![]() ![]() After all these years, not much can touch a GrandSport flying around the lake. The radical styling differentiates them and actually has the passengers sitting deep in the cockpit for a very secure feeling. As a test, Allison once fitted the SS-2001 with a 90 Honda and it went 60 MPH. But, running with a stock 150 or 175 that weighs around 400 Lbs is ideal, making for a super efficient and a fun family hot rod. Any boat running that far out of the water at those speeds has inherent risks. Like any ultra light boat, you have to know how to drive it. The small Allisons are designed to run lighter engines, plenty have older Mercury Racing and other race engines that can push the hulls way over 100 MPH, easily. With a Grand Sport, you can run a stock 175 Pro XS and be in the high 80s (MPH). I believe Darris Allison once said he was concerned with making not the fastest boats but the most efficient boats. With a steep deadrise, pronounced notch and aggressive strakes, the GrandSport gets incredible lift. In racing, Allison is obviously well known and revolutionized the light, pad bottom design that has been emulated by many. They have had full composite construction for a very long time and they have bullet proof transoms, by integrating aluminum in them. ![]() Allison has been a pioneer in using high quality materials too. Probably the fastest production boats available in this category. Allison makes a slightly smaller boat, the SS-2001 SuperSport but the GrandSport offers a little more room and usability. ![]() The XS-2003 Allison GrandSport is the gold standard for small single engine family boats. Modern outboards on these small efficient hulls have many advantages they are low maintenance, less costly to buy, are very efficient and can be incredibly fast out of the box. I wanted to focus only on outboards here. Even though performance boats are not as plentiful as they were in the 70s and 80s, there are some incredible boats available today. In this article I want to look at V-hull outboard boats 22 feet and under that closely fit the profile I described above the small, do it all, family sport boat. Most people like something that can do it all, handle some chop, get some decent speed in a straight line while bringing the family along. This covers a large spectrum because some boats are semi offshore, some are lightweight lake hot rods and some are somewhere in the middle. At Wave to Wave, our favorite boats are smaller, single engine sport boats. ![]()
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