19ft baker mod vp

[T-Dog]

i have an 89 19ft baker mod vp with a late 80's carb. 200 merc. my question is setback. does anyone out there own or have experience with this hull. mine has about 8-10 inch. built into the hull but the previous owner put a 5 inch plate and a jack on it to run the lower case even with the pad. does this boat have too much setback? if i take the plate out i will loose 1/12 to 2 ich of hieght. thanks for any help.......

[WillyT]

I think Al Stoker ran Bakers (with Evinrudes) before he started making his own boats at John's Custom Marine. These were "pointed bow, not "pickle forks" (just like the boats he eventually built). He ran the V bottom at first and then the tunnel. By the way, there may have been more than one "Baker Boats" company, but I never figured that out for sure. Alan, if you are still monitoring this website, can you help? If he is not still looking at this board, you could try contacting him at race5555@excite.com (he once listed this e-mail address in a post on this board). I know that Stoker's own boats never seemed to need as much setback as some other brands, but I'm not sure about Baker's. Does your boat have some specific characteristic that makes you think that there is too much setback or are you just wondering if there is more speed to be had with less? Many (most?) boats go faster the more setback you have. It is just that beyond a specific point (which varies greatly from boat to boat), other problems creep in that make the boat hard to drive, uncomfortable or even unsafe. If you should end-up reducing your setback, please post the "before and after" results since I think that it would be interesting to the other members. Good luck!

[T-Dog]

i've tried alan, there is bad blood between him and baker, my response from him was it will handle better with less, that was it! my main problem is i will loose hieght without the plate . my midsection is an old 3 ram unit so a short midsec. is not an option. the boat only runs about 65-70 with a 24 chopper at 6200rpm. my best guess, speedo pickup is out of the water, no gps on this turtle!

[George Fuler]

Are you talking about the x-18 or RST-20? I ran both of these boats in Mod-VP. I also drag raced the x-18. E-mail me at mercace@aol.com and i'll try to help you. George Fuller