Re: 1st boat suggestions-Eastern shore, Md.?
As noted, stopped by the marina suggested by Dingbat today. Lots of choices but the Edgewater 268 and the Chris Craft Corsair 28 were very attractive. I have heard good things about the Edgewater, but, as I recall, Chris Craft has had some issues over the years and is now under new ownership. Any opinions about either manufacturer?
The Chris craft you mentioned while pretty is more of a "lake" boat. You would get beat to death trying to run that boat in the summer on all but the calmest of days.
If you look around the one thing you'll notice on all the smaller boats is that they have a pretty aggressive deadrise and they have a big "Carolina style" bow flare and there is a reason for that.
The Bay is oriented North–South. The prevailing wind is out of the South and is unrelenting in the summer during the day. Couple that south wind blowing against an outgoing tide and things get nasty in a hurry. You can get up on plane and run early in the morning and again in the evening if the tides are with you but during the day it will get darn right nasty, especially on an outgoing tide.
This first picture is what can happen when you get the tide moving against the wind. It can go from near calm to this in a matter of minutes with a tide change. As you can see there is no real pattern in the wave action and it's more like boating in the washing machine than anything else.
This second photo is a pretty good representation of the day to day chop you'll see in the summer. You can see why the big bow fair is pretty useful when plowing your way home through this stuff
I’m not trying to scare you. The Bay is a wonderful place to boat. I’m just trying to convey to you what it can look like out there at any given time. You don't want to spend good money buying a boat and then find out that the configuration isn’t suitable for the prevailing conditions.
