New Toy

[goldenglory18]

I guess I've never really looked into the Solo but damn that s a cool boat.

Congrats!

[flyfishinsteve64]

How does the Solo handle off shore. Down swell faces and what not?

[crashcrow]

Originally Posted by flyfishinsteve64

How does the Solo handle off shore. Down swell faces and what not?

I will give a full report in the next week or so once I've tried her out.

[Baja_Traveler]

Originally Posted by flyfishinsteve64

How does the Solo handle off shore. Down swell faces and what not?

Took mine out in really crappy conditions just for fun last year to find out exactly that. We had good 2-3 foot wind driven swell down at Gonzaga late last year. Going into the swell was at idle, and even then I was soaked head to toe, but the boat was stable and handled it easily - all waves crashing over the bow simply washed out the back.
Quartering swells were really no issue either, and was easier going and a little faster.
Going down swell is where it got hairy - mid speed to match the swell the boat surfed the 2 footers just fine, but when a 3 footer caught up with me the boat would want to snap turn right or left with the bow digging in. Couple of times I thought I was going to be thrown out of the boat. Dropped the speed back to idle so the boat would not surf and getting back to the beach was easy.
So the lesson is when going down swell, slow and easy is the key to keep your hair from turning white...

[flyfishinsteve64]

Its going down the swell that got me in my 18' Bayrunner. I will never take an aluminum boat out in big swells again. All by myself coming back from the 425 going down swell boat cut hard to the left out the boat I went. Luckily I had a good grip on steering wheel and pulled myself back in.

Steve