Recently purchased 2007 Fountain 35 Lightning with staggered 525 engines and 5 blade Maximus propellors. The boat has 92 hours on it and shows no codes in the Smartcraft monitor system. The previous owner said the best he ever saw for speed was 95mph (GPS) on a cool day with 6" chop.
According to the performance report from Fountain this boat hit 100 at 5300 when new in a 6" chop on a warm day. When I looked at the RPM history at 82 hours it showed 6 minutes total above 5000 rpm.
The best I can get now is 4950 at about 90 but that is because the blades have been run through the sand bars a few times and I know I need to have them gone through. I also seem to have to "worry" it to get on plane. Props seem to blow out or lose grip. I start out with tabs all the way down and drives all the in. Any other way and I can't get on plane at all.
My question is why did the previous owner never see the speed in the performance report? And is there any chance of actually getting it back by re working the propellors.
The boat has always been hoist or trailer kept and the cradles match the hull shape in both cases. He did not have any work done on the props so they are stock from Fountain.
The Fountain performance report shows this data about the setup.
ENGINES: MERC 525 EFI
OUTDRIVES: BRAVO XR SHORT SPORTMASTER Ratio: 1.35:1
Prop: 32 MAXIMUS
TRANSOM PLATES: BRAVO
X Dimension 21 1/2" X 18 1/2" CENTERS

Run in the st. Clair river with the current, Rain-x the bottom, Just a few gallons of gas, and duck below the windshield. Eazy gain in GPS speed.

Also your above sea level. This has been discussed on here before. I'm not sure if anyone has matched their performance claim.

Remember the fountain report always states a rather high top end number. As little fuel as possible, one person and good conditions, it's not an everyday number. 95 is about right for a normal number. Also all staggered 35's I've seen or heard about running 100 or more, have used Hering 5 or 6 blade props. Get your props fixed, it's really hard to know what's up with your rig, if the wheels are in poor condition.

Fuel level and load on board can make a huge difference. I pick up a solid 5mph from full tank to 1/4 tank.

The right props will make all the difference also.

Send your props to BBlades for repairs and some mild labbing.

95mph is flying but test some props you may see 100mph with a light load in perfect conditions!Good luck did you buy the red one on here?

Just curious. Does this boat have ITS? If not, there is a speed loss there as well, over the 100+ stag 35's with it.

check to see if there are spacers between your upper and lower. Ive seen/heard of alot of staggered fountains adding spacers to keep from blowing drives due to the high X deminsion. Scrubs speed, but saves drives.

The boat does not have ITS - I have external hydraulic steering and am not sure what to look for on the spacers. What is the spacer doing to reduce the stress on the drive? Where would they be installed? I just got the boat out of the water and pulled the props and will contact BBlades on what the options are.

Forgot to add that this is not the red one - If the red one was originally out of Florida then Toronto Canada, I looked at that one real close but could not agree on price.