Steplift First ride

[BillTex]

I have a confession to make; today was my first ride in a Steplift! A bit of a chop, wind from S/E , cool/cloudy.
The water here is still too cold for stripers (50 * F). We are probably 2 weeks behind the NY/NJ Folks.
I have to say very pleased with the V20. Took the chop well, very comfortable. Looking forward to a great season! We are lovin' the Steplift-nice ride!

[Destroyer]

Congrats on the first ride. Great looking boat. Nice pics... thank you for the boat porn. :) If you don't have them already, I would suggest trim tabs. They make a world of difference on the ride of these boats.

[wellcraftv20step]

Very nice ride Bill, to this day it amazes me how I find myself starring/going over the beautifull lines of the v like when I noticed one for the first time in the early 80's ,Enjoy !!

[macojoe]

X 2 trim tab will make a big difference I have a few 20 since I got the disabled but would like to get another one someday good luck and welcome to the site

[Greyduk]

Bill, The boat looks great!! You will enjoy it for years to come. My cousin bought a 1973 V new and he still has it. I have loved the looks ever since. so much so that I have had 4 of them. Good luck with yours.

[BillTex]

I will likely run the boat for a while and decide on tabs. We had them on our Grady and agree they helped quite a bit.

Thanks to all for the assistance on this project! Looking forward to a great season.

Bill

[bgreene]

Best of luck with the new boat - lots of useful info on this site if needed.

[steplift20]

Why am I not surprised, It's a great boat bill and me to I love the looks and the lines of the steplift, and to prove it to you just look at my name Steplift 20 Need I say more Nice looking boat too

[cfelton]

Nice looking boat! Nice pictures! You're right about the ride, never been in a better riding 20ft.boat. Ive had mine since 06 and this year its 40 years old. I wouldn't trade it for anything out there!

[bradford]

Good looking V.

[BillTex]

Thought I'd up date this thread now that we have put quite a few ours on the V. The family is loving it, we spent a lot of time this summer running a round the bay.
Some intermittent overheat issue kept me from running off shore...but I believe that is behind us now after replacing all cooling components, some gaskets, etc, etc...
So...our Son and I finally had a chance to run off shore this weekend...first time on the outside! Keep in mind I have run many boats over the years from Whalers to a 42 Post...I have to say I was very impressed with the handling on the open, felt very confident. We had a great day, caught some fluke and blues (stripers quiet right now?) and really had a nice Father/Son day.
For the first time I can really say I got an accurate fuel burn...with the 2000 Johnson 150 Ocean we burned 6-7 gals/hr. A little better than I thought. I was pleased with this.
We ran 3900/4000 at 28 mph out the bay, 3500 ~ 24 mph on the open, and trolled for a good 1.5 hrs looking foe stripers after fluke drifting.
All in all a great trip, building a lot of confidence in this boat now and the Family really enjoys it for how we currently use our boat.
Thanks to many of you for all the help/advice over the past year.

Sincerely, Bill