Lots of Water Spraying in the Boat

[BoLongo]

I have a Challenger 1800, I know this is not the right boat if you want to stay dry.

I was out on the lake today, it was calm in the morning but in the afternoon the winds kicked up to 35 mph with gusts to 50. We had an 8-mile drive back to the ramp. Spray coming from the front and side of the boat almost made it un-drivable. Everyone in the boat was soaked from head to toe and at times I had about 6 - 10” of water in the boat. This would have been fine on a 100-degree day, but it was only 75 and the wind chill felt like 60 degrees everyone was freezing.

Has anyone tried to setup an enclosed bimini top on the Challenger 1800?
The open bow seems too open to use a cover.

Any ideas?
I live in Southern CA so I can boat year round but being wet on a cold day is no fun.

 

[ialonso]

I have a Challenger 1800, I know this is not the right boat if you want to stay dry.

I was out on the lake today, it was calm in the morning but in the afternoon the winds kicked up to 35 mph with gusts to 50. We had an 8-mile drive back to the ramp. Spray coming from the front and side of the boat almost made it un-drivable. Everyone in the boat was soaked from head to toe and at times I had about 6 - 10” of water in the boat. This would have been fine on a 100-degree day, but it was only 75 and the wind chill felt like 60 degrees everyone was freezing.

Has anyone tried to setup an enclosed bimini top on the Challenger 1800?
The open bow seems too open to use a cover.

Any ideas?
I live in Southern CA so I can boat year round but being wet on a cold day is no fun.

You may be able to protect the occupants. windproof jackets and pants make for great protection from the weather, and are much easier to put in place. I've done that before boating in November in Houston. There is no windshield or middle console to attach the cover, and then the spray would make it hard to see out at well.I thought about it on my Sportster 1800 but gave it up to try something cheaper/simpler first. The jackets worked for me.

 

[snikwad003]

Have you seen the things that zip onto the tops on the pontoon boats and hang down over the front of the console? If you has some snaps on the front side of the "consoles" that might work but if that impaired your vision it could go bad quick since we dont have real windshields. Food fer thought.

 

[BoLongo]

Pontoon boats have tap fins on the front to the pontoon to keep down the splash and help with lift. The Challenger 1800 design provides some splash control at the front of the hull. I am thinking about something like a large sponson below the rail line to help control the splash. That area of the boat takes some abuse docking so maybe not a good idea. We used to make a Christmas Jet Ski trip every year in wetsuits. This year we will do it in the boat with wetsuits on :grouphug:

 

[BoLongo]

I was using my trim tabs to find a balance between speed and proposing I had five adults in the boat with 3/4 tank of gas. With the trim tabs up I was bouncing all over the place doing about ten miles and hour and everyone getting pounded in the boat. With the trim tabs down I was cutting the waves, at one point I had the trim tabs too far down, and we were subbing through the waves with a massive amount of water coming over the bow. Eventually, I was able to find a happy medium on the trim tabs doing about 25 miles per hour.

The other crazy part was trying to keep the boat tracking straight. Without a rudder, I would lose thrust when the back of the boat got light than the Jets would catch and straighten the boat out for a couple of seconds until I lost thrust again it was a little unnerving.

 

[Seadoosam]

Since there is no real windshield, I would personally find it hard to find something that doesn't require a windshield. Also not very feasible because of how much wind would be pushing against that sort of thing without a very solid base. JMO.
You could get a Utopia?