info on a 2500 HydraSports

[cterrebonne]

well that 236 coastal i was looking at sold friday. so still being in the market i was curious to see if anyone had any experience with 2500 w/a of cc hydra sports.

[THEFERMANATOR]

AWESOME BOAT!!! It is a good sized boat though, and is one power hungry SOB. I believe they say that twin 175's is about the minumum power you can run on one to have reasoneable performance.

You can get some good info here for them.
http://www.hydrasports.com/forums/

[cterrebonne]

thanks ferm. i e-mailed someone who had an 83 for sale they said the boat has a 24 deg deadrie and 165 gls of fuel. that sounds nice right there. at my grand pa's shop they had one over for service and i was able to get in it and feel it out. it seems to have alot or room aft and bow also the cockpit was roomy. like you said i would probably find a pair of 225's 250's to put on the stern if it had smaller.

[cterrebonne]

ferm you dont know if the older ones were all 24 deg deadrise or they were different among the years. we used to sell HS over here in the 90's and i remember that was when they had differences like the vector versus the seahorse. did they have those differences in the 80's or was the 2500 vector the only 2500 they made?

[Airslot]

Pretty sure that the biggest Seahorse was 23'. I fished that 25 in a Center Console model with 2.5 Mercs and it was a great boat to fish. Fast as all get out and rode nice.

[cterrebonne]

thats what i like to hear, fast and good ride. either one i go with it doesnt matter. all i ever fished were cc's i think the w/a would be a nice change, with that boat i would make some winter trips to the lump here in the gulf. that boat looks like it would fit the bill for me and still allow me to pull it with my half ton truck.

[THEFERMANATOR]

In the 80's they were all pretty much KEVLAR re-enforced along the keel and the stringers. I believe the 24 HYDRA-SPORTS was a 22 or 24 degree dead-rise hull. There are 3 or 4 25 foot HYDRA's as well depending on the year and beam. The later models went to a variable dead-rise, but all of them still had an agressive entry to take on a head sea. I beleive all of the HYDRA-SPORTS(even mine) suffer from the following sea problems that comes with a deep vee hull. They tend to hook and can jerk you a bit, but if you quarter the seas a bit it isn't a problem. Most anybody that rides in a HYDRA-SPORTS will be sold for life on there sea keeping abilities. Many of the early boats will HAUL A$$ with enough HP, but later on they started putting a hook in the last 8-10 inches of the hull that limited them to about 50-55 top speed. My 2000CC has the hook in the rear of the hull, and right around 42-45 it really pushes the bow down hard and limits me a bit. But how often do you need to run more than 40 with todays gas prices? Another nice think about all of the HYDRA-SPORTS I've rode in, they all have a certain speed you can run in a rough sea where they feel like they are riding on air. Once you find the hulls sweet spot, it's like having air ride suspension in your car.

[cterrebonne]

youre right, i really dont want to go faster than that in the gulf 40 is plenty for me im used to doing 30 mph out there. im glad to hear that for the most part any 2500 i go with will have a good ride. here is a post of the boat im going to try and check out in the next couple of weeks its only 45mins away. there is a really nice 1990 with twin johnrudes but it is really far away from me.

here is the close one.

[cterrebonne]

that hatch on the last pic, i am assuming it is a fishbox?

[THEFERMANATOR]

Yeah, that one there will flat out MOVE! That one is an earlier model before they put the hook in the rear of the hull. I seen one of them with a pair of early 225 SUZUKI's on FLY past a 28' BAJA coming in the channel awhile back. He head to been running close to 60 because that 28 footer had twin 250 YAMAHAS running flat out and couldn't even remotely keep up with him. That one there will take some snotty sh!t and beg for more.