Fountain Fever 27 Performance
 

Hi, I’m looking for opinions on how well a Fountain Fever 27 does on rough water? I currently have a Donzi Classic Blackhawk 22, so I’m used to descent rough water performance. Is the Fountain better by a little, substantially better or worse than the Blackhawk?

I would appreciate hearing some opinions.

thank you

I have never been in a 22 Donzi, but a 27 Fountain does better than expected in the rough. My guess is that it would be substantially better, but again, I have no real world experience in a Donzi.

Jim Valeko out of Grand Rapids had a 27 that ran really strong. The boat was named "Heads Up' as he is a cylinder head specialist. If you can track him down, he had the fastest one that I have ever seen and ran it out of Grand Haven a lot.

Joe

I don't have any experience with the Blackhawk but I have a 27 that I run in the Detroit River area and Lake Erie/St Claire. It handles chop to 3's well, anything bigger than that it gets pretty rough.

I've driven both hulls. The Donzi 22 is the softest riding 22 on the planet in my humble opinion. The 27 Fountain - and many folks will call it a 25' - rides ok, but it was not one of Reggie's better designs. (The 29' Fountain with the same power is actually faster and more capable in rough water.) The cabin on the 27 is ridiculous, but it's a hell of a lot bigger than what you have on the 22 Donzi - which has nothing. The Fountain is a bit of a handful with anything more than stock power, but the 22 Donzi has some unique handling traits too - as documented in Powerboat magazine. (They tend to fall off the inside chine in sharp, low speed turns.) While I've personally experienced this in a Donzi, I've never experienced anything weird in a 27' Fountain.

As for which one takes rough water better, the Fountain is a bit heavier and a bit longer, has more freeboard, but a bit wider in beam. Believe it or not, I'd call this one close to a draw, but the Fountain will feel a bit safer.

As a fellow Donzi 22 Classic owner and your neighbor, I'm sure the Fountain will handle rough water better but it won't be as fast. If it were me I'd try to find a Donzi 27 ZR with a 525. 🙂

I had a 27 fever with a 496 mag ho. Great boat and ran well. Also had a Blackhawk 22. I have a standard 22 classic now. It fits in my garage. Love the boat. The fountain ran 72 gps. A great built boat. I felt it had a higher finish level over Donzi. A 27zr would be close. The 27 fever has a smaller fuel tank. I think 50 gallons or so.

they should be exactly the same since they are the same length. lol. sorry just tweeking the beak boats.

thanks and good hearing from you. I was trying to understand what kind of gains go with the bigger boats. I like my BH, but it does take some length to dial in when passengers change! Hard to do on a small lake!

[QUOTE=thirdchildhood;4751051]As a fellow Donzi 22 Classic owner and your neighbor, I'm sure the Fountain will handle rough water better but it won't be as fast. If it were me I'd try to find a Donzi 27 ZR with a 525. 🙂[/QUOTE

Duplicate, can’t delete!

I've been in and have seat time running the above mentioned boat with Jim in all kinds of water. This boat runs very well in rougher water, but it still is only a 27' boat. This boat also had a 12" extension box and 380 K-Planes so it performed like it had a little more length. In true 2'-3's on Lake Michigan you could get the boat run in them. Anything over that you knew you could get home but not ideal. Compared to the 22 I had been in I would call it noticeably better, not substantially better.

The boat would run 98 mph and the name is "Heads I Win" ;)

I have no experience with the 22 Blackhawk but currently have a 27 Fountain.

The 27 Fountain can run in 2-3ft waves head on or trailing decently. If you have to 1/4 those 2-3ft waves your in for a long ride.

It's a small and light boat so the bow is very active. Using a little bit of tab will help smooth it out.

I would not call the 27 Fountain or even the 29 Fountain, for that matter, a good rough water boat. That having been said, length and displacement alone may give the 27 Fountain a bit of an edge over the 22 Donzi. I had a 29 Fountain for a couple of years and it was miserable in the rough. My 27 Concept runs significantly better than the Fountain did in similar conditions (I know, not comparing apples to apples, but...). I agree with the folks who suggested looking at the 27zr - although there doesn't seem to be a lot of them around.

I was close. Its been a long time and I am getting old. Jim was always a cool guy to talk to and the boat was always a surprise when he was next you.

Joe

Digging up and oldie...but I haven't been here in a while. As a past 29 Fever owner...I have a 2000 29 Fever with a HP500, bought brand new and had it for 4 years. It was a very very solid built boat but it was not a rough water boat. It was fine around the Tampa area intercostal waterway close big chop in the bay but in the Gulf on a breezy day you could lose a kidney! The 27 is a lake boat...small lake boat and the cockpit of the 27 is super tight and shallow.