I had taken the CV23 on a couple of outings this summer, but those mostly were a run to the cove and tie up with several other boats to form the floating island. It had plenty of room for all that we brought along and even got in the cuddy and took a nap on one of the outings. This past Saturday I took Kat, her sister, her 14 year old nephew and his buddy tubing in celebration of the nephew earning his Eagle Scout badge. It was rainy and stormy most of the morning and the sun finally started to break through around noon so we headed to the ramp with Hot Knots. There was a wind of probably 25 mph and the lake was solid white caps. Let me tell you guys, Hot Knots was so comfortable to ride in and handle in that rough water, I could not believe the difference between my two boats. Had I only had Burnin Daylight we would probably never had launched onto that rough water, and when we have had 5 of us in BD before she was so crowded that someone had to be on the tube or in the water all the time for the rest us to not be sardined. Hot Knots ran perfect, started at the turn of the key every time. We ran her constantly for 4 hours pulling a 4.5' x 7' tube with 2 people on it in the rough water and against the wind half the time at 20 mph and running 2000 to 2200 rpm. That doesn't sound like much speed or rpm, but it was a load in the size of waves and wind that she was operating in with 3 people in the boat and tube drag. When we pulled off the lake I went straight to the service station and filled her back to the top with 100% gas. She held 13 gallons of fuel which works out to about 3.25 gph. At the end of the day I was tired but it was from playing hard and not from fighting the boat. I think I'll keep her.
