The 10 Meter as produced ran extremely well. Like always there is someone willing to add big power. In the 80's Gail Banks had turbo engine options available and were on occasion getting installed along with others adding big power. I worked at a dry stack on the South River near Annapolis when I first saw the 10 Meters in '83. Some of them had big Gail banks Turbos in them. As it worked out the early big power boats did not go as fast as anticipated. The faster they went the more they pushed the bow down. The Name preacher as I understand it was adopted because one of the big church preachers owned a big power Fountain somewhere in NC. I only know of this from Art who by late 80's was Fountains largest dealer. He sold every boat he had ordered and was looking for more from Fountain. He asked for any boat that was not accepted or returned for any reason. So boats would just show up. One day the black boat showed up. It was an 85 that was returned to the factory and sent to Art. Maybe it was on someones floor plan and the dealership closed but, I can not say for sure. Anyway I remember the day it showed up I just happened to be there and looked at it with Art. At that time Art had been racing the Joker a 22 Velocity and was looking to move up in classes. The boat was faded black gelcoat with the old style morse throttles. Art asked what I thought and I suggested that he send it back to get painted and have the new style dash installed in it and take it. So he did. In the mean time Art had met Mark Franz and to make that story short Mark bought it and they came to an agreement to race it. Art was thinking D class since it had #3's on it. I suggested B class which was predominately TRS boats where the B motors and 3's would be an indestructible combo.
So to your question the stock fountain bottom has a pad with a slight v Much the same as they appear today. Reggie had worked thru the push the bow down issue and overcame it by changing the rear part of the pad. It only became evident in the 90 mph range. He had cut the pad off and blended it into the surrounding surface which allowed the stern to settle in and not push the bow down. The deadrise at the transom from the center was a softer V and then changed to the the molded v angle which was a little sharper. To my understanding there were only few modified this way. Soon after Reggie started working on his step bottom line.
