How are the 27 and 29 stepped hulls in rough water?
 

Right now I have a 22 thoroughbred, I live on lake MI and I'm getting sick of getting the snot pounded out of me. I like the fountain's lines and interior, but I've never ridden in a fountain smaller than a 42'. I'm looking at 27' or 29' fever stepped hull but how are they in the chop?

I like the ride on my 27, but you can def tell the difference on a 29.Then again im on the Potomac (which can kick up a little) But I have heard the great lakes can get pretty rough.

have 27. Lower trim tabs in rough water and it will be smooth sailing.

Either size will be a huge step-up (excuse the pun) from your hull in the waves, plus the beak really works to deflect water over the front.
Carder

I had a 26' Velocity, 26' Hustler and a 29' Fountain. We boat on Lake Erie the Fountain did not ride near as well as the other 2 boats.

Really? I would expect the hustler to ride better than the fountain, but you think the 26 velocity road better?

aa

My 27 liked everything except a lot of people in it combined with ruff water. Big boat wakes or swells were kind of scary on approach, but just fine when you do get into it. Big ocean/lake swells and chop will probably be chitty in any boat less than 30ft. i dont think there is a magic hull design that makes a 26ft feel like a 38ft.

I have a 29 and I really like it. It's hard to answer that question for me because I've never been in the great lakes, so I don't know what choppy water is in your mind. It does really well in the water at Havasu and does ok in the Ocean depending on conditions.

I have had a couple of 27 Fevers, 4 29's (3 singles and one twin), all being the single step hulls, and a 35 Lightning twin step. There is some difference between 27 and 29 in normal weekend "confused chop" at our local lakes, primarily boat wakes, but not a significant difference in ride quality, IMO. There is night and day difference between those and the 35 twin step, though :D:

How was the 29 twin compared to the 29 single?

All of the singles were 29 Fevers. The twin was a 2002 Formula 292 ... twin 6.2 MX's ... a complete pig, and slow. Topped out at ~ 70 mph. That was my least favorite of any I owned, although it did have 13 cupholders ;) From what I know, there isn't much difference between the ride/speed of the 292 and the 29Fever, with twin 6.2s. 502's is a different story. Friend had a 29 Fever with 502 MPI's and it accelerated hard. Heavy in the rear, but it ran great, mid-upper 80's if I remember right. Everything on/in the 6.2 is made of plastic, too. Not built anything like the blue engines.

well pretty much if its anything bigger than 1' i'm running tabs down, drive tucked if my wife and son are in the boat. Its a fun boat if its just me and the guys in 2' 3's, bring the drive up a little, run some tab so she stays flat and hammer down. But my son is only 17 months old and trying to find a speed slow enough to be safe and fast enough to let the tabs work is impossible. it does pretty well at 60 to 70 running tabs with the drive 0'd but obviously thats way to fast for a young child in a 22' boat. I already knew i wasn't going to get the ride of a 38 cig out of a 27/29' boat.

Same problem i have, i'm thinking if i had a small block it might not be so hard to keep the bow down. But probably not enough of a difference to get what I'm looking for.

I got on for sale... :party-smiley-004:

27 does real good on lakes. sharp v cutting the wakes.. but the pacific ocean is not what it is made for in my humble opinion

details? link?

The Formula had lots of nice creature features, and the layout is really nice. It was really slow to plane, with a lot of bow rise, but if you "flip" the locations of the spacers in the trim rams at the drives, you can tuck the drives under a little more and that helped. If you are used to all of the gauges on a fountain, most are not on the 292 ... just the basic necessities. Also, one thing that I found unacceptable was that, with the electric trim indicators, you don't know where the drives are without the key in the "on" position. Mechanical indicators would have been really nice. There were no tab indicators for the bennett tabs, either. For me, the seats were too high and the windshield too low, and I personally couldn't tolerate the amount of wind in my face, or the wind noise. If you could combine several items of Reggie's boats with those of the Porter's, I think you could arrive at the perfect trailer boat. I really think the 29' boats (Fountain is my personal choice) are the best all around performance trailer boats. We found that trailering the 35 everywhere we went to go boating, usually 30+ miles each way everytime we went boating, got tiring, very quickly, especially on 2 lane country roads. Towing it on the interstates was not a problem, but not much lake access directly off the interstate!

I have a 29 we do well in rough water, or maybe its just the driver.:lolhit:

Really? I would expect the hustler to ride better than the fountain, but you think the 26 velocity road better?

It was actually a 1993 26' Thoroughbred, but without a doubt it rode much better than the 1998 single step, single engine 29' Fountain.

I have a 2001 29' Fountain w/575 SCi for sale. Check out the link and PM me if you have any questions.

http://www.teamshogren.com/brokerage...-29-fever.html