Roughest conditions ever experienced in your V ?

[Blue_Runner]

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!

Hope to never find out myself!!

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Blue_Runner

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!

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.

[bradford]

Originally Posted by Destroyer

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.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by bradford

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'

[jasoncooperpcola]

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 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. 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.