my 1990 26 nova was terrible in rough water

 

how rough is rough to you? I usually launch out of Chesapeake City, and don't usually go too far past the Turkey Point area, so i generally don't see more than 3 footers, and thats usually on heavy traffic weekends...

the old boat was a 19' 1986 bayliner, you can imagine what that was like...

Eric

 

my old boat was wide in the front (which made the v-birth larger that my 37 baja) wakes would throw the bow up and out of the water, had to slow or stop whenever a cruiser went by. it always made a loud noise with the water hitting it hard.

 

that looks in pretty rough shape.

i would think the speed would be in the mid to upper 40's.

you may want to look into formula if you're looking for a decent riding boat. doing a quick search on that site in nearby areas, i found this.....

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/list...id=100&luom=126&fromLength=22&fromPrice=1000&man=formula&slim=quick&searchtype=

 

Sounds like a no on this particular boat, but what about the older 23' Novas in general?

Just to expand on the rough water requirements and give a better frame of reference... I took a ride on a friends 19' Wellcraft Eclipse cuddy cab, and found it to handle rough water MUCH better than my bayliner.... IE- if it handles rough water equal or better than a 19' Wellcraft eclipse, then it handles well in my book.

As for price, i'm not looking to spend much more than 6k on a boat. I'm an ASE certified Master Tech, so i'm not too scared of mechanical and electrical problems, hull integrity is what scares me as i know diddly about it.

Eric

 

that outdrive looks trashed, I would keep looking. I had a 83 23 Nova, the ride should be fine for what your looking for. It's a good stepping stone until you want to go past turkey point.

 

The looks of that outdrive is what scares me the most, especially up near the transom, so i'm glad you mentioned it.

Theoretical question, say the outdrive looked new, or was new IE- i was able to work a new outdrive into the deal... would the boat be worth buying? As i said, i'm fairly mechanically inclined, i just don't wanna have to deal with hull repairs.

Eric

 

check the stringers, those boats have the engine mounts in top of the stringers the fiberglass gets cracked and water gets into the wood and rots it out. I had to replace mine it cost me around $2000 back in 1997. I sold mine in 1998 for $6000

 

I'm going tomorrow morning, i'm bringing a digital camera with me. I'll take some pics and post them to see what you all think. The pics on that page aren't very good.

Eric