Can anyone here help me with a question
im looking at a 1999 34' sundancer
and it has v-drives
people that i have spoken to say to stay away from them because
the are horse power robbers and not fast at all
you should look for outdrives instead .
the boat has 7.4 mercs

By nature an outdrive boat will be faster than an inboard boat, whether straight shaft or v-drives. But the advantage is when you keep the boat in the water the inboards will hold up much better, and a heavy boat like that will eat up outdrives. I am pretty sure you can't get a 34 Dancer with outdrives anyway, but unless you are going to keep it on a lift I would prefer the V drives.

I had a 1991 330 Sundancer.......the same hull became the 34. Mine had 454/330's and V-drives. No GPS but the boat cruised about 28-30 at 3,300 and a max of about 40 at 4,700. A local I didn't know very well had the same boat with BIII's. He claimed the boat would hit 49 but no-one could verify that......I believe he was 4-6mph faster.

The boat is very heavy for I/O's if you can find one. V-drives can stay in the water for 2-3 years in fresh without issue and require less maintence (you can service the tranny in the engine compartment). For that type of boat, V-drive is the way to go.

BTW: Formula made a few I/O boats that size back then and Rinker still makes their 34 mostly with I/O's. However, Rinker typically uses 300hp 350's and BIII's so the speeds aren't any different than what I listed but the fuel burn is better.

My brother in law has a 1994 34' Baja Motor Yacht for sale that runs the Mercuriser 454 330h.p. with twin Bravo 1 drives and he has never had a lick of problems. She will top out @ 46 MPH with 4 blades. Cruise around 29. It is the Express cruiser similar to a Sundancer.

I would go with V-drives. They are much lower in maintenance and as stated earlier much better for a boat that is going to be living in the water. I just sold a Sea Ray 400 that had Cat Diesels and V-drives, they are a very nice handling boat. With the twins you will have all of the manuverability that you need, there is no up side to go to outdrive, you don't get a boat like that to go fast anyway.
It should be very comfortable.