You have to remember that my boat was built for a team that put Sutphen on the map as far as racing back in the day.

They took much more time putting it together then a standard boat. It was built with one purpose in mind.
It does have a cabin but not finished off & has a rear seat.

It is lighter & balanced perfect. The bottom is blueprinted. The X dimension is where it should be for speed & handling.

Everyone who has been in it is amazed at the way it runs & handles..... There is a reason why.......The way it was built.

When it had the 550hp engines it went about 93 mph.

It is basically like a stock car, bare bones ready to kick azz on the race course.

Its amazing what a blueprinted bottom can do. When I did wave runners we used to see guys getting huge top end numbers just from a blueprinted bottom of the hull.

Its a TON of work too. Probably worth an extra 10K in labor I would guess on a large boat cause they would get 2K ona wave runner.

Well, I suppose that's why there are only two Great Adventures! Thanks for the info in any case.

The motors should be headed back soon. They are apparently now 385s. I guess we'll see what the boat will do with that power. What props are people running on these boats? It currently has a pair of 25p Mirages. I'm guessing we'll need to go up in pitch with 50 more horsepower per side. Too bad summer is months away!

I'll try to get some photos during the reassembly process.

How fast did the 25's spin?

A friend has a 31 with 370hp ran 25 mirage props boat ran about 74. the drives went as high as GA I don't think cause his exhaust came out under the ss trim line on the hull. theres a nice set of konrads in the swap with everything cheap. you get a higher propshaft height and rated for 800hp. I can't wait to test mine.but those 25 mirages should work fine. Bbladdes has a service where you can try props. you could get a pair of 26b1s and 27m plus props to start. call Brett. GA is a nice boat, it was on my list. but I had that 572 blower motor I had GELLNERS BUILD and had the KONRAD ACE SET UP. so I wanted a single , even tried to work a deal with Rich sr on the now 4yr old red 31 or 32. and jr was now where ready for the 27. I really wanted a sutphen. was 3 months to late for the whole 31/32 white and blue boat. that killed me when the price went from 118,000 to 65,000 bo. I had bought both drive and motor. 3 months before. man I would of had that:evilb::evilb:. but I hope the saber runs as good as they say. Bills 30 runs nice with the bravos. Ernies runs the balls though.:coolcowboy:

Thanks, Air Time, that's helpful.

I talked to my friend with the 31, when he would go to get on plan with the 25 mirage props he would have to gas it to 3500rpm then pull back a little as it started to fall over on plane.does your exhaust come out above the rub rail or below? his is below, I know I posted above. how low is your propshaft to the hull? and if you use brett for props merc has that rev4 that might come in a 25pitch brett would know, because if you get a lot of slip with a mirage 25 and have a propshaft height deeper than 5'' I bet that rev 4 23 or 25 would be faster all around and good to get on plan. sorry about the bah blah above. its a great hull that you have. plus Brett can lab new props to what you need or your old props too . good luck I bet when your dialed in 74 to 77mph.with the 385hp.:coolcowboy:

Hey Air Time,
Good to know. I was thinking low 70s, so mid 70s would be great! There are two photos of the transom in the link below. I would imagine the "X" is pretty low on this boat because it's a '78.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

On another topic, we're kicking around the idea of converting the boat back to a sit-down. It was sold that way originally and somewhere along the line someone swapped the seats for bolsters. My father has a bad knee, so we're thinking sit-down might be the way to go. Can anyone recommend a good (and somewhat reasonable) pair of seats? It looks like the Mitigator foam is used in many of the race boats; any personal experience?

Thanks for the help and advice! :drink:

One more thing: This boat is rigged with what I guess is hynautic steering (cable to transom, external rams driven off the power steering pump). What parts would be needed to convert this system to a full hydraulic system? We have access to all kinds of fabricating stuff and know-how, so we'd rather do it as cheaply as possible rather than plunk down big $$ for a kit.