Thinking about picking up a 22 i/o and ive heard mixed reviews. I know it's a driver's boat and keeping it on the pad is the key, but what are everyone's opinion on running one in 2-3 footers? Some say it's the best 22 in rough water, others say stay away.

Advice??

I have a 22 and it handles moderate rough water pretty well. The faster you run and the flatter you keep it the better the ride is. Don't get me wrong, it can beat you up at times, but it is only a 22 foot boat!! I would like to put a nice set of tabs on mine to see how much of a difference it makes!!

They are a very fun boat to drive, and yes, they are a drivers boat for sure.

I owned a 1984 velocity 22 for over 10 years in the Caribbean and it was a good in the rough stuff, it does beat you up a bit. It was rigged with a merc 3.4 liter. It's a drivers boat above 65mph, but nothing to out of the ordinary.
I sold my 1st velocity about 6 years ago and recently acquired another velocity, a 2004 velocity 220 to run on the Chesapeake.
click on the link: http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...&postcount=373

What Dwayne said. An occasional 3' is ok but ultimately it's a swivel bucket seat boat (unless rigged specially) with less then ideal throttle placement so that by itself is a limitation for the rough stuff. Tabs definitely help the boat attitude and speed helps until you outrun the 22' hull length. Don't get hung up about always having to stay on the pad - you'll learn that there are conditions to ride high on the pad and there are times not to. While the boat has a good ride for 22' thanks to the long running surface, if you're going to run in 2's to 3's every day, I'd recommend getting a bigger boat regardless of what brand you buy.

I had a 1989 Velocity (Regal) 23 footer. Same hull but likely a little heavier. IMO opinion it rides as good if not better then most 22s. You do need to get out in the rougher water and play in order to understand how to run it and what it will do and what it won't but I guess that is true with any boat.

If rough water is the primary concern, I would say that there are better options in that size hull

Not the softest or fastest top speed. But if you have the balls you can make that boat do monkey tricks. But it has to be set up right which is very time consuming. In my 85 22 2.5/280hp it ran 76.5 @ 7500 consistantly on gps,no set back and a big ear 22 chopper. 2-3 where a joke. Could run mid to high 60s through that . 4 and 5s slowed down the pace a bit.Last I saw my old hull was for sale.

I have kiekeffer trim tabs on my 22' and still have probs keeping the bow down. If i run the tabs way down (like 6+ on kiekeffer indicators), tuck the drive all the way under and keep it at 40mph+ it does pretty good but ends up sucking down a lot more fuel. I guess it depends on what kind of 2-3's we're talking, swells with mild chop it does great (and is a riot), 2-3 just chop it slaps pretty hard. I need to talk to BBlades and see if I can't run a little flatter.

I raced a 38 formula fastech in 2/3 swells and made a fool out of him in front of his buddies. Him and his buddies had pretty big grins on their faces when they came up on me, not so much when I walked away from them. The guys that where with me said he had the boat completely out of the water a few times so he was definitely trying.

Will the boat handle that kind of pounding without structural issues? How much i/o power would you need to get one to 65? 70?

The boats built by Steve Stepp will take a pounding.
The boats built by Regal? Not from what I've seen.

From what I've heard and read, a 300HP sb will get you to 65.