I saw this thread on another site and it seemd to provoke quite a bit of comment, so let's see what the Serious crowd has for opinions.....I will start.


After the deep vee hull, the next most important design advance was the step. I know there are some people out there who think the step was inveneted a few years ago by............Name your favorite designer or boat builder.

Of course that negates the truth. In 1908 a gentleman by the name of William Henry Fauber of Chicago took out a patent on the step design. The race boats of that era were called hydroplanes and they did not look like the hydroplanes of today at all. They were single hulled boats that had a slight vee shape bottom and then Mr. Fauber added his steps on.

His design was incorporated into the build of a race boat called MAPLE LEAF IV. This boat raced in 1912 - 1913 era and was the first boat to break 50 knots. The dimensionson the boat are very interesting when compared to modern day boats.

Length 40 feet / Beam 8 feet 5 inches./ Weight 5,25 tons /Single engine producing 800HP / Propeller diameter 25 inches / Propeller pitch 47.5 inches / Propeller speed 1,100 rpm.

In the 40 foot length, the boat had 5 steps spaced along the bottom. It was not exactly like Faubers design which had many steps like a modern day Outerlimits.

So, back to the discussion at hand.....Which deep vee design is best today?

Taking into account the various types of water the modern boats are used in, adding in my own experience racing various deep vee designs, I would come up with two.

First the best open ocean racing boat for speed and ride would be the new 42 Chief.

Second for all out speed, but not as good in real open ocean racing conditions would be the 43 Outerlimits.

One may be better than the other in some areas but the main thing they have going for them both, is the actual builders are real racers, guys who know what it means to put together a boat that will run very fast and safe and get you home at the end of a day no matter what.

Bobby Saccenti who builds the Chief has decades of experience in what works and what doesn't, but is still open to trying the new ideas that technology has made available today. Most of his experience has been on open ocean racing circuits and that is what he thinks of in building a boat today.

Mike Fiore has most of his expeience in close to the shore racing and he has tweaked evey ounce of speed out of his designs to be used on those type of circuits. He is not afraid to buck the trends and build smaller styles as he did with his new 29 footer.