For you or me this would hold true but this guy wants to go boating in the criss cross washboard chop at loto and have a bearable ride, not the speed, Smitty

If not a 26'.

I feel with twins the drives help each other out, with a single all the workload is on that ONE drive.
I love my twins. acceleration, planning, its all so much better

EDIT as long as i don`t have any trouble with em .. knock on wood

Any bravo drive will wear out and has a chance of breaking. Just budget yourself ready to fix when it breaks or better yet have a spare standing by, put it on when your bravo breaks, while the other is getting fixed.

I love twins but understand why you might want a single. At least the 29 your looking at has a blue motor. If the boat is a really good value buy it, but there are alot of good deals out there today so shop around.

Don't know what your budget is but there are 2 30' Superboats in the classifieds. They run great with a single, great in rough water, LOA is 32', and there aren't tons of them out there. The 496HO boat will run in the low 70's.

Well, you guys raise good points. I know and understand the twins or nothing guys. Rummrunner, you're remove the backseat tip opens my mind a liitle more. However, if I do go doubles the truck must go. Someone commented to find a new lake....I boat every weekend on the Ill. river and or Lake Mich. so this boat will also serve me well all season long. Thank you all for the input. I am going to take a step back and give it more thought. I never jump into anything anyway. One more question. What is the fuel consumption difference with twins? Much more, little more, double? More hp but less load???

JasonSmith said it quite well. The single will work hard, and the blue motors are pretty thirsty. At cruising speeds a set 496's, 454's or 502's will work less, so the diff will not be huge. This is just an example for how the numbers could look. Single 500 running at 4000-4500 for cruising speed, and the twins running 3000-3500 doing the same, and yes, two drives will share the load. When it comes to maintenence, one more impeller and oilfilter ect. a year, is not going to break the bank. A rebuild on a 500EFI is by comparison not cheap, and it will need it much much sooner than a set of black mercs, if they ever will in the time you have the boat. Should the single 500 break down out there, your problem is alot less fun to deal with.

All in all, you should go out and try both, and see what you like. There are some nice deals on a few 29OL's and 30OL's with twins out there. Single vs. twin is somewhat subjetive, and I'm a twin guy.

Other than the 2 times a year that you go to LOTO
you're going to get pretty bored with it.

I went from a 75+ mph Bandit to a 29 O/L with 7.4's
because I thought I wanted a better ride.... that boat lasted
me about a year and a half before it was gone.
( along with the wife who also wanted the better ride)

it was replaced with a 29 w/HP500's, that kept me happy
for about 6 years.

The fuel consumption with twins is maybe 30%. Baja made a nice boat but if your stuck on buying a single in that size range I would look elsewhere. Superboat is nice but plane Jane. 28 A/T is a nice choice if you can find one. A 29 Scarab single is an ok option also. Fountain is small...

I'm glad I could help! It isn't hard to remove the seat and makes all the difference. I remove the seat when I do just about everything to the motors. I really think whatever you buy, when you get to a 30 foot boat, its time to buy a bigger truck! Even with a single, it is a big boat. I really don't much about 500hp fuel burn, but I bet it is the same or more than twins due to the rpms the 500 will have to turn. Maybe not, but like I said not sure. My fuel burn is more than my friends 272 with a 502 mpi, I do know that.