First Small Craft Advisory

[Ekea]

saturday it was blowing pretty good on the upper chesapeake, 20-25 mph. i figured it would be a good time to leave the girls at home and spend some time learning the boat in less-than-ideal conditions. according to windy, it was 2.2 footers at 3 seconds. obviously not dangerous, but definitely some very steep/tight chop that can make for an uncomfortable ride. the boat really did pretty good. i was able to do more than i thought i would by just tucking the engines in without using tabs to get the bow down. i could stay on plane down to almost 15 mph (i think), but it really liked to be going 20 mph (around 2900-3k) to feel better and not risk falling off plane. this was also without tabs. i probably could have had better results at lower speeds with tabs. running about 30 mph was doable as cruise as well. going 40 or more was actually not bad in terms of comfort, but i definitely felt less in control of the boat (it had a bit of chine walking). head wind and tail wind were both pretty dry of a ride, but when the wind was coming straight from the side, i definitely took some spray. sail curtains would have been nice. all in all, i was impressed.

 

[family affair]

THT crowd tends to bash GW hull rough condition performance. In my experience, there is a tremendous difference in performance of these hulls from one operator to the next. To get the most out of them you have to know the best angle of attack for your hull in the given conditions and then know how to make that happen. Many don't know how to do this and then say GW hulls suck because they pound, etc. Like you I've spent a time in less than ideal conditions to learn how to best 'fly' the 270. I have always been impressed with that it can do if the engine trim and tabs are set for the conditions. Our 248 was no different. Often people claimed that hull would pound. It would, if you didn't have it trimmed correctly. Get the trim right, with the right load and even that boat would eat chop!

 

[Ekea]

THT crowd tends to bash GW hull rough condition performance. In my experience, there is a tremendous difference in performance of these hulls from one operator to the next. To get the most out of them you have to know the best angle of attack for your hull in the given conditions and then know how to make that happen. Many don't know how to do this and then say GW hulls suck because they pound, etc. Like you I've spent a time in less than ideal conditions to learn how to best 'fly' the 270. I have always been impressed with that it can do if the engine trim and tabs are set for the conditions. Our 248 was no different. Often people claimed that hull would pound. It would, if you didn't have it trimmed correctly. Get the trim right, with the right load and even that boat would eat chop!

i agree. at the same time, its not fair to compare it to a contender seavee, or some other 24+ degree deadrise boat. they are built for high speed runs in rough water. the grady isnt meant to go 40+ mph running on top of the waves. the grady is much better on the drift and fuel. i can cruise at 30 mph getting 2.5 mpg. the other boats are under 2. there is no magic boat that is the best at everything. the grady is a great platform that does a lot of things really really well

 

[enfish]

It's great that you got the opportunity to learn what your boat can handle on somewhat your own terms. Not something I'd recommend doing if you're a brand new boater, but it you have experience, going out in the slop is a great way to learn your boat.

I had to learn that on the fly one time when we had a 30 mile run back in an unforecasted small craft advisory. I had probably about 1000 hours of operating small boats under my belt at the time, but the Grady was pretty new to me with maybe about 50 hours of experience with it. We ended up in 8-10 foot seas at 6 seconds with 25 knots of wind. Clearly not ideal conditions for a 208. There were multiple MAYDAY calls on the radio, and our friends making the same run in a 48 foot Pacemaker were getting absolutely beat up. Our heading home was quartering down swell and I remember mostly having to feather the throttle back and forth to power up the back side of a swell, then back off very quickly to surf down the front side to avoid pitch-poling. Even then, we were taking green water over the bow, but the deck shed it very quickly. We did have to slightly alter course about 10 or 15 degrees to get a better angle on the swells and it was a slow and wet ride that took over 3 hours, but never once did I feel unsafe. I gained a lot of respect for that Grady hull that day. It can handle a lot more than I can.

 

[Ekea]

enfish, that sounds like quite the adventure. glad the grady got you home safely.

i should probably have worded my post differently. it was my first small craft advisory with this boat. i have been boating since i was 2 years old and have been caught out in a few rough storms when my dad and i would do week long cruises around the upper chesapeake. i agree that you definitely want to have some hours under your belt before you go looking for rough conditions. that being said, our rough conditions are usually more unpleasant than dangerous, but every now and then we can get some more dangerous stuff. my dad and i gout caught in super tight 4-6 footers in a 24' welcraft mid-cabin that really wasnt designed for it. we were stuffing the bow on every third wave with water running across the foredeck and over the windshield. thank God for self bailing cockpits.

 

[enfish]

enfish, that sounds like quite the adventure. glad the grady got you home safely.

i should probably have worded my post differently. it was my first small craft advisory with this boat. i have been boating since i was 2 years old and have been caught out in a few rough storms when my dad and i would do week long cruises around the upper chesapeake. i agree that you definitely want to have some hours under your belt before you go looking for rough conditions. that being said, our rough conditions are usually more unpleasant than dangerous, but every now and then we can get some more dangerous stuff. my dad and i gout caught in super tight 4-6 footers in a 24' welcraft mid-cabin that really wasnt designed for it. we were stuffing the bow on every third wave with water running across the foredeck and over the windshield. thank God for self bailing cockpits.

I actually assumed you were experienced since you made a conscious choice to go test out your boat in sloppy conditions. I wrote my response more so that anyone reading this thread who is new to boating doesn't think the first thing they should do is go out in a SCA. But once you're comfortable with it, absolutely go see how it does in the slop.