The 20 is a blast, never driven or been in a hammer so i cant comment on them. The 20 is a boat that has to be driven, it needs constant attention, not a boat you can just throw the throttles forward and sit back and point the bow, but thats half the fun right! I would recommend adding tabs if it doesn't already have and you decide to purchase, it gave me more control over the boat and totally changed the ride in rough water !

Only downfall I think is that you will quickly outgrow it, if possible and in budget I would look at a 25OL, not a huge boat but it has a nice birth, drop out bolsters 24deg dead rise and is something you won't grow out of as quickly or if ever ! Just my opinion...

Best of luck on your search, I'm sure you will be happy with whatever you end up with.

Thanks for all the responses! Looks like I'm going with the outlaw 20, hopefully picking up this weekend if all checks out. Curious though, has anyone who had one made some custom cushions to fit in the storage up front? I was thinking just if I get caught in a heavy downpour (happens a lot in the south summer) I could climb in a chill until storm goes thru.

I never did it but saw pictures of it done and was pretty slick- I'll see if I can find them and I'll post them up !!

Good luck with the new boat !!

That would be great thanks RW! So can you actually craw into the storage space like on the hammer if there is padding in there?

You can but it is a bit tight - my daughter and her friend would stay down there the whole time !!

Is it much smaller than the hammer crawl space? Could an adult climb in and at least lay down?

Err, I could swear the original post said the hammer had a 350 mag. I recant my previous statement. I'd rather have the hammer with the big block. Ideally though i'd prefer something with 24 degrees of deadrise over either.

It did Crossett, the hammer I was comparing now has 7.4L 454MPI but has been used in saltwater last 3 years. So wasn't sure if that counts it out or not. Good looking boat otherwise, except it does have one of the trim tabs broke off, like the plate piece, the rest is still connected to boat so don't think there would be any water intrusion.

In a pinch you could get a few adults under there but it's not going to be comfortable. Two adults could easily lay down in the 20OL if need be just to get out of the rain. I had an 08 20OL and on a few different occasions bad weather set in and 4 of us would get in there out of the rain.