Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

[hibbert6]

We've outgrown our 15' trihull. I wouldn't mind an 18-19 footer, but the women in my life say the tri hull rides way too rough in moderate chop and want me to get a v hull instead.

Is a rough ride inherent to the tri hull design? Or is it just mine?

Dave

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

Does Elmer Fudd have trouble with the letter "R"? Does Wiley Coyote shop at Acme? Do birds crap on my car?

Tri-Hulls are not known as "Wave Slappers" for no reason.

 

[Adjuster]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

Tri hulls do have a rough ride but the trade off is they are very stable from side to side when anchored or just floating. Especially on smaller boats. Make sure your wife tries a small v hull on the water. She may not be happy with the boat rocking over as she moves about transferring weight. Or for that matter while she is sitting still nice and comfortable and you move about the boat shifting weight.

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

Yup, pretty much goes with the territory. Upside is they are more stable. Best option would be to see if you could test ride a few different hull designs. You might find something in between that you like. My fish and ski has a shallow V hull, and it's a compromise between stability and ride. It works perfect for us. Good luck with it.

 

[mphy98]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

Does Elmer Fudd have trouble with the letter "R"? Does Wiley Coyote shop at Acme? Do birds crap on my car?

Tri-Hulls are not known as "Wave Slappers" for no reason.

OUCH!!

I have a 18' tri hull and on 2' waves it can be a little rough, anything less than that I slice through just fine. It is extremely stable at rest even on lightly rolling seas. On any inland lake it would be fine. I use mine up on big lakes in Canada, when you get big waves I just slow down a little bit.

 

[BF]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

IMHO, in the 18-19' range, you'd probably be mucho happier with a V hull. If you want a smoother ride, make sure to choose a hull with a reasonable amount of deadrise at the stern. Boats with little deadrise will plane easier and go faster with the same power, but thump more.

Some trihulls are worse than others... my family had a 15' one for years when I was a youngin'... until I bought my own v hull later on, I didn't realize how awful our trihull rode and performed in general. Now I wouldn't own another one.

But, it's true there are some trihulls that do a reasonably good job of cutting vs. smacking the water... but the one we had sure wasn't one of them!

Oh, and in the 18-19' range, I don't think stability of V hulls at rest is a real concern.... for a 14 or 15', sure the trihull would roll less.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

We've outgrown our 15' trihull. I wouldn't mind an 18-19 footer, but the women in my life say the tri hull rides way too rough in moderate chop and want me to get a v hull instead.

Is a rough ride inherent to the tri hull design? Or is it just mine?

Dave

They make plenty V hull designs 16' on up that are very stable. Make sure you get a full V not a semi V. A full V makes all the difference in the world for ride and stability.

 

[jaxnjil]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

Tri hulls do have a rough ride but the trade off is they are very stable from side to side when anchored or just floating. Especially on smaller boats. Make sure your wife tries a small v hull on the water. She may not be happy with the boat rocking over as she moves about transferring weight. Or for that matter while she is sitting still nice and comfortable and you move about the boat shifting weight.

dido dat

our first was a 19.5 trying hull. we liked it because we camped in it and it was very stable side to side. this made it easy to sleep on ect.
the lack of dead rise=fairly flat bottom made it pretty rough in any thing over a 6" chop.
also agree on trying the vee first. our next was a 23' 21* dead rise boat and much tipper feeling side to side. great on the water but need to get the feel at the dock. and need to load and balance side to side more than the tri hull did

 

[45Auto]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I had always heard how bad tri-hulls were on anything but smooth water. Figured it was just talk. Then a couple of years ago I was given a 15' tri-hull with a frozen Mercruiser 120. Ended up it had a bad riser, water in the rear cylinder had locked it up. Freed up the engine and it ran great!

Turned out that sucker would BEAT YOU TO DEATH with any kind of chop on the water. It wasn't just talk. Might as well have been in a flat-bottom jon boat. I gave it to a friend who lives on a small lake.

Sounds like to me that your women know what they're talking about!

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

yes - except when the water is dead calm...

 

[metalwizard]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I like the way my Trihull Rides.. put the ladies up at the bow, and watch the show..

 

[Hoggar]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I'm Way confused I just got a 1967 19' Johnson Surfer and I love it!!!
I had it out on 3' swells in 30mph winds and it was a great ride at 29
mph on the GPS we had a blast with 7 people on board even when she
dove in to a roller it wasn't as rough as my 61 14' Elgin semi V.

 

[18WCmerc]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

im partial with the tri hull, you do need to pay special attention to the waves and adjust speed accordingly.

I second the putting the ladies up front hehe

my seats are free floating so sometimes you can get tossed around if you hit a some serios waves, we like to move everything around the deck when we camp on the boat for fishing, the biggest plus of a tri is mooring stabilitiy. i dont even know im on a boat and my beer never spills.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

Yes, tri-hulls pound in certain situations. For the most part, that involves moving into a headwind, or nearly so. There are a couple of ways to minimize the discomfort. One is to slow down to a point where the stern "digs" a little and raises the bow. The other is to steer at an angle to the seas, even if that requires a little zig-zagging, to get where you want to go.

