[Fr. Frank]

So how'd she ride?????????

The 30' Velocity was smooth as silk at anything under 30 mph, trimmed down with the K-planes slightly down. In a chop she was slap-happy at anything over that up to about 50mph or so unless you had lots of down plane. Without tucking the nose down it'd pound your fillings out, or make you lose your dentures.

The 22' was worse, and was unmanageable under any configuration at 50+ in a moderate to heavy chop. If it came down at an angle, it would rebound straight sideways.

But the 30' Velocity, between 50 and 75mph (76 was top speed in ideal conditions with the twin Bridgeports), in a moderate chop with no swell, she'd just float across the top of the chop, with hardly a quiver. Above 65 up to max you could even trim the motors high and raise the K-planes to -2. No chine walk at all, just a slow counter-clockwise oscillation of the nose. (Both motors were RH rotation)

In rough water, though, such as a choppy 3-5 or higher sea conditions, the sharper bow entry boats like Sutphen, Cigarette, Martini, and Magnum tended to perform better than the Velocity in a following sea. The Velocity hull was really made for mild to moderate sea conditions.

BTW, I quit racing after we stuffed at nearly 70 mph off Pompano Beach in late '84. We went from boat to submarine in about 1.3 seconds. Worse yet, it was my fault in coming off the throttles a half-second too soon launching off a big swell. But she didn't sink. We even came up with one engine still running. Nobody really hurt though, thanks be to God.