Tri hull to carolina skiff dlx ride quality change??

[lil' beaver]

Hello all,

New to the forum and looking for a little help. Our family has been running tri hull boats all our life from our first boat a 14' starcraft. Now 3 boats later, we are in an 18' fiberform. We love the space and stability of the tri hulls for fishing, crabbing and our family outings. We just need a bigger boat.

we have come across a Carolina skiff 2180 dlx for sale and are thinking about a purchase. the space in this boat is massive and we can swap our 115hp outboard on it and go. It will need some seating for the family days, but that's not a big deal.

I have been reading that these things beat you to death, don't steer well sliding through the corners, and are wet. How are the dlx's going to compare in general to a tri hull? We already get beat up and wet a little in the tri, are the flat bottom skiffs that much worse?

Just an fyi, we spend most of our boating time split between Lake Clarke on the Susquehanna river in York county Pa. and down in Northeast Md in the rivers and near shore bays.

 

[Texasmark]

A flat hull is a flat hull. You can't expect a shallow water boat to ride the waves gracefully, period. The DLX tunnel hull, if that is what you are talking about has all the attributes you mentioned and having rented one on a vacation once can vouch for that. Doesn't take much hp to run them and stable they are. Plenty of room. Don't know why they would be all that wet. If you were running abeam of the wind (wind coming from the side) they yes they will spray you from the hull contact area aft.

I think it all boils down to where you are going to boat. Depending upon that answer select your appropriate hull. Would I buy a skiff? Yes, but not for offshore or big water.

Mark

 

[lil' beaver]

Thanks for the reply Texas. As for the usage of the boat, we are fair weather boaters that spend most of the time on an inland lake that we see usually no more than a 1' confused chop and on really nice days head to the bay. We do a lot of crabbing and like to sneak up in the shallow creeks and rivers to get to some brackish water. So we are looking for a shallower draft boat. A skiff seems to fit our needs. I'm just curious as to what kind of ride we will see compared to our tri hull.

 

[southkogs]

Carolina Skiffs are neat boats. I've seen a lot of 'em on the bigger water, but I see more of their "Modified V" hulls (like the DLV series) when I'm out East. The one your looking at has a more flat front end as opposed to a tri-hull (I think). I'm not sure how that does on big chop.

The modified V is kinda' like Whaler's hulls which are more of a cathedral hull style. They're supposed to handle the big stuff pretty well. My boat is more of a cathedral hull, and while it's true to being worse than a V hull, mine handles the bigger waves we get here in TN (sometimes substantial) pretty well overall.

 

[Texasmark]

Thanks for the reply Texas. As for the usage of the boat, we are fair weather boaters that spend most of the time on an inland lake that we see usually no more than a 1' confused chop and on really nice days head to the bay. We do a lot of crabbing and like to sneak up in the shallow creeks and rivers to get to some brackish water. So we are looking for a shallower draft boat. A skiff seems to fit our needs. I'm just curious as to what kind of ride we will see compared to our tri hull.

Looks like the perfect application. We used the rented one when fishing Lafitte, La. which is on the La. coastal marshes, SW of NOLA. Mostly shallow water with some channels. I really liked the boat and if I lived in the area I surely would make that the boat of choice. Getting to and from the marina where we rented it (for a week) required traveling a main channel to the Gulf (of Mexico) to get to the marshes. Oil field offshore boats, the steel hull things with room for passengers and a couple of big diesels, would come by and leave a good wake. Best way to take the wake was to wait till you were right at it (as the channel was narrow), reduce the throttle while still maintaining a plane condition, and turn sharply starboard about 60 degrees which allowed you to have a soft rolling ride for the usual 3 waves and then cut the helm back to the channel and continue on. No big deal.

Mark