Well I hate the taste of champagne. Lol. Me personally its about speed and reliability. I know 2 words that don't go together. However for me and what I want a 42(28)lol fountain is perfect. Efficient fast hull with stock motors that will run well. A nice cabin for what I want. Not having dinner parties down there just gonna be crashing occasionally and banging skanks. Lol.

The biggest thing is what are the priorities as no 1 boat is perfect. Every boat sacrifices something to gain something else.

Very simple answer just tinker that 7.4 to about 500 hp and you be the judge. Inland water's and 2-3' chop it should hang with the best....maybe just a bit narly but then again that is half the fun. Catching air that is and you will catch some air with 500hp.

It will do 61 with a 496HO. Might do 67 with a 500HP.

Chris

nice! I would love an hp 500, but you must have missed the comment about a beer budget lol
i bought a 502 mag that is supposed to be right around 420 hp
im screwed because of stock exhaust, I cant run open and am worried about reversion with captains call

502 mag shouldn't revert. They were 415 stock so 420 isn't much over stock. Should be ok.

I meangt to say I would love to throw a cam heads etc... and bump up the power but would need captains call for sound at times, then ill be screwed with reversion

I need to buy a magic cat open bow or a sunsation mid cabin open bow with 700 hp

theres that problem of money and university funds lol

The Eclipse is a family cruiser. It's a nice boat [ friend had one ] but not meant to be a high performance wake jumper. It is a shoe box hull & deck construction like many mass production boats out there. Meaning ,you start jumping wakes getting air time ,the hull/deck will become loose in no time hence it's held together with screws. Even the so called high performance
Wellcraft Nova in the past with twins was built like it .Any high performance boat meant for rough water should have a bonded hull deck joint to last, at least. If you get the boat for a good deal, go ahead and enjoy it for cruising and occasional blasts in moderate water conditions.

A lot of hp500 came with silent choice....

Plz elaborate on your conclusion's...... I have been in the automotive ind for more yr's than i care to speak of and find your response provacitive to say the least. i would very much like to know what makes a performance boat..gluing down a cap????? Or gloifying a image.....not that the auto ind play's that game.

Why is my response provocative? Bonding hull and deck with either plexus or metalchrylate adds structural strength for a boat that was meant to be used at high speed or run in rough water. Adding cloth and mat inside at the seams also helps. Having an inner liner also adds more rigidity. Capped boats are butt construction vs shoe box so they are bonded from the inside and done for looks for folks who don't want rubrails .DCB owners are one of those. Many older boats , including offshore style ones were built with shoe box method and only screws holding the hull deck together. Better ones had nuts/bolts every 6" or so and held together much better.
I've been around boats only 50 or so years, so what do I know. Sorry if I offended anyone with a boat that the builder chose to use shoe box method to build their boat and use screws only to hold hull&deck together,LOL.

Slamming into waves at 60+, bow acceleration puts tremendous pressures on a hull,1000\s of pounds per square inch causing the hull flex like noodle. This image shows load distribution on the hull with greatest stress points on the hull. You'll see more stress cracks in the forward section of the hull from the bulkhead towards the bow on some boats that were running hard.
http://www3.telus.net/spectrasonly/load%20distr.jpg