With a bad back I don't push it too hard anymore. Ride quality on my 20 beats the 23' Whaler in the wind chop. The Whaler would wallow, I think the term used a while back was like riding atop meat loaf. Not a bad boat, just not as crisp in the tracking department. To the 20, I wet Reelapealin & CO. in the wind chop in Charleston harbor. LOL. Spareparts stayed completely dry that day in his Mckee Craft as I recall. If your patient you tend to stay dry. Never been in anything worse than 3 to 4. I stay away from inlets. LOL. Don't need to carry a change of drawers that way.

More interesting reading, thanks for the posts.

We're not talking about deliberately taking these boats out in rough conditions.........it's when you wind up in choppy seas. Sooner or later in the ocean it's nearly impossible to avoid encountering 2'-4' conditions.

Last friday the marine forecast for W 5-10 turned to S/ SE at 10-15-20 in the afternoon and seas built to 2's 3's and 4' whitecapped chop.

I had to quarter in some, and got wet. No big deal but at the time I was thinking how nice curtains would have been. Thing with curtains is, if you don't keep em' on all the time, I've found they tend to shrink.......just enough so snapping back in place can become a struggle. That plus in the summer - it gets hot in there ! That's another discussion.

Back to rough seas - also interesting that some of you guys fish these boats deep for tuna and such. I'm impressed. I'm about to invest in a PLB to enhanse my safety gear, but I fish mostly within 5 miles of shore......... I may run 20 miles south or north but still typically inshore.

Could rip across 2'-4' to an extent, but I won't beat the boat up that way.

Anyone have any other stories ? Always interesting reading.

Seriously speaking............... in worst case scenario......... pitch poling the boat, but let's say getting spun AND rolled over / swamped / boat upside down.
1. You're either thrown clear of the boat and in the water.
2. You wind up under the boat - hopefully with air pocket to breathe before dive under to come up to the surface.

Talking safety gear......... in example # 2......got to wonder if the life jacket would keep a person from being able to dive back under and come up to the surface. I don't know...... might have to remove the jacket, push it under and up, then swim up and try to put it back on. All that in rough seas.

Option # 1 while wearing life jacket would be the best outcome.

I now keep my type 1 lifejacket ( the offshore serious model) on the passenger seat in case I need to put it on. It's equiped with a sports whissle, and waterproof light.
I don't like wearing a preserver on calm days, summer heat but at least it's very close by.

I've spent alot of time thinking about that scenario during my current rebuild. Particularly in foam placement. My 81 had foam below deck. My line of thinking is that if the boat swamped, buoyancy low would cause the boat to turtle and roll. Now with the boat upside down the weight of the motor along with the lack of foam in the bilge area would cause the boat to sit not flat but at an angle. My primary concern is what would that angle be and would it be too steep to sit on top of the boat awaiting rescue.

With that in mind I wonder what I could do to make the boat less prone to that particular scenario.

Currently I keep a ditch bag equipped with a handheld waterproof GPS and a handheld waterproof VHF with 6 mile range, flares, and a strobe. The bag also acts as a flotation device.

MJ does...:)

The wife and I got pretty wet a few weeks back when it was very windy and choppy. Going at the waves at an angle, the wind picks up the spray and showers you. Big swells are swell. It's heading into a 3-5 ft chop with a strong wind that always gets me.

rkc

We fished our v20 as a kid with my dad in places were 20 foot boats really don't belong. We had her out fitted with twin 20 gallon acid jugs mounted to the sides of the console full of gas, along with 2 30 gallon external tanks. We would burn off the external or portable tanks first then burn the main 50 gallon tank to get home. That was back in the day when a SeaRanger LoranC and a Sea King paper bottom was top of the line!!!!!! We were also very good friends with a lot of the mates and captains with the main fleet out of Rudee Inlet,so we were always in very close distance to a charter boat. My dads major fear was always fire!!!! No smoking was allowed!!! The fleet used to call us the floating bomb. But we fished the hell out of that boat almost every weekend.

Any rough sea condition stories to share ?

Really the worst one we had was coming in from tuna fishing. The blue water was laid out slick but we could see the summer storm built up on the beach. We got into the green shallow water as we hit the thunderstorm about 18 miles off the beach. We got a little further inside about 8 miles and she turned into a **** storm!!!!! The swell was fastly wind blown so the waves were just about ontop of each other. It was about consistent 6 foot with the occasional doubled up 8 footer. I will never forget it. I was 13 years old. We had one or two bow dips and loaded the boat with about 8 to 10 inches of water but it all rolled right out the back. That was the worst I've ever been in a v20

This phenomenon appears to have been first investigated in 1861:

http://www.boatingmag.com/skills/sea...ng-wave-height

http://www.answers.com/topic/wave-height-2

P.S. I'm not trying to call anyone out on their estimates, just presenting some information as food for thought.

Interesting, water flowed out the back.......... that is the good thing about a lower transom.
The V21 had the removable elevated transom rod holder - good thing to remove in case of really rough water on the bow.........