2001 - 23' Outrage -

[RidgeRunner]

Originally Posted by willy

Never been on one of those size and year BW's, how is the ride and how wet is she in a chop?

Ride is good. Very dry. It has the Accutrac hull with a very sharp entry at the bow. I believe it has 16 degrees of deadrise so at 23' it will still pound. I was in some nasty conditions on black Friday this year. Wind gusting to 35, no swells just nasty chop that started at 3 to 4 and ended up too rough to leave the helm. Waves were steady 5 to 6 and close with the wind causing the tops to break. Trolling was all I could muster when I got to my numbers. Aside from a little wind driven spray over the rail that the windshield caught, the ride was dry. Idling into the sea I watched the pulpit dip into the face of the waves and the horizon would disappear from time to time. I made my way to three rocks but never got a strike trolling. After one hour of battling an insufferable weedline and the conditions I decided to head to calm water. The boat will take more punishment than I am willing to live with. I put it on the first step and it took 2 hours to get back to sheltered waters 25 miles quartering. I have fished from this boat since it was new. Only once had I experienced conditions similar to these while in the keys. Both times dry but a little beat up. No other boats were out and I should have known better but I went anyway, at worst I burned some gas and gave her a good shake down. BTW I have never been on a dry boat. The wettest I have ever been was on a friends 30' Grady White Chase center console. He would drive the bow into a 4' ground swell at 30mph and it seemed that the entire wave would get up and slap you in the face. If my head wasn't hurting so bad I might have cared but after 3 hours I was honestly ready for the hill.