I posted this on Facebook too...BUT Thank you all for your support and for making a great/informative forum.
First "dinner cruise" in our new-to-us 1988 311 SR-1. The funny thing is that the rain squall you can see in the distance (beyond the little island) is directly over our original destination...so we visited an alternate Sunset Grill.

That is a good looking hot rod Tom. Glad you are enjoying it.

Thanks!

We had The Wharf (Orange Beach, Al.) to ourselves today. :-)
Also saw 80.3 mph GPS at ~5,500 rpms (1/2 fuel 2 people)
17.4% slip :-( Gotta work on my driving/trimming!

Has anyone ever put twin stock Merc 525s ina 311?
would be interesting to see those numbers.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the slip numbers, Tom. Slip isn't necessarily a bad thing especially when trying to get some RPM out of it to work at peak power. Play with the trim some. Smooth water is also the enemy with most straight-bottom boats including ours; a little bit of chop is your friend at speed.

Tom, what pitch props? 26 or 28? Sorry, can't remember.

The water was pretty smooth, close to glass. I've seen in the past that a little ripple lightens the boat nicely. I'm running Bravo 4 blade 28 pitch. The engine builder said the max sweet spot is 5,400 RPM + -

Happy 4th of July (2022)...

If this is December, count me in!