choppy

[powderski14]

Sorry to be a pain i shoulda added this to the last question. As i said where i do my boarding now our bay is 9 times out of 10 glass or close to it. Where we party in middle of day is on a big island in the middle on the other side of lake. How do these boats being so low to the water handle the chop. Any given day on the weekend between wind and big cruisers we can get 3-4 ft chop, with white caps. If i do get a bu it will be the 21 ride. How do these handle the rough waters....can the tracking fins and rudder take the beating or what?

[RTS]

How do these handle the rough waters....can the tracking fins and rudder take the beating or what?

Not well. Between the low freeboard and the flat bottoms, you will in in for a rough day if the water you boat on is whitecapping and you have somewhere to go.

Tracking fins and rudder will 'take the beating', for sure, but I don't know about you or your passengers.

[board brained]

I have a 21 ft Ride and am in the ocean. It is 07 so slightly narrower that the new ones as well. We get big chop and huge tug and cruiser rollers...HUGE the boat is solid, really solid. You have to mind the rollers, use the throttle and get the nose out of the water, especially if runing bow balast.

in the chop, the boats are heavy and again solid, I come back in chop late morning / early afternoon alot, not sure they are 3 to 4 feet but at times they are big and I never have had an issue.

I try to go slow enough not to pound and jar the tower alot, that concerns me as the illusion towers seem to be an area of concern, or I have been warned.

now I have to admit I had an 18 ft bayliner for 5 years....soooooooooo

[wakeboy]

It is all about finding the right speed. You may want to take passengers out of the bow and have them sit in the back. You may want to even fill up your back ballast a little to help point that nose upwards a bit. 3-4 foot chop seems to be pretty darn high, so you may want to consider a bigger boat. However, I think you should be able to make it through if you go slow and power over the big waves. Its the price we pay for having water sport boats.

[Jimmypooh]

I'm on the Chain-O-Lakes in Illinois (busiest body of water in the states) and I don't mind the chop. Anything a boat can kick up, we can take. Now when the whitecaps are rollin from the wind, it's a pain, but still tollerable.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Jimmypooh

[wakeboy]

I would love to hit the wake of a big tow boat or something. Not that it is going to be very steep or anything, but it would be nice to hit it and land a trick just to say you have done it.

[Bill_AirJunky]

I-ride, V-ride or XTI-ride? Their all the same hull but engine placement will effect how the boat rides in the chop.

My Vride sucks in 3' or 4' chop. No way I'm doing 40 mph in it. Maybe 14 mph.

[wakeboy]

I imagine that the v-ride would be the better out of the iride vride and xti ride boats considering it is the only one with the engine in back helping keep the nose higher up. I used to have an older Direct Drive and it was interesting in big chop. I had a good bilge pump, hahaha. Honestly I couldn't take it out on bigger lakes if it got too rough. The vride, like my VLX should be able to handle most condition but like Bill said, 14 mph is probably going to be around what you are looking at for speed. So just keep that in mind and think about how often you will have to handle those conditions and how long the ride will be in those conditions as well.