I have a 1995 27ft fountain fever stepped hull with a 525sc. Looking at possibly getting a shorty and looking for advice on if they are beneficial in my application or if anyone has done this to there 27 fever stepped hull and what difference they saw.

Several years back I had a 29 with the 525SC. Added a -2 IMCO and longer K-planes - made a huge difference. With the -2 IMCO the boat ran a lot more level and flat - could spin a 30P labbed bravo but most of the time rand with a 28P Bravo. A lot will depend on your x-dimension.

What year was your 29?

Sheet from fountain on my boat said 17" XD. I measured it earlier and I got between 5 1/2" to 5 3/4". It wasn't a scientific measurement though lol. I out the drive at neutral which was about 3.75 on the indicator and used a level off the bottom of the v to the drive. Measure from the top of the level to the center of the nose. I would think I am pretty close on that measurement.

If I am remembering correctly (its been 8+ years since I owned it), the boat was a 1998. Unfortunately, I have no idea with regard to the measurements. A friend of mine who used to race a 29 was the one who suggested going with the shorty and the longer tabs. His experience with the hull made a difference. When I finally sold the boat it was running much better than when I had bought it. One thing to note - if you are running a hydromotive prop (which mine came with) you will probably want to change to a Bravo I or similar prop that creates bow lift.

Thats good to know about the prop, as I have a 26p bravo 1 on it now, and was going to change to a hydro this week. bravo seems to make the boat ride a little bow high. So what size hydro were you running before you put the shorty on? And do you remember rpm and speed numbers before and after the shorty with the different props?

You will lose some bow lift with +2" XD. Be sure and at least test the Bravo 1 vs. Hydromotive with the Imco lower.

going from memory, I believe I was running a 25 or 27P hydromotive prior to the shorty and top speed was in the 72 - 74 mph range. With the shorty we were able to run a 30P labbed bravo on the rev limited (5250 if I remember correctly) and were in the 79 - 80 mph range. 1.5 gearing.

Ben is correct in that you will lose bow lift with the -2 shorty - we found that the Bravo I worked best.

So with the only change being the -2 imco shorty and the prop you went from 72-74 to 79-80? And this was with a stock 525sc in a 98 29ft fever? So you remember how it effected your cruise speed, and handling?

the only changes to the boat were the lower, the prop and the larger k-planes. I was running a smaller pulley prior to making the mods, so that should not have had any effect whatsoever on the difference in performance numbers. It may have been 78 to 79 mph - in any event, it was a fairly impressive gain. Remember, the shorty allowed me to run a higher pitch propeller - from a 25/27 to a 30. That makes a pretty significant difference alone. As noted above, handling wise, the boat ran better with a flatter attitude. The larger tabs helped to bring it on plane quicker but with the raised x-dimension, there was some finessing of the throttle to avoid prop-blow out. I much preferred the handling of the boat with the shorty over the stock set-up. I have no idea of how it affected cruise speed - logically, it should have improved it, running a higher pitch prop.

On my performance sheet from fountain they turned 5350 rpms on mine, so I think the rev limiter is more around 5400 maybe