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The path out of the Strangford lough narrows on the way to the Irish Sea keeps any captain on their toes. With the tide racing almost as fast as the wind and plenty of rocks and depth changes you always have the chance to see some whirlpools while working to windward. The team on J109 GTR watch the waves build as the rudder was whipped from left to right as we past once of the larger whirlpools on the way to the strangford lough bar.


We go open ocean fishing on the Skeeter ZX22V. http://features.boats.com/boat-content/2013/06/skeeter-zx22v-bay-boat-blitzkrieg-2/ For more boat videos, visit www.boats.com. Off to port Catalina Island was a mere smudge on the horizon, on our starboard side the California coast slid by in a blur, and dead ahead calico bass were waiting to be caught. They wouldn't have long to wait, because the Skeeter ZX22V being captained by Ben Florentino of Coastal Charters boasted 225 Yamaha horses on the transom, and was hauling its load of anxious anglers to the fishing grounds at over 30-mph. If you think that doesn't sound very fast for this rig, you're right—cruising speed is closer to 40-mph and top-end breaks 50. But remember, we were in the open Pacific. In fact, it's a testament to the way this boat is designed and built that we could even think about making our 12 mile run to Florentino's favorite kelp beds with just 22 feet of LOA. Blasting through widely-spaced three foot waves the Skeeter felt rock-solid, thanks to construction touches like a single-piece deck constructed of sandwiched layers of PVC cross-linked foam and fiberglass. Aircraft-grade aluminum ties the stringers and transom together, distributing stress throughout the structure. Hatches—many with full-length piano hinges—are injection-molded to maximize strength while minimizing weight. Aluminum backing plates are laminated into the deck where the console's attached. Build a boat with these techniques on a 20-degree deadrise hull, add in a pair of concave reverse chines, then give it strakes plus a transom set-back, and you get a boat that feels like granite underfoot yet has the grace of a gray-hounding wahoo. As we ate through the Pacific there were no rattles, vibrations, or slams to speak of. You can see what I mean in this video, which was all shot in the open ocean.