My 28 Excel was a sit down boat, loved it! I had replaced the stock seats on pedestals to shock absorbing high back seats on solid bases. Worked awesome!

My Panther has drop out bolsters, fortunately with seats in place the height is just right to sit. Eventually I'll convert it to high back seats. Personally, whether racing or just out having fun, seated in a secure, well padded shock absorbing seat is by far the best, most secure position to be in!

Tom any pics or info on the seats you used?

Jamie, do a Google search for suspension seats. There are a lot of them out there from all the major players. Beard, mastercraft, prp, corbeau, sparco, etc all make them.

Hi Jamie, The link below is what I had in the 28, model #98823. They were very shock absorbent and comfortable. http://www.attwoodmarine.com/store/product/matrix

I had constructed the base boxes out of plywood, all threw bolted, covered the boxes in carpet, looked awesome!

How well do they handle getting wet?

What is the weight of the Fountain hull vs the Hawk hull?

Well the fountain new, full cabin, with turbo motors weighed 8800 lbs dry. The hawk is a touch over 10,000 I think
Stripped cabin, light seats, no extras in thinking I can get it about 8200

Ill have to look thru some of my old Excalibur stuff. I think I have a performance report of the Hawk 40 and saw it listed around 9600 lbs. I believe when new they radared it at 59mph with twin 400hp cyclone engines and TRS. Which is about what mine ran with 420s . it was always a competition with my Hawk 40 vs my buddies Scarab III which also had some 420 cloned engines and TRS. In flat water he'd inch away from me by a hair! In the chop it be pretty even.

Stripped cockpit and bilge this week in between other stuff. Next step is make a final decision on seats and start mocking up dash and console.

Glassdave set me up with a deal on a pair of sparco seats. Now I just got to find a reasonable way to get them from ohio to Massachusetts lol