“Are Ranger Bows prone to spearing waves?”

I’m buying a new boat and would like to consider a Ranger 1750 Reata. My only concern is taking another wave over the bow. I was boating with family on a lake with 30′ cruisers the last time I had a fiberglass boat with a shallow bow freeboard. I own a Lund which requires a 54″ Powerdrive to keep the prop in the water when in 2-3′ swells. Will the Ranger stay above the waves when trolling in rough water–I know it will stay afloat, but my wife is skittish and has a big say in my final choice. Also looking at the Stratos 375 XF which has a lot of freeboard.

Bob

I would think that answer lies more in how you navigate your boat into waves. I don’t think it matters what boat you have, if you hit the wave wrong, you will spear it.

I know the Reata is built on the 600 series hull, so it should be able to handle good size waves…Maybe some of the walleye guys who have 600’s can better answer your question…..

Slop is right. I have a 1998 Ranger Reatta R97. 19’1″ long with a 150hp on the back. I speared a wave or two while trolling one of the first times I had it out, but not since I started paying more attention to the waves when using the trolling motor. It’s a great boat for people with kids or wives that want to be able to do more than fish. PM me with any other questions.

My friend that won the muskie tourney over the weekend has a 04 Reata 1850? That boat spears the waves at slow speeds. As I said in the muskie tourney headquarters forum. He had 3″ of water on the back floor for most of the morning in the pounding waves. Dont worry about sinking, I used his boat one evening without a plug in it.

Any fiberglass boat is more apt to spear waves at slow speeds than an aluminum one. They are more neutrally buoyant than aluminum boats.
As stated in earlier posts, spearing waves tends to be the result of how the boat is driven into them rather than the design of the boat itself.

yep I agree it is all in the way you approach.. the waves.

Ranger owners,
I have a feeling that you accept the water over the bow as “Part of the Ranger experience”. I also was on a large Wisconsin reservoir in my Lund (my wife hates their styling) when a storm came in without warning. As my family and I waited at the launch we watched a couple of boats swamp and a show-off in a Bass Cat spearing the 4 footers we were bobbing in. It was not pretty.

I’ll see if I can get a friend with the 1850 to reply to this thread or via PM. He got a little wet last weekend on Mille Lacs trolling at slow speeds.

Thanks, I appreciate first hand knowledge. I’d really like to own this boat. . .and not regret it.
Bob

I have an 06 Reata 1850. I think it takes the waves pretty good. I have speared a couple waves on Mille Lacs but mostly due to me not paying attention. My fiancé is also very skittish but she couldn’t believe how stable the Reata was vs. some tin boats she has been in. I had it out in Canada this summer where we were the only boat on the lake due to the waves. She also likes that she doesn’t get rocked around on the floor when she is napping.

Dunno haven’t fished a lot yet in big waves I’ve yet to see any come over the bow, I’m sure it’s within reason, and I too agree it has more to do with the driver and driving style than anything., I may have launched off a couple wave that may have been capible of doing that. I was taking some nasty wake from a wake board that was probably no more than 100 feet away, a couple weekends ago, it never shook me enough to even slightly hinder my fishing. I find my trim dictates most of what the boat is going to do in the waves, Pregnant wife aboard, then I don’t trim it to more than half way on my trim gauge, and cut through the waves at moderate speed (30mph or so) Oh I have a 190 reata, which I just spent most of the day in and out of installing a new depth finder. Only have to moutn the transducer now and pull the cable through and I’m done

OH max you HP on the boat

OH max you HP on the boat

I see Bruce finally rubbed off on you

I talked to Dave last night about this thread. He is going to try and hop on before the weekend. But, here is what I got out of our conversation:

Trolling with the kicker in some pretty bouncy stuff last weekend the waves seemed to come over the bow quite a bit. However, they weren’t getting wet from the spray from the side. The bilge ran alot.

I think the Reatta’s are awesome fishNski boats. There is a ton of room behind the console. That being said, with a full console that far to front only compounds the problem with bow lift. This is not a knock on the glorious Ranger’s just a poor man’s observation. Would I buy one, YUP.

I have speared many a wave over the last 10 years and everyone has been my fault. Most of them have been with my Rangers, but I even got a few with my Lund.

If I am spearing them trolling, I am trolling the wrong way.

If I spear them while going slow, it is because I failed to give it enough gas to get the bow up.

If I spear them going with the waves while on plain, I was over-driving the conditions.

I didn’t spear any this year because I am getting older and hopefully a little wiser But, my point is, if you spear a wave, it is usually operator error. You are in control of the boat, it is not controlling you.

I do a lot of test rides in the Reatta, I think that boat rides very nice even in horrible conditions.

Sorry it took me so long to get my reply posted, haven’t been on-line much the last week.

I have an ’06 Reata 1850 and it is not very often I get water over the bow. It’s only happened when fishing, if I have the big motor running it’s easy to keep the bow high enough no matter how big the waves are.

I was 3 miles off-shore and it was windy and wavey. We were making very short trolling passes back and forth along a shallow reef. Going with the wind or across the wind we weren’t even getting spray in the boat, but going right into the wind the bow was bouncing and we took some spray and some waves over the bow. If we hadn’t been making such short trolling passes over that reef I wouldn’t have been trolling right into the wind and it wouldn’t have been an issue. It was more annoying than anything else.

Kooty and I are so confident in my boat that the next time we’re on the pond he’s going to go up in the bow and stay there (by the cooler)

As long as it’s full of bud light, I’ll sit anywhere!!!

Scott, I think “Operator Error” speaks volumes… Especially in Walleye Dave’s case!

Oh yeah, it was MUCH better when you were driving

I can’t believe you let him drive your boat!!!

I let him drive it, not sure I’m gonna let you drive it though

Smart Move Dave.

Kooty he only let me drive the kicker. He’s too scared to give me the keys to the big dog!

HA. I got to drive the lousy Merc out on Erie. Not impressed….

Only a few more days boys, and we can rib each other in person. Can’t wait!

Quote:

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I got to drive the lousy Merc out on Erie. Not impressed….

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That’s what they mean when they say “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. It’s especially true for big dumb SD horses

I can see by the last few posts that the well of helpful information has dried up. Let’s let this topic die a peaceful death.

I presume that spearing means that the bow gets embedded in a big wave. If I may give my 2 cents, I troll a lot on Lake Michigan and not infrequently, troll in 3 foot waves. I have even been out in 4 footers too. Never noticed any spearing our water coming over. I have got a 17 foot Lund fisherman. I have not had any experience out in 2-3 foot waves in Mille Lacs….could be that the waves there are different. But with a 16 Lund Mr Pike, I do remember a few occasions when water came over the bow. A little scary. Hence the upgrade.