Tom, most staggered bravo boats throw that tail. My Gladiator did, Fountains, OL's, ect. Boat looks great! You going to be down for the miami boat show?

I've heard several people say that these ZRC's do not like high X dimensions, including the former owner of my boat who tried -2s on it (granted it was a side-by-side) with poor results. But then you have the Adrenalin boat running -3's and I've heard that ZRC is the best running 525 boat that Donzi racing ever produced

That might give some credence to the theory that there is a sour spot where the gear cases really drag the boats down. Jerry Haney was telling me this when he picked up the Donzi. He says run your X below that spot and you are fine, or run it above that spot and the boat will really pick up speed, but run the case in that certain slightly raised spot and it will really create drag on the case and slow the boat down. At least this is the case with Fountains and that is why they really started jacking up the X in later years. When Jerry (looked at my Fountain said he would raise the X up another 4 inches from its already raised X and that it would run 7 - 10 mph faster than it does now and get on plane nearly as well.

If I were you, I would talk to Daniel Cramphorn and Kim Collins of Team 26 (English Donzi team). They did the exact same conversion and absolutely love the results.

As for my boat, I know they ran every combination of drive height and found this set up works best. They played with a few different engine set ups in these boats and I wouldn't be surprised if the Adrenalin boat had its motors set lower in it. Not to mention that boat was built EXTREMELY light.
I have seen quite a few different set ups in these boats. Even the most recent factory boat (orange pearl 700) has had the motors moved at least once that I know of. If you look at that boat, both motors are much more forward than any other I have seen, The forward motor is almost touching the bulkhead and the aft motor has a small drive shaft as well.


I wish Steve Simon were still around to help (rest in peace) because when looking for advice, I have gotten quite a few different opinions from those "in the know".

5 different ZRC's and each stagger is different.
#1- See how forward the engines are compared to the rest.
#2- my boat, engines set an inch or two lower than #3
#4- Mike A. boat (Former JBS race boat)
#5- First 4 step 700 boat.

Notice the newer 4 step boats have a reverse stagger to the older 2 step ones.

Thanks Tom,

Yea I corresponded with Daniel a few times when I was on the fence about buying the Arnesons. Without his input I would not have bought them. And as it turns out, my rigger came to the aid of team 26 a few years ago in Key West when they had an issue with their Arnesons. This year in Key West he inquired and they gave him a lot of input about how they set their boat up with the Asd-7's. He's also spoken to Craig about how he set up the orange boat.

With the Ilmors being about 600 lbs lighter it should be interesting to see where he places them to get the CG that Craig suggested.

Man, this thread is gettin' me to think...

Keep It!!!!!!

:party-smiley-004:

I am keeping it unless someone comes along and buys it in the meantime. Everything is for sale. I have been talking to Innovation about some big motors but I know I will need to switch drives too just not sure which way to go on those. Fun to think about though. :coolcowboy:

From what I am reading on this thread alone, the IMCO cost speed and I know how at least three of these, soon to be four, run with the Arnesons and they all go extremely well.

And you can't beat the customer service and tech help :)

I love Arnesons and you are a great guy to deal with, but for my needs, the cost difference didn't make sense for me to do it.

I am very happy with my IMCOs and don't regret the choice I made.