JeffreyFeingold
Recruit
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2011
- Messages
- 2
Well, I bought the wrong bought. Salesman talked me into a Tahoe 195 I/O. It's a great boat - but I told him I planned to keep it at a mooring in a salt water river. So, hindsight being 20/20, if I had been more experienced, and not listened to the sales guy, would have bought an outboard, and certainly not a deck boat. That said, I certainly don't plan any long-distance ocean voyages (suicidal!). Instead, other than puttering on the river, I only plan to use it on the ocean in sight of shore, for tubing, fishing, etc. And only if conditions are calm, seas 1-2 feet max.
All that said, hoping some of you more experienced mariners can make some suggestions (other than sell it immediately and get a more ocean-worthy craft). My thoughts to address some performance/safety issues are -
1) add trim tabs (ironic that I bought it from "Tracker Marine" at Bass Pro since she can't even track her own shadow, but heard the trim tabs make huge improvement).
2) heard u can buy a kit to convert engine cooling to antifreeze instead of water - seems like a sensible thing to do
3) anyone have thoughts on sea-worthiness? Even though she is a deck boat, there is a V-hull and a 20" deadrise. Still, that bow just seems too close to the waves even inn just 1-2 feet of chop ... dumb question, but anything that can be done to retrofit the bow? I know with kayaks if have a hollow bow u can use foam to increase ballast ... obviously a 20' power craft is a different animal, but the retrofit with kayaks made me wonder if there is someone way of addressing the inherent issues with the bow of a deck boat ...
Thanks, all!
Jeff
All that said, hoping some of you more experienced mariners can make some suggestions (other than sell it immediately and get a more ocean-worthy craft). My thoughts to address some performance/safety issues are -
1) add trim tabs (ironic that I bought it from "Tracker Marine" at Bass Pro since she can't even track her own shadow, but heard the trim tabs make huge improvement).
2) heard u can buy a kit to convert engine cooling to antifreeze instead of water - seems like a sensible thing to do
3) anyone have thoughts on sea-worthiness? Even though she is a deck boat, there is a V-hull and a 20" deadrise. Still, that bow just seems too close to the waves even inn just 1-2 feet of chop ... dumb question, but anything that can be done to retrofit the bow? I know with kayaks if have a hollow bow u can use foam to increase ballast ... obviously a 20' power craft is a different animal, but the retrofit with kayaks made me wonder if there is someone way of addressing the inherent issues with the bow of a deck boat ...
Thanks, all!
Jeff