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

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