I have also driven all three mentioned, 311, 382, and currently own a 353.

As Rippem has already stated the obvious difference in size, I feel as thought the 353 handles like a much smaller boat when it comes to nimbleness. Handling the slop and bigger waters, and I too have been in some of the holy crap situations, the boat feels solid and safe. This is of course if you use common sense.

The 382 is a large boat and feels larger when driving. It's slow to respond turning was one of the reasons my choice was the 353. The acceleration and feel is totally different between the two.

If you are only looking for creature comforts, then I would suggest the 400ss. Get a little speed, and much more comfort!

Dave

all the comparisons in this thread so far have referenced the 312 fastech (not the older 311 SR-1 which was a bigger boat). If your comparing the 311, it isn't the same animal.

Although I did not mention the 311 in my thoughts and comparison, I have driven a 311 and a 312. My mistake, I did mean 312, although I wouldn't recommend a 312 here due to the nature of this gentlemans boating prefrences.

Dave

I'm with Axa and Rip, the 353 is a Sportier, more nimble ride, the 382 feels almost cruiserish and Rip hit it on the head with the cornering. Axa and I had to do a K-turn under a bridge in the river a few years ago on a 382. If you want ameneties and some speed, go with a 370 or 400SS, if you want to have fun driving, the 353 is a great boat.

I can appreciate "the 382 feels almost cruiserish" and at the same time have the style and speed of a performance boat. The truth is I'm probably on the ropes between an SS and a Cruiser but I like the sleek style and speed of a Fastech.

Between the 353 and 382, my best guess after riding the 312 and 382, is that the 382 with 525's almost feels underpowered compared to the responsive ride credited to the 353. It sounds like the 382 could only get close to the agility of the 353 if it had 600SC's.
Again I'm kind of surmising from my feel of how the 312 responded to it's power level and what I understand here about the 353 all filtered to what I observed on the 382 with 525's ITS, XR's.

They might be right about the responsiveness of the 353 but mine had plenty of "go" in it.........I bought it with 8 psi Prochargers (800hp) and was later lowered to 630hp 540's

My 2 cents would be where do u boat and what are the typical conditions? Been in a 35 and a 38. Only drove the 35, huge diiference compared to my 419. Personally would never give size over some accelaration. I boat where conditions most of the time are far from perfect. How often do u need big turning radius or fast acceleration. Much more work to run the 35. To me all look similiar when sitting in the water. Would own all three, but some work better then others for the type of boating that u do.

We boat everywhere so the conditions vary to all extremes.
My wife does not like the boat to pound in rough water due to a back condition so the length and extension boxes for smoother ride would be the preference. When I drove the 382 there were no sudden movements and even though the plane time was a little long it came up and on smooth unlike the 312 that came on plane with a violent porpoising. I never did WOT the 525's because it wasn't my boat. They felt strong but didn't give me the feeling that they could accelerate the boat hard.

When you went with the Maximus 5 blades was there a change in how the boat came up on plane? Was there a small lag spot in the center of the plane process if the tabs were up?


The one I drove, I drove the way the owner directed, came up on plane with the tabs up with a little lag as if the engines had a specific power band and you could feel them come into it. I wondered if it was the boat, the plane method, the engines or a difference between how the 4 blades pushed and the 5 blades pushed the boat?

Mine was different.....The Prochargers made 830hp (790 according to Mark Boos, precision marine) and ran 34P Bravos. It came up on plane just fine but had plenty of power. The N/A motors were 630hp but 700ft lbs torque. Originally ran 32P Bravos and it came on plane easily. The 5 blades improved time to plane a little but I was always concerned about the drives and rolled into the throttle coming up. I would say the 38 might be a little slower to plane simply because it has 7 more feet of hull that has to be lifted out of the water.