The 30 was sensitive to many things. That's why so many of them came with Wolverine tabs early on. You could cure alot with a little tab. If the boat is propped right and the X isn't too high, they're not bad to drive. You need a fairly neutral prop. The boat needs no bow lift. If you have a prop that lifts the stern, you're going to have some quirky handling as it's going to be fighting the pad bottom. They do not like to have any play in the steering sytem so if you don't have external steering, you probably don't want to be going over 70. They built alot of the boats with Hynautic manual/hydraulic steering. That's because it's "firmer". The mushiness of power steering can lead to a lack of feel and over-corrections. Over 100, that can be very bad.

All excellent advice here. Be cautious, build up speed & skill comfort level gradually, make trim changes in small increments, steer to try to keep the hull level on re-entry- which is a bit tricky at first. Just take your time & respect what can happen. I was the initial trainer for new V-30 owners back in the Pompano days. They were mainly novices, so I spent time with them until they seemed to be getting it. If you're comfortable at these speeds- you'll be fine. If not, please build gradually while breakin' in the momo's.

Wolfe,i have a 81 30 with 3 200 mrecs,they said it came from fl,has tripple bolsters and center steering,runs great ,any imfo??? thanks tripps

We made about a half dozen Triples back then. We had one for a demonstrator for about a year, was blue & ran great. Bought by a hay hauler who made the news that very night. Yikes! Gene Whipp won a nat'l championship with his triple Evinrude 30', I raced triples with Jim Bistline, Bob Schrama, Whipp, Skip Kriner & others. The Triple was fun & fast in the old Production class. We ran 2.4 EFI's. Ran my last race in Bistline's in Islamarada in '84 & won the class. Other ourboard 30's that won races & championships were with Walt Beasley & Hans Kniesel. The stories i could tell....
Jay Wolfe, Jupiter, FL

Wolfe how fast did they go??? tripps

The bolstered 30's of the 80's with triple 2.4EFI's would start a race w/ fuel load & 3 big guys at approx. 82-84mph. We could run w/ 2 guys & a lighter fuel load 86 'ish. There's better motors today & 90+ "should" be there, given a straight bottom, reasonable water & wind conditions, the right props, etc.
Little quicker in salt water that fresh & the cooler the weather the better. Tall guys like me need to squash down & "squint." They accelerate well & run rough stuff reasonably well, if you keep it fairly level & don't over trim. I was fortunate to have run both dual small block V8's AND the triple OB 30' Vel.'s in the old APBA P class. Triple OB's weigh less then the 2 V8's with their TRS (heavy as LEAD) drives, AND the egg beaters place their weight in a good place for leverage on the hull & rough water balance. When the flag dropped the OB's jumped out ahead of the V8 boats, with their weight & accelleration advantage. We figured 2.4EFI's at 25GPH "each" at WOT, which demands 150" gallons at race start. They smoked so much, with their double oil requirement, that we needed to pour in some BBQ sauce, so they'd allow us to dock at the hosting Restaurants, with our "cloud" of oil smoke. This little Stepp innovation made us more sociably acceptable at Bootlegger & other waterside Burger Joints of the day. We used "Jerk" sauce when in the Bahamas, of course.. = :>)

sounds like fun!!! tripps

It used to run 80 with 420's. Your power choice is a good one. It will be plenty fast and fun. All indicators are different but in general run the drives in the 2 to 4 range and try tabs in the 1 to2 range. Like others have said push the boat straight ahead. At a fast cruise speed in flat water find the spot where you just feel the tabs and tap up once. Then never raise above that spot. My guess that will be somewhere near 2. Like wise at fast cruise in flat water trim drives a tap at a time till it starts to slowly porpoise tap in twice. Never trim out past that point. Again I guess that will be near 4. Once you get a good feel for it you can make it dance and trim it more. Pay attention and respect it.

That will get you going. Every day you will learn more. Have fun.