done and done rite thats lip ship kevlar

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that topgun kicks a$$ phil lipship does a great job on those boats, the best of everything.

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Are you now selling your 2000?

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This Old School Kevlar TG looks interesting...any info on it?
http://www.offshoreonly.com/esvon/page-11955.html

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Maybe not the history, but about all the same stuff, with a lot better interior :):) and a lot better price!!!!!

http://www.offshoreonly.com/esvon/page-10740.html

John

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I agree and disagree with not being able to see full potential if you only have a 65 mph t/g. My t/g runs about 70-72 but I have never had a problem with porpousing, you just have to know how to run your drives and tabs. I cruise about 45-50 in all kinds of rough and smooth water and my boat runs flat as flat can get. Now dont get me wrong these boats are way bad ass at 80 to 90, but can be just as great at slow speeds.

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I owned what was probably the nicest 2000 Topgun built. It was a half-cabin vacuum bagged Lip-Ship boat specially built for Pudge and dialed in by Phil. It was very light and would do 78 mph all day long with 500 efi,s. I loved the boat except for the porpoising problem. Yes, you could tab it or trim it to correct it, but that would definetly slow you down.Once tabbed, the boat would ride phenominal! If the water had a little chop to it and you were above 60 ish, the porpoising would diminish. In the end, after experiencing how the twin steps ride, I decided to sell it. It was a great boat, but I got spoiled by the T/S ride.

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does anyone know if keyed up is on offshore? (derrick key)

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My whole point exactly. The boat will not porpoise if adjusted correctly. It sounds like you know how to work the tab/trim. I saw your boat in the classifieds it's very clean wait til you put the blowers on those 500 you will be fllllllllying :drink:

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Even better would be merc 850's with #6's but well thats a ways off im afraid.

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Mine has a real sweet spot at 55 with the drives at 2 and the tabs at 5 which = about 3/4 click down from level. The faster the better the ride.

45 is about a 4 setting on the tabs and 2 on the drives at 2. What noticed is I can have the boat with the drives at 2 and the tabs all the way up and no porpoise but if some wakes get it started it will do it until I trim in or give it some tabs to stop it.

The strait bottom boats are not a set and forget boat like some, you have to work the drives and tabs depending on the speed. My Pantera was the same way you had to work the drive and tabs depending on speed.

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You are absolutely right, they are not set and forget type of boats. If you work the trim and tabs, you can usually get them to settle down.