Posted: 18 October 2009 at 6:44am | IP Logged

My wife and I are recently coming off a bad ownership experience.  We've owned 5 boats prior with Crownline being our favorite.  We are now looking at a Crownline 230LS, 240LS or a 220EX deckboat.  My wife has back problems so ride is extremely important.  We like the deckboat but my instincts tell me the hull design is not going to provide as good of a ride as that of a traditional bow rider.  In biggerr water or with larger wakes I have to assume the hull design is going to make the boat ride "over" the wakes or chop rather than cut through it.  I've never been on a deckboat in the water.  Can anyone give me any feedback on this?

Thanks

Posted: 19 October 2009 at 12:10pm | IP Logged

Thanks everyone for your input.

Swampnut, we are located in Western Massachusetts.  For the most part we are on the CT river in our area, about a 14 mile strectch of the river that is fairly busy (so a lot of wakes and some from fairly large cruisers).  We also trailer the boat to the lower end of the CT river and out into Long Island Sound a few times a year.  This was tough in our 22 ft. Crownline unless conditions were perfect.  We want to try to get something that is still small enough to enjoy on the river and trailer yet large enough that will permit us to get out on the sound on good days.  I wouldn't want to go over 24' for towing purposes.  We've pretty much made up our minds to go with Crownline, we were so happy with our 22'.  Its just a matter of deck boat vs. bow rider.  Looks like the bow rider will provide the best ride.  If we want the head we will need to jump from the 23' to the 24'.  The 230 LS adds 18" to the overall length from our 22', increases the deadrise from 19 to 21 and adds about 400 lbs. so I'm thinking if we can live without the head this should work.  Comments?

Regarding the recent bad experience, let's just say it was in part the boat, more a result of the dealer and corresponding lack of support and empty promises from the manufacturer.