whats a stepV hull

The Steplift is just that. It refers to the reverse chines on the running hull bottom. When the boat is brought up on plane, the revers chines aid in lifting the hull up out of the water.
The only comparisons to be made between fresh and salt water are the differences in the water characteristics themselves such as waves and currents. That said, the V20 should be fantastic in fresh water. I've never had the opportunity to try one out in fresh water as there aren't really many lakes locally that can handle a boat of that size. I have a 15-20 minute drive to the salt.
I don't think there is a perfectly designed hull made IMO. They all have shortcomings or tradeoffs in one aspect or another.
I do feel that the V20 is among the best for size/price range. But, this is just my opinion.
 
Agree with what Chum' said. While the bow entry has a sharper V, the keel is rounded and flatter at the transom. I'm not sure if it's technically a keel pad or not. But with decent horsepower and generally flatter water in the fresh, you can probably run as fast as the hull can practically go. The Chesapeake Bay can be flat as a lake sometimes and there's nothing better than dialing in the engine trim to lift the bow up so the hull's running up and out of the water (without porpoising).
 
90% of my v20s time is fresh-water...Lakes Hartwell, Murray and Clark Hill with between 900 and 1200 miles of shoreline they will test a boat's hull when the wind picks up...we striper fish all winter long and trust me when I tell you it can be ruff at times...with a hull like the v20 your window of opportunity is much greater as is your satey/comfort factor as opposed to a less seaworthy boat ;)...if you're lookin' for a double duty boat, the v20 is a great way to go ;D
 
All of my boating time is spent in fresh water, Lake Erie. I've had the boat one season. She is a fantastic riding boat. Western Basin of Erie is shallow 30' or less it can get rough fast. The boat has handled the lake well. Bill Mc ;D
 
Hey MacAttack...