im a little partial to fountains, cigarette are diffeniently awsome boats, my experience has been that the 42 fountain will handle just as much water as the 38-39 cig will with simaler ride quality, and right know there are some very nice deals on the 42 fountains with 700's and 6 drives, and with 100,000 plus you would save buys alot of fuel. And for what ever reason the cigs seem to be alot more to insure. I would say either boat would but a smile on your face. Having owned 2 42 fountains over the last 17yrs i have had zero issues with either, now i dont run the snout out of them but im not afraid to run them hard when need be. The trick to running a fountain in the rough is to get them on top of the water. as a disclaimer i dont boat in the ocean i only boat in the mini ocean LOTO which many have told me is worse.

later

The 39/700 Cig is only 104-105 stock; dialed up 110.

Thanks, Tom I was actually thinking of your boat when I put that. Wasn't sure if you bumped the Ecm or not. Yours was IMO the perfect setup of reliability and performance. More impressive than Your shootout runs was your showing in the bimini run and the average speed that went along with it.

If A guy has the funds the Cig is by far the better all around boat.

You posted this in the Cigarette forum...your mind already made up? It'd be interesting to see what the Fountain forum would have to say.

The only performance boat I would even consider selling my Comp for would be ..... CIGARETTE!
Big diesel cruiser or center console I might get a Nor-Tech, but that is a different story.