# Why the hate for trihull boats?



## firecat1981 (Nov 27, 2007)

I can only give you my experience which is limited with them. In smooth water they are nice, but I don't think they are as efficient as a v-hull, or draft as little as a flat bottom. In not so smooth water I've noticed a bad sneezing effect which makes it a very wet ride IMO.

Every hull is a compromise, and it seems you don't see many tri-hulls around anymore because they are too much of a compromise. That being said if you need an all around boat and don't mind a wet ride then there is nothing wrong with them, but I'd rather go with a flat bottom skiff and get a little skinnier. I'm sure others will chime in with different experiences shortly.


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

HEAVY.... 
-they faded away like tube socks / mopeds / craigcats

-


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## cwalden (Jun 24, 2011)

they ride great in smooth water, but I dont think I would even try one in salt. I watched a couple of guys in one in 2-3ft seas a few years ago. they were trying to troll the beach for spanish... got the crap beat out of them. We were on shore surf fishing and were amazed at their tenacity. It was obviously painfull....

it put a WHOLE new meaning to hull slap! I bet they slept well that night. If their room wasn't spinning. haha


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Many a saltwater guy started out with a tri-hull in my era (genuine stone age guy here...) since they were very common and relatively cheap. I don't think they're "hated" but they do have a few drawbacks...

First the plus side... inexpensive when used, very stable, go pretty well with modest power, generally come with an open interior (or you can gut one out to get that open interior) so you can install front and rear decks, etc, and most have full floatation so they're pretty much un-sinkable once they're foamed in...

Now for the minus side... a tri-hull is great in calm waters but if there's any chop they'll beat you badly at any speed. If you slow down quite a bit and run "bow high" you can minimize some of that but once you're out of very sheltered waters a tri-hull can loosen the fillings in your teeth, re-arrange your spinal column and in general make you wish you had a friendlier hull... One other small problem with them is that they're a bit wet when running. You can't really get much benefit from trim tabs so anyone on the up wind side of a tri-hull may need a raincoat... On more than one day I had my fishing partner moving from one side of the boat to the other as we attempted (mostly without success) to tilt the boat just enough that we weren't getting spray everytime that hull slapped down hard....

My one and only tri-hull was a tiny dink at 12' long, powered with a 9.5 Johnson motor with a tiller extension. That was almost forty years ago and we caught lots and lots of fish with it. We also caught hell with it on more than one occasion when the weather shifted and it was a mile or two back to the ramp.... That little rig was a real learning experience - particularly whenever that early metal tiller extension detached from the motor when we were flying wide open at all of 15 miles an hour....


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## el9surf (Dec 23, 2008)

My first skiff was a tri hull. As long as it was glassy it rode well and poled reasonably well given the hull shape. I caught many fish on it so I can't say it didn't work. 

In a chop the ride was very rough and the hull slap was an issue. Stability was very good which was a plus. I think the tri hull faded in popularity because of the flood of other hull shapes that were more effecient and capable.


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## CapnK (Jul 6, 2011)

Having just moved from a Whaler 13' to the Hobie PowerSkiff at 15', I can testify that what the others relate above is true.

The Whaler is a tough, good little boat with a lot of character, and she *will* get you there and back again, but with the more 'traditional' hull shape of the HPS I can run at 25mph through chop that would force the Whaler to travel at a near crawl.

Here we have a 1+ mile wide, relatively shallow bay with 3+ miles of open fetch to the predominant wind, so chop can and regularly does build into the 2'+ range quite quickly. If you tend to fish more sheltered waters, or have only to cross short sections of the rough stuff, a tri/cathedral hull is not a bad thing at all.


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## BigSkyDave (Oct 18, 2011)

In 1979 I bought a new Sears 14' Gamefisher to fish salmon in Lake Michigan and hunt ducks. It's pretty worn now and I'm considering a replacement. But I'm having a hard time coming up with something as versatile. We've pulled the boat from Key West to Fairbanks and from Baja to Minnesotal, shot almost a thousand ducks and geese from it, fought tarpon in the Keys and halibut in Seward, salmon from Lake Michigan to the Kenai River, trout, bass, walleyes, baracuda, groupers, and lots more.

It only weighs 250# and floats in less than 6 inches. If you get stuck pushing off is a breeze.

It certainly has it's limits and I admit pushing it to them. Never lost a wink of sleep from pounding. Stu said I'd never catch a bonefish with it because of the hull slap. He may be right. But I haven't caught a bone from any thing else either.

It's been easy to modify, sports a plywood front deck, holes for downriggers and duck blind.

Think I'll slap on some glass and go for another 33 years.


