I would like to see that pic. Searched online and could not find it,

Last summer i was out fishing with the wife and brother in law in the chesapeake bay out of willoughby, waves were about 2-3 ft, storm came in quick and started blowing around 35-40, chop kicked up on top of waves. i learned one thing, im nervous when going slow or drifting, but i will not ever doubt the V when it comes to being able to get back in with rough water. I ran about 25-30mph and the boat was slapping a bit in the chop, and i got a bit wet from spray, but she plowed right through on plane. brother in law got the worst of it, he was hanging over the side puking the whole way back in.

Had my V21 out on the northwest coast last summer flat seas for most of it. On the last day we were done fishing and pulling the prawn traps I noticed the black line forming on the horizan. I put the hammer down on her as we had 10 miles to shore the last two got very intresting. with the ocean floor rising from the depths and the wind they were giving me around 6' swells and 6-8' chop. A 60' tour boat came out of the harbour and the waves increassed to 10-12' not a fun time at all. things I learned 1-tie your gear down ( the cooler of sea ice was all over the deck making the boat unstable) 2- trim tabs would have helped level the boat 3- Don't F@#$ around if your not sure what the He!! your doing out there it goes south quick.

It going south quick is the main reason i keep my arse in the bay within a couple miles of places i know that i can shoot into an inlet and ride it out. this is the first boat i've owned other then freshwater john boats and such. and i have every intention of taking my time and making sure i know exactly what to do before i try to push it into rougher water.

P.S. whitewater experience in a kayak is helpful sometimes, just got to get over it and giver some speed and plow through

I've never stuffed the bow at any speed but have had a wave curl over the nose several times. Only when its steep and tight. Those are the times you either need to troll with the current or go back home and wait til calmer water. Unless of course a storm blows in quick like.

I'm afraid to see what would happen if the self-bailing v's would do if the whole cockpit filled up. I think it would probably turtle from the huge void left in the bilge and all the weight above the waterline (gear/crew/plus water). Having the old V (non-self bailer) probably saved MJ when he and Kenny got swamped! Of course you know MJ had 350 lbs of fluke in the hold as ballast! :you:

Hope to never find out myself!!

All boats since 1973 are "supposed" to have "level floatation" built into them. Basically that means that if it's swamped it will still remain right side up. As for myself, I hope to never be in a position to test it out.

All boats under 20 ft. Hence the 20'06" length of the V.

Correct... I should have specified that. My 73' Cruisers, Inc is 21'6" and it clearly has "Level Floatation" stamped on the outside of the hull just under the Cruisers trademark. I guess it was optional for boats over 20'

About the worst we have been in started as a calm day. We left out of Perdido Pass fishing the Red Snapper "World Championship." Run out 35 miles in about, an hour and half to two hours, to the pipeline to try that out. About the time i dropped anchor and tied the anchor off, a wave come over the bow and flooded the open cabin and deck. I looked up and our flat seas had turned into what looked like 8' 10' seas. Looked at dad and he said, Lets get the :cen: outta here. Pulled the anchor back up and we headed in, constantly getting slammed with waves over the bow. It took us 5 hours to get within 5 miles of shore and then it calmed down. :head: We decided to try to fish and found some wrecks pretty close. We did limit out in snapper, but since that day i have not been back to the pipeline. I can still hear the sound of the sliding hatch banging when we hit waves. I guess its time to make some hold-downs for it.

One big plus of the 250 Sportsman over the V20 is how well the deck drained. But we never got in any excessive water in it either.

This is an old thread, but I did the same thing. I installed larger scuppers as well.