Skagit orca vs osprey vs seasport vs hourston

bonez10

bonez10

Active Member
Looking into a new boat.
It's between
Skagit orca 24'
Osprey 24' fishermen
Seasport 24'
Hourston 23'

Has anyone ridden in at least 2 of them to compare the ride?
How was chop ?
How was big water offshore swell and chop ?
How about roll during fishing or on anchor?
I really like the Hourston just would like a self bailing deck. Next would be an osprey. Than the Skagit than seasport pulling up the rear.
I don't want to hear about how great your Grady, striper, trophy, pursuit,robalo
They aren't the style of boat in interested in.
Thanks.
 
The osprey is the only one I didn’t think much of travelling in rough water offshore. The rest are all great hulls. The Hourston would be my pic but unless it’s been rebuilt I feel the seasport is a better bet, followed by the SO.
 
The 23 Hourston is a heavy boat for its size and will have the best ride in rough water. It is likely the mkst stable too with the combination of weight, lower centre of gravity and wide beam. Buy an older hull and have a good shop or glass person go theough it with new stringers, transom, floor and fuel tank ...you will have a great boat that you know is sound for many many years
 
Just a heads up on the Hourston, seems they added self bailing at some point as ours is.
 
The Osprey cabin is narrow as it has a narrow walk around area around the cabin. I prefer the full width cabin. I think Hourstons are good seaworthy boats but seem like they are subject to rot as you can see by the rebuild projects on this site. These are older boats mind you. The skagits and Seaports are built for rough water and are quality boats. They would be my top 2 picks. I have owned a 19’ Seasport for 12 years and like the boat.
 
I have a 1992 22'Seasport which I bought new...and they get rot too....and boat with wood construction will get some. Open up the floor and look below and you will find it. I replaced my deck panels which were still ok with a few years left in them with 100% fiberglass panels. The structure under the floor was still sound but did have some signs of water penetration...at the time I decided that I wasn't going that far into a money pit and will either address it next time or let the next owner worry about it.
 
I just took a boat ride with the guy that manufactures all the boats in your list with the exception of the Hourston. MRWood zooms in on the downside of the Osprey. I was on a 26 footer last week and I felt claustrophobic due to the tight wheelhouse—-yes, lots of room to get up to the bow but at the expense of real estate where you live when you’re eating and running the boat. Manufacturer’s comments:

All 3 boats have equal handling in big water but....

1)) Ospreys, due to flattening of bottom after bow deadrise, make slapping noises when going into waves...a noticeably rougher ride then Orcas and Seasports
2)) Orcas, With sharper bow, tend to bow-steer a bit more then SEasports and Ospreys....I ran an Orca for the last 4 years and the bow-steering is something that always had my attention, ESPECIALLY in following seas...sweaty palms!
3)) He was all in on SEasports as far as the way they handled big water.....based on his comments and being made to focus sharply on the structural differences between the three boats, I just pulled the trigger (yesterday!!) on a 26 ft Seasport Kodiak.

One other comment— I always wondered why when throttling back, the bow of my 24 ft Orca settled so low in the water (at least it seemed that way from the helmsman chair)

His comment... because you have a 490 liter gas tank mid-ships....all that weight sinks the bow low in the water. Both the Osprey and the Seasport have similar sized tanks but they’re mounted closer to the stern

That was a big difference in the ride I noticed—-SEasport bows tends to sit a bit higher in the water

Referencing comments about rot: I’m thinking the new vacuum bagging technology is going to make rot a thing of the past. Even if there’s wood, there’s no way water can get at it. And the Seasport transoms are Coosa—-it’s “self-healing” when it gets holes in it. My guess is all the new Orcas and Ospreys also are manufactured using the vacuum bag technology with Coosa in the transoms

My new ride:....first time I’ve ever run a boat with twins!



2653292B-F1AD-42B7-81DF-89ED79B74316.jpeg
 
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I owned and chartered for 13 years out of XLC 24 Orca with a 300hp on a pod. The boat was great in all types of water. The dead rise of the hull is more than most boat which makes it handle great in choppy water but the down fall is with more dead rise the boat pushes through the water and eats more gas than a Sea Sport. Never had a problem with the boat in 13 years and not even a spec of rust on anything. Now if your looking at 27 ft boat both the Orca and Sea Sport are comparable. The orca purchase price is about 10% more than a sea sport and has to be custom ordered now if you want new.
 
salmonkiller01 said:
Not to derail. Does your floor have a step down in the cockpit?
Click to expand...

Totally flat from cuddy bulkhead to the transom. That's one of the features that's making it hard to pick a next rig so I just keep pouring money into this thing for the next guy.

On the topic of pods, if the VP blows its brains out I'd go that route but I would go down as the only guy ever who would miss his doghouse. It serves as a great table for fishing, etc, and i don't seem to have issues working around it.
 