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## mhinkle90 (Feb 24, 2011)

> HEAVY....
> -they faded away like tube socks / mopeds / craigcats
> 
> -


hahahahahaha craigcats!
don't bring that one up again!


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## Sean_Leatherbury (Jun 13, 2012)

> > HEAVY....
> > -they faded away like tube socks / mopeds / craigcats
> >
> > -
> ...


hmmmmmm...

Like this?

http://fortmyers.craigslist.org/lee/boa/3106980761.html

They look shallow ;D


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

Years ago I had a Thunderbird cathedral hull. It was awesome for going slow, but there was this one day when I experienced a "microburst" and landed on my head while standing at the helm. A kite wouldn't have flown farther.

Don't see any "air slots " around anymore either.


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## VBTravisD (Jul 20, 2012)

I have an OLD McKee. 14' knockoff whaler. It is a good little boat for the inlets we have up here. I dont really run it out in the bay or too open of water.


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## Steele1071 (Jan 15, 2021)

cwalden said:


> they ride great in smooth water, but I dont think I would even try one in salt. I watched a couple of guys in one in 2-3ft seas a few years ago. they were trying to troll the beach for spanish... got the crap beat out of them. We were on shore surf fishing and were amazed at their tenacity. It was obviously painfull....
> 
> it put a WHOLE new meaning to hull slap! I bet they slept well that night. If their room wasn't spinning. haha


 I agree with this post. I have a 15’ center consul Tri Haul, the first choppy water I got it into was 2’ waves on Seneca Lake. Although it was stable it definitely was not a smooth ride. Yes I kept checking to make sure that my bilge pump was running. Needles to say we made our way to the canal to fish.


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## Mark H (Nov 22, 2016)

BigSkyDave said:


> In 1979 I bought a new Sears 14' Gamefisher to fish salmon in Lake Michigan and hunt ducks. It's pretty worn now and I'm considering a replacement. But I'm having a hard time coming up with something as versatile. We've pulled the boat from Key West to Fairbanks and from Baja to Minnesotal, shot almost a thousand ducks and geese from it, fought tarpon in the Keys and halibut in Seward, salmon from Lake Michigan to the Kenai River, trout, bass, walleyes, baracuda, groupers, and lots more.
> 
> It only weighs 250# and floats in less than 6 inches. If you get stuck pushing off is a breeze.
> 
> ...


Sounds like we should have been hanging out with you.


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## jackson man (Aug 13, 2020)

MariettaMike said:


> Years ago I had a Thunderbird cathedral hull. It was awesome for going slow, but there was this one day when I experienced a "microburst" and landed on my head while standing at the helm. A kite wouldn't have flown farther.
> 
> Don't see any "air slots " around anymore either.


Had s similar thing happen to one of my collegues in a Fish-N-Ski Barge. He was hit by a microburst that picked up the bow and completely flipped the boat over bow over stern dumping both him and his 3 clients into the water (luckily nobody was injured).


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## eightwt (May 11, 2017)

Ran my sons 1960 Whaler 13 before our present boat. Yep, was hard on this seasoned citizens back in a chop, noisy, but stable in heavy seas. Fun little boat. Under a tarp and will be refurbished one day when have a place to work on it. And we caught fish from it.


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## 7WT (Feb 12, 2016)

Not sure if this is a tri hull or cat but a neighbor of mine, Bill Busch in Maine has always run a Glacier Bay. He though no relation captained George Herbert in those and others for many summers. Now that I think about it I think they are a two hull. Uses it on open ocean and in 2 foot. It was not unusual to see President Bush in a boat along the southern Maine coast. Always friendly. Loved to fish. I do remember he beached his cigarette boat Fidelity once in a fog. Neighbors pushed him off. How he found sand on Maine's rocky coast was a small miracle.


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

I had a 13' Whaler that I used to bass fish. If it got rough it was a nightmare. Wish I still had it. I replaced it with a bass boat. That boat ran about 60 mph so not much touched the water at that speed


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## State fish rob (Jan 25, 2017)

My first boat that wasnt a hand me down was a tri hull , a true tri hull , 17’ ’67 glassmaster inboard/ out board 120 hp. Seems like it was a 160 cu in straight 4. Ran it until ‘ 83. lake boat for sure. Got checked by game warden regularly. looked rough.....always legal tho. Ripped stern out trying to break sterndrive driveshaft loose of gimbal bearing ( bearing was nos ,still for sale ... Lol ) Instant duck blind. Lost it in hurricane irene. Always expected to find it sitting way up in a tree somewhere like the movie ” mud “


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