First, congratulations to John and Daly Costanza on your beautiful new lake rod...and to Jeff Haag (Trick boats) for turning out a truly stunning custom boat, at an affordable price, that honestly LAYS IT DOWN! A lot of you know me as a guy that does not enjoy a "water-slapper" type ride--lets face it, I drive a 30' cat because I like the stability and the rough water capability. Although they are some of my favorite boats, I do not care for the ride in say a 21' Hallett Vector, Schiada etc. You might say I'm not into taking a kidney belt with me for a day on the lake. So, the thought of going out with John today to test run his new 21' cat I was a little aprehensive to say the least--honestly expecting to get the hell pounded out of us when it started to get rough. All I can say after driving the boat all day is WOW!
The tooling on this boat is clean and straight, capped in the front and nearly flawless gel work. The frenched in rub-rail was a nice touch, that i think the builder surprised John with.
The interior is well layed out and quite roomy. My only complaint about the interior would be the lack of storage--however my boat resembles that remark as well. IMO a small sacrifice on an otherwise very nice, fun boat.
On Lake Mohave today in 110 degree weather, with 50 gallons of fuel and two adults on board using Jeff's recommended "motor break-in" prop (a 34 Bravo) we ran the boat to 96 MPH at 5600 or so. I wasn't honestly watching the tach that close at that speed. Plenty more in the boat with less tonage, the right prop and a little more motor height. Was still running almost 20 PSI as set.
As expected in a true tunnel, there was a minor porpoise from ~45 to about 60, over 60 the boat took a real nice set and was rock solid all the way to the mid nineties. Tab and trim settings may take most or all of that out but being the first day on the water with it, there wasn't much experimenting done with it, other than to just drive through it. We ran the boat down into the "basin" a few miles south of cottonwood to see how it felt in rougher water and I was honestly floored by how well the boat ate up the wind chop. Again all I can say about the ride quality is WOW! From Willow Beach down past Cottonwood, and then back I ran the boat 85-95 and found nothing "chop" wise that was a challenge, AT ALL.
Here's some pics of the new ride...
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...3&d=1187390781
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...4&d=1187390793
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attach...5&d=1187390805