racinfever

Hey Marginmn, looked for you in Cumberland Poker Run but somehow missed you. I was wondering how the re-rig went.
What kind of speed did you get out of it, what kind of props, what kind of drives? I'm still in a quandry as to which props I should be running on my boat. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Gary

Marginmn

Hey Gary,

When I started the project last winter my plan was to have finished prop testing and to have the boat dialed in by Memorial weekend. But as is sometimes the case with these with projects - my plans changed. I didn't get the boat back from the rigger until after Memorial weekend and by that time I had already bought my next project - a 38 Donzi ZRC - the boat I have really wanted for nearly a decade. On top of that right after Memorial weekend my oldest brother had a heart valve replaced and because of complicaitons he spent nine days on a vent - so there went the entire month of June. By the time we made it back to the lake it was already July and I didn't see the point in spending time and money on props for the Fountain since I plan on pulling the Ilmors and selling the hull this fall.

So I haven't done any prop testing on the boat other than to run the same props on it that I had last year when I was running the 625's - a set of stock, non-labbed 27 PX5's. It does mid-90's with them (up from 88 with the 625's) but they are a bit small for the 710's, especially being non-labbed. I am pretty sure that if the boat was set up properly with a set of labbed 29 Herrings it could touch or get pretty close to the century mark. I'm running XR's and Imco -2's on neutral Imco extension boxes. The boxes put the driives about an inch deeper in the water and if I kept the boat I was gonna either try it without the boxes next season or go with a set of -3 imcos. The boat does handle rough water great with the boxes so I was leaning towards a set of -3's.

I did walk past your boat saturday morning but you were not there. Since they always sell out of boatels at state we just turn our cards in and go back to our dock at Grider Hill to party. Hope to catch you next season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZYN...eature=related



Robert

racinfever

Hey Robert,
Thanks for the quick response. I'm sorry to hear about your brother, hope he is better now.
I'm also sorry to hear you've decided to give up on the Fountain. I still feel it could hit triple digits with a little work.
The Donzi's are great boats too.
As far as my boat, I've been determined to try to make my set up work with a 4 blade prop because I felt it would be easier to turn and not stress the drive. Although this year I upgraded to the SCX/SC combo and I feel I could possibly swing a 29 or 30 pitch 5 blade. Currently I'm running 30 pitch bravo 1's 6400 rpm which puts me at 104 -105 mph but I still don't feel like the boat is hooked to the water at cruise or higher speeds. Only under hard acceleration does it feel like it's really hooked up.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Gary

Marginmn

My brother is fine now thanks.

Back when I first put the 625's in the boat I tried a set of 6 blade Herrings that LCM loaned me - man did the boat feel hooked up. They were about 4 pitches too high for my rpm range but they felt wonderful and they almost ran as fast as the 5 blade px5's - but at much too low a rpm for my Ilmors. I figured that if I could find a set in my rpm range the boat would have been well over 90 with the 625's vs the 88 that I ran with the p5x's. I would have to say that the boat never felt any better than it did with that set of Herrings on it. They were incredible coming from the set of bravo's that I had on it previously. I never paid up for a set because I was already looking to upgrade to a set of 710's and Herring didn't have a test program at the time- so if you bought a set and they were wrong for your boat you were stuck with them - and they are not cheap.

Try calling Brett at Bblades because I think they now run a test program with the herrings and also get your hands on a set of p5x's to test. Either of those should feel way better than your 4 blades and should be fine with the SCX/SC lower combo. I tried a set of the 5 blade Mercs but they were slow in stock form vs the p5x's. If 5 or six blade props don't help then make sure the toe of the boat is set correctly. You might also take a video of your prop wash at speed and let the boys at Wilson Marine take a peek. If your lowers are out of true or if your toe is off you would be amazed at high much speed and handling it can cost you. If it is set up properly your Fever should feel like it is on rails on all but the roughest water the LCM poker run can throw at it. If it doesn't then something is not right. Could even be some hook in the hull. My fever only does 95-ish with these 27s on it's best day but I ran most of the poker run around 90 and felt very secure doing it. Come to think of it I tested a 38 Fever at LCM before I bought mine. It had 575's and 4 blade labbed bravos and it didn't feel nearly as secure as my boat does now with the 5 blades.

I really like the Fever and I know that with some prop and lower unit changes I could have it at or over 100, but at this time I no longer need a people hauler. When I bought the Fever in 2004 I did so because of all the room that it has in the cockpit vs most other Fountains. But now I have a pontoon and a deck boat to haul people around in and I just want a purpose built sit down wave crusher poker run boat that I can run 100+ mph in and not have sore knees at the end of the run. In this market I probably wont be able to sell it anyways and I am not going to give it away.

But again with that scx and Sc lower combo I would not be afraid to run 5 blades. Good luck and let me know how it goes.