My ex-wife is from the Tacoma area, so I have been there several times. She always told me it really doesn't rain here as much as you think... Lot's to see and do in the NW, but just not very perfomance boater friendly.

Harper220, boating in the PNW only has two good months in my opinion, August and September. But, if you are in a heated, enclosed cruiser, then you can boat all year long in the rain!

Hey Vinny, are you up for the Muscle Car filmfest in Manhattan? What about JohnnyD? Ten motorheads with their long suffering girlfriends makes twenty people and a go for doing this. Thread is in the Bilge.

Likely will bring the boat back to Grovers, if I don't move to Florida first. The boat is enjoying it down there and keeps telling me to make it permanent! I need to get this resolved quickly. Look forward to seeing you again.

On PNW ocean cruising, lots of tugboat wakes and loooooong cruises of 4 footers will make you want at least a 23 degree V gofast as found in a Sonic. No pad bottoms!! Pad bottoms are okay for the lakes, but make a nice target for solid deadhead hits.

BTW: Notice that in the ad for the Tolly, it mentions a spare prop shaft...that is because I have seen dozens of them bent by deadheads, and wise cruisers carry their own spare prop shaft as well as props for boatyards to quickly effect repairs. If you have a gofast with bravos, carry spare props.

My suggestion is a 26' Sutphen. Race proven deep vee with 26 degree deadrise. No steps, no pads, no gimmicks. Call Rich Sutphen Jr or look for a used one.

http://www.sutphenboats.com/

Chris,
Sounds like an idea, but I hate the city. I avoid it like the plague. My wife tries to get me to take her there and I always refuse. I tell her my car only points east of here. Besides, I have so much stuff going on right now, time is a problem. I took a promotion at work thats killing me. My mother in law is in North Shore Hospital with a broken hip after a fall from a heart attack. Between shuttling my father in law and who ever else back and forth to the hospital and the B.S. at work, I havent got time for myself. Good thing its winter, I hope things calm down before May.

thanks anyway,

Vinny

what he said...

Sorry to hear it Vinny, good luck, and I hope everything works out. Oh yeah,if your wife still want to go to the city, I think she "might' be acustomed to engine sounds and we would ensure she has a good time in the lower east side at the Cin Bin film fest. <gg>

I've got a 2000 Checkmate 259 for sale with an HP500, all freshwater use, excellent condition. PM me if you're interested in some photos and some more detail.

Welcome Doc

I disagree with many of the posts here about no performance boating in the Northwest. We have Poker runs from The first weekend of June until the middle of October, yes once in a while we get caught out in the rain but that's just boating. We kind of expect to get wet on our New Years Day Poker Run There is a lot of boating on the dry side of the mountains also. Our poker runs and fun runs and such include all types of performance boats, there are Outerlimits, Nor-tech's, Skater's, Spectre's, Fountain's, Velocity's, Warlock's, Profile's, Eliminator's, Stoker's, STV's, Progression's, Donzi's, Cigarette's, Mirage's, Scarab's, Superboat's, and some that I've probably forgotten to list. I think most of the manufacturers are fairly well represented in the area, we do have some fairly protected waters where the smaller boats can run right along side of the larger boats.
For more info go to www.nwoffshore.com

We might get a little rain once in a while but we don't have hurricane season here either.

Caleb

Question is, which crew are you with????

The only one that matters if i want to stay breathing.W.I.F.E.