Regular V vs. Step V

[Wade]

Besides trying to justify a new purchase on pure looks alone, I wanted to get a honest answer with what the differance is between a Regular Deep V (Spartan) and a Step V...if any? Stability at speed? Lower Profile?

[TheShaughnessy]

I repaired one of those boats in the picture. It ran pretty nice on a 3 cell 2200 Mah pack. I did up a x437/3 and it seemed to like it, just remember the shim.

A steeped vee has less drag allowing it to go faster than an unstepped vee.

[NativePaul]

Stepped Monos are more efficient in a straight line allowing higher speed for the power or longer runtimes for the speed, on the downside they don't carve turns quite as well as an unstepped mono, they have got to the point of being able to turn more than well enough for racing, but if you want to sport run with sharp 90/180/360 turns at full speed unstepped is still the way to go. Sensibly there is only one place to mount the motor in a stepped boat (in the step, with a fairly long drive), whereas unstepped boats give you the choice of having the motor at the back if you prefer it that way. Both stepped and unstepped monos are available in a variety of deadrises and freeboards from shallow V low freeboard calm water racing surfboards, to scale boats which can be as tall as they are wide, sometimes the same hull is offered with both stepped and unstepped bottoms like many ToysPort Monos, so I don't think the profile of the hull should be the decider, more your intended use. If you live in the USofA I would say that the most important difference is the classes that they are legal for, unstepped monos are legal for both Mono and Offshore classes whereas stepped monos are only legal for offshore classes, so check that they run Offshore in your area before buying a stepped mono (stepped monos are technically legal in the Hydro classes as well but it would have to be blowing a hurricane before they would be competitive with the riggers).

[BHChieftain]

I've run both, like Native Paul says, the stepped mono is like a mini hydroplane and really gets going in a straight line, but turning is not nearly as good as a normal v.

I thought stepped monos were not legal for NAMBA electric offshore class, but I just looked it up and by golly they are...

Chief