A friend of mine was interested to know what speed gains and/or handling gains have been made by blueprinting the bottom of a 25' Thunder.

He's planning on putting a 550 HP motor and was interested in what results others have seen and if it is worth the cost.

Thanks in advance!

Kirk

I can't answer your question, but I have heard that if you mess around with the bottoms, you can run into severe handling problems. I suppose you have to really know what you are doing to attempt this. Didn't MrGadgets have some handling problems a while back??

I think it depends if he has a problem with his bottom now.

Payton, I think they have doctors for that.

Awe, head south you farmer.
Have a good week Mike.

Take a long straight edge and look for hooks. If they are there because of a manufacture error or sitting on the trailer wrong they will slow the boat down. If it was built in on purpose from AT then it more than likely is making the boat safe or a fix for a time to plane problem.

What can be done without changing the hull design is to sharpen the trailing edges on the "on plane area" of the bottom. This will allow the water to leave the surface faster and increase the speed by ???????? I doubt if it would be worth it unless you had to squeak out 1 mph to win a race!

This is just my opinion and observations from my own experience and a lot of research I am NOT an expert

It all depends what the bottom is like when you start. It involves blocking wetted surface, adding gel to low spots if required, & sharpening edges.

I had mine done a couple of years ago. Did not effect handling at all and net gain was zero MPH.

However, some boats have picked up as much as 5 MPH.
It all goes back to what your bottom is like when you start.

In the boat you are dealing with, "blueprinting" could be a real factor! Scott's advice is real good. Make everything as true, flat, and crisp (edges) as possible, then install some decent tabs to control "flight" and enjoy your "new" boat. --- Jer --- p.s. I picked up well over 5 mph.