Rich,
The Parkers are BEAUTIFUL boats.
Jack's is a 23 foot and he has a 225 Yahmmie on it. Pretty decent gas mileage even when loaded for bear.
We were spending 4 days straight livin/ sleepin/ and commin' on it. Wasn;t too bad. Built in head was key. They are a solid fishin machine. Jack has the motor mounted on a dive platform which is nicer than the cut out transom cause you loose less deck space to the motor. Transom has fish boxes that hold about 10 20-30 pound bass and ice. Other than that its coolers( two side by side 120 qt igloos across transom). He has the built in factory livewell in the middle of the deck that as Fishsmith said, at first it wasn';t so nice cause it semed to get in the way, well after spending as much time on that boat as I have, it is excellent (even though the pump keeps goin on it) Holds plenty of live bait and doubles very well as a seat/ workstation and if not needed, can hold a LOT of cod / haddock/ other fish.
We have been out in some NASTY stuff and she held up just fine. Took a while for him to find the right prop to use to maximize fuel effiencty and power.
The cabin is fantastic to get out of the elements and has plenty of deck space. The outside station is clutch cause it enables 2 people fish / wire jig at the same time. Ron's is real nice on his that he custom built himself on the outside of the pilot house. Jacks is a vertical statation set a little back from the pilot house, but you can still sufficientlly see the instrument panels.(fish finder, GPS)
The only thing that I say is a negative about Parker's seems to be that his does pound. Any chop and you aren't gonna be flyin. I think he has the modified V hull which gives it more stability, but with the deeper V you get a smoother ride.
Would be nice if they somehow had fish boxes built into the floor/deck. The other problem is that because of the pilot house, you drift pretty fast with the wind. Acts like a sail. We tried combatting it by opening the winds and such, but found that a drift sock works pretty good in most situations (except in tight close to the rocks = suicide.
After being on/ looking at other boats of comparable size, I would have to say that The Parkers are the best as far as solidness and fishability.
As always, you get what you pay for.
I can put in touch with Jack if you want some more advice, postive and negative.
|