I'll second the motion. We have a customer boat that I drive every year to deliver in the spring and then pick up in the fall. (502 Mercruiser w/ Bravo drive) The owner's son drove it once with me in the passenger seat after I'd done some repairs. He made a low speed, but tight left hand turn and I swore the water was going to come rushing in on my side. It literally fell right off the chine. He had the drive tucked all the way in. In all of the boats I've been in or driven in the last 50 years or so, none of them did anything like that before.

"Driver's boat" my azz. That's a design flaw.

Id vote that too....very wet as well.

As for the Donzi lean....its a design from the 60s....became obsolete when the 21 Challenger came out. Ive driven a 22 Donzi into the very high 90s, great looking boat, they arent known for their handling, theyre known for their looks.

Must have been 88/89, there was a recall on them, took my father about 6/7 tries before things were done right

If I remember rightly that recal was due to the effects of only 3 teeth on the clutch dog......

I'm not sure of the root cause but the fix was an updated shift cable and shift mechanisim to keep it from popping out of gear. I had one but it was a small block.

The 460's were eating drives which were from the V-8 O/B's. They were questionable on a 300 HP O/B not even close to holding the torque of a 460 ford.
The small blocks ran the V-6 O/B case.

I would be lieing to say i remember, after being rebuilt many times I think the lower was replaced

Yeah, I do remember that being a recal. I think that was the fix

I got a feeling this thread could be a good way to ward newbies off
the hunt for some hard to find vessels

The worst boat I have ever owned was a HTM. Fast but built like crap. Not sure how the new owners build them.

I had it done. About $1500. after the recall expired. We also did several at the dealer I worked for at the time.

Sold a 20' Stratus cuddy cabin to a guy that brought it back due to this.
It was popping out of gear and I thought I had it fixed by adjusting the cable.Took the guys money, towed the old Sonic to the big lake and came home to the Stratus back in my drive way!
I did a walk around and found the prop (stainless) was destroyed too. I skyed and it took a while for my heart rate to come down enough to call the guy and ask WTF.
He had taken it to Buckeye Lake and had the shifting problem.He said the prop was that way when he bought it!
Was also his first time on Buckeye

Any way........., he agreed to let me fix the shifting issue and thats what it was. Again, a small block w/no issues in the gear case.

KCHOTBOAT, I never knew that. I knew they were fast but heard that.