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bonez10 said:
Looking into a new boat.
It's between
Skagit orca 24'
Osprey 24' fishermen
Seasport 24'
Hourston 23'

Has anyone ridden in at least 2 of them to compare the ride?
How was chop ?
How was big water offshore swell and chop ?
How about roll during fishing or on anchor?
I really like the Hourston just would like a self bailing deck. Next would be an osprey. Than the Skagit than seasport pulling up the rear.
I don't want to hear about how great your Grady, striper, trophy, pursuit,robalo
They aren't the style of boat in interested in.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Don't rule out a 26 Hourston that has been rebuilt... haha:rolleyes:
 
I have a 24’ SeaSport Explorer, this is a recent purchase so no long term views about it. I have had it offshore in some crappy water and it performs beautifully, gets on plane quick and smooth and will stay there even down to around 17 knots. I usually run around 23 knots at 3300 RPM with a load (350 EFI duo prop). The boat does have a deep v and with people moving around while running you have to trim regularly to keep it sitting flat but you get used to it though. These boats have great use of space, visibility, looks and they hold their value well. Wen I was on the hunt for the new ride it was either SeaSport or Skagit Orca, can’t go wrong either way.
 
Sharphooks said:
I just took a boat ride with the guy that manufactures all the boats in your list with the exception of the Hourston. MRWood zooms in on the downside of the Osprey. I was on a 26 footer last week and I felt claustrophobic due to the tight wheelhouse—-yes, lots of room to get up to the bow but at the expense of real estate where you live when you’re eating and running the boat. Manufacturer’s comments:

All 3 boats have equal handling in big water but....

1)) Ospreys, due to flattening of bottom after bow deadrise, make slapping noises when going into waves...a noticeably rougher ride then Orcas and Seasports
2)) Orcas, With sharper bow, tend to bow-steer a bit more then SEasports and Ospreys....I ran an Orca for the last 4 years and the bow-steering is something that always had my attention, ESPECIALLY in following seas...sweaty palms!
3)) He was all in on SEasports as far as the way they handled big water.....based on his comments and being made to focus sharply on the structural differences between the three boats, I just pulled the trigger (yesterday!!) on a 26 ft Seasport Kodiak.

One other comment— I always wondered why when throttling back, the bow of my 24 ft Orca settled so low in the water (at least it seemed that way from the helmsman chair)

His comment... because you have a 490 liter gas tank mid-ships....all that weight sinks the bow low in the water. Both the Osprey and the Seasport have similar sized tanks but they’re mounted closer to the stern

That was a big difference in the ride I noticed—-SEasport bows tends to sit a bit higher in the water

Referencing comments about rot: I’m thinking the new vacuum bagging technology is going to make rot a thing of the past. Even if there’s wood, there’s no way water can get at it. And the Seasport transoms are Coosa—-it’s “self-healing” when it gets holes in it. My guess is all the new Orcas and Ospreys also are manufactured using the vacuum bag technology with Coosa in the transoms

My new ride:....first time I’ve ever run a boat with twins!



View attachment 56662
Click to expand...

Beauty!
 
All Seasports are sensitive to load shifts while on plane....when someone gets up and moves you notice it right away...and yes you do get used to it and how much tab to use to compensate for it.
 
The Seasport Kodiak I just purchased was pre-owned and the former owner put several pieces of advanced electronics on it. It has the Optimus360 joystick system but with the newer electric servomotors, not the hydraulic pumps, so the response time is instant when switching from joystick back to normal fly by wire controls.

It also has the Otimus360 Seastation that allows you to keep the boat centered over a particular spot on a particular heading. For a halibut fisherman, you wouldn’t need to anchor anymore, though when the outboards kick into reverse to maintain position I’ve heard you lose your sonar picture because of the high RPM’s and backwash

But best of all, It’s fitted with the ZipWakes actuator system...like the Optimus rams on the Suzukis, the tabs are activated by servomotors. Those servomotors are controlled by an accelerometer, a heading sensor and a gyrocompass.

I purposely moved around the boat as the helmsman accelerated—-the ZipWakes in auto mode completely compensated for every move I made by automatically deploying as necessary, keeping the boat remarkably steady despite my shuffling around.

It was interesting to see their response in a sharp hard-over turn, like the kind you’d make to avoid hitting a log. The ZipWakes tended to over-compensate in Auto mode but you can instantly switch to “manual” mode and dampen out the over-compensation—-they’re pretty slick!

Man, I wish I’d had a set of those ZipWakes when I owned my Orca—-I was on the Bennet Trim tabs continually when I had a passenger on board making moves. Talk about a “tender” ride...

ZipWakes seems to take the tenderness out of the ride on those twenty degree deadrise boats —- from what I saw, they look like a valuable piece of electronics to add to a boat that rides like Seasports and Orcas.

Not sure how the Hourston rides but based on hull design, my guess is they can be a bit tender depending on how they’re loaded
 
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Sharphooks, thats is a beauty. I’m going to research those ZipWakes for my 2700 Seasport Navigator.
Congrats on your purchase!
 
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