Hey all, thanks for any thoughts you can provide. I am currently in the market for a 22-ish foot sporty boat. I'm currently narrowed down to either the Scarab 22 or an older Pachanga 22. Our current boat is a little 18 foot bowrider, so it will be a nice upgrade. We run around Tampa Bay and out into the Gulf on occasion, and we currently get the crap beat out of us on anything bigger than calm seas. And even with a full windshield cutting 1-2 foot chop can be a pretty wet ride in the current boat. So the Scarab's lack of any real windshield has the girlfriend concerned that it'll be a terribly wet ride most days. Any input on just how bad it tends to be? And how about how the boat handles the rough, compared to average?
Thanks!

I had a 22 Scarab...nice little boat. I can only compare it to my 21 Checkmate outboard and 28 Active Thunder. As you would expect it falls right in the middle as far as rough water handling. It's only a 20 degree V so you take your lumps in anything over 2 footers. I don't remember the boat being a particularly wet ride.

Look into a Baja 240 Sport or 24 or 25 Outlaw. You can find great deals on them and there's is plenty of them to pick from. 24* bottom and higher sides. decent boat in 2' chop

They are fun little boats, I ran one for a couple seasons - I boated calm inland lakes, two footers would be terrible

A 22 Velocity if you can find one. They are a very dry ride and handle rough water well. They are even faster in good water with their Stepp bottom.

. Oops.

I owned a 27' Pachanga many years ago and it was a nicely built boat that handled the chop as well as any other 27' boat around. Never ridden a 22 but I'd guess it is also well built.

No idea where you're located and what your price range is but I noticed this Pahanga a couple of days ago...
http://www.powerboatlistings.com/photographs/45495

Pics look very very nice, preferred Bravo drive with a 7.4 litre. Not the cheapest by any means but if the pics and description are accurate, maybe nothing to spend anywhere.

Good luck and happy shopping!

RR

Thanks for the responses!

I'm certainly not expecting a smooth, luxurious ride in the 2 footers! Our current ride feels like a flat bottom skiff though, it's quite violent and something even marginally better would be nice.

Thanks for the suggestions on the Baja's and the Velocity, I'll take a look at those too for sure!

Rak rua that Pachanga is a twin to the one I'm already looking at, but that one is double the price! I'm in Tampa, Florida but I don't mind a road trip to get the right boat especially if it's been in fresh water. In the last few days I've come across 2 different big block Scarab 22's for around $10,000 and this other Pachanga for just a little less. I'm not opposed to spending more than that for the right value though, not at all. A few weeks ago I found a Scarab 22 that claimed to have a newer Merc 496 HO in it for 14 grand, which I felt like with a little wiggle room might be a great deal. Made a 4 hour trip to see the boat and found a regular 7.4 with a different air cleaner on it
I've always been a fan of anything Scarab, so I'm partial to them but the openness of the cockpit concerns me. Not really ME, but if the girl doesn't like the new boat that wont go over well. I fabricate all sorts of custom fiberglass parts at work so I'm certain I could fab something up, but i also don't want to ruin the lines of the boat either.

I had a 96 I bought new and kept for 3 or 4 yrs. It was fun boat. I don't remember it being a wet ride and I used to run mine in the Atlantic. For their size, they do OK.

It's a 22' boat with swim platform. You are prob only gaining 2 feet in length. Jump up to 29' scarab with twin 350's