Off the the waves, I don't find tri-hulls to be uncomfortable at all. In fact, they will sometimes track better than a v-hull, in that situation.

What I like about them, is what others have mentioned in regard to stability. I use mine mostly for photography and it is a great platform for that activity. It is stable when I walk around in the cockpit area and when up on the foredeck.

I also like the amount of room that the tri-hull design affords in the foredeck area. I often sit in a fishing chair at the bow and "shoot," while using my trolling motor to move around. For shooting wildlife, this is beneficial - its quiet and I can work with a minimum of body movement.

Like anything else, tri-hulls have their advantages and disadvantages. To some, they are uncomfortable and to some, they provide just what we need.



???

 

[marlboro180]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I'm Way confused I just got a 1967 19' Johnson Surfer and I love it!!!
I had it out on 3' swells in 30mph winds and it was a great ride at 29
mph on the GPS we had a blast with 7 people on board even when she
dove in to a roller it wasn't as rough as my 61 14' Elgin semi V.

That is because it has a sea foil hull, where the center vee is much deeper than the outer two, thus combining a deep (ish) vee with a tri-hull. Our Reveler (i/o) rode great too, same basic hull design. However, at WOT, in heavy chop , it would give you a nice massage, and the occasional shock to the spine.

I have been in quite a few tri-hulls that were more even across the botton of the hull, had outboards, and were generally lighter, and they were not as pleasant a ride as the sea foil hull.


Clear as mud now, hey?

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

We like our deck but had it not come with the house, I probably would have shopped for a 30' V. She does okay with waves and rolling wakes if you have time to set set your approach angle. Heavy chop or perpendicular to a big wake and you'll need spinal decompression. Ouch!

The "Innovative Dihedral Designed Hull" (Starcraft speak for tri-hull) just isn't designed for the heavy stuff. That big center V gets to pushing the heavy stuff and there's nowhere to push to since the outer "dihedrals" are pushing back. The force from the wake or heavy chop gets trapped between the hulls and that energy has to go somewhere.

We enjoy the deckboat even if she's a wake "slapper" and not a wake "crusher".

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I've owned about 8 trihulls over the years, every time I get away from owning one I miss the stability and handling they give me when fishing on the river.
They are generally not meant for open or rough water, and I would not want to run one out through the breakers or heavy surf.
That said, there are all sorts of different hull designs out there, some are rougher riding than others. I've owned the following, '68 Johnson 19' trihull, 1971 Duo Gypsy 17', 1972 Glastron 17' V176 Swinger, 1973 Starcraft Capri 17, 1975 MFG 17' Gypsy Trihull, 1976, 17' Thunderbird Trihull, a 1977 Starcraft Capri 17 again, and now again, another 1973 Starcraft Capri 17. The Starcrafts and the Duo were by far the best riding of all of them all, with the Starcraft being the best ride by a pretty good margin over the Duo but the Duo handled better I think due to the many strakes on it's underside. The Johnson was ok, but being an I/O boat it was heavier then all the rest. The Duo was also an I/O boat but with a Mercury 120 motor and drive. The Duo was by far the most solid of the lot, that thing was built like a tank but again, it was heavy compared to the others. The Starcraft is rough only in fairly hard on coming waves while trimmed in and at mid throttle. It seems to get better with the bow raised and more throttle.
The worst by far was the Glastron, that thing would jar your teeth out from the instant it got on plane till the instant you let off the throttle. There just was no sweet spot. It also had the least freeboard of all my trihull boats.
The Starcraft Capri has the most room, is stable at rest and gets on plane fast, plus its light. Its the only one of the bunch which I could lift either end on the trailer by myself.

I've had semi V hulls that rode worse than the Starcraft, too but they had far less deadrise than does the Capri. The Capri has a fairly large center hull with two less significant outer hull shapes. The Duo was similar in design but the outer hulls extended further towards the stern. The Johnson was the same way, it had a definite 'sweet spot' when it came to speed under certain situations. If it got too rough, you backed off the throttle a bit. I find the Starcraft pretty much perfect for river fishing, and rarely have ever felt I needed to back off the throttle due to the hull pounding.

The Glastron felt like it was going to break in two on the slightest chop or wake. It eventually developed a crack in the upper hull cap just ahead of the windshield on both sides. I've seen others with the same crack too.

 

[ebkolove]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I wouldn't know the difference, never driven a v hull

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

I wouldn't know the difference, never driven a v hull

I own both. You would.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: Do all Tri Hulls have a Rough Ride?

One year, on an inland lake, I had a tri-hull follow in the wake of my 24' v-hull across a rather large bay that was rolling good size whitecaps. He was very thankful I slowed up to let him follow by giving me a big ol' wave on the other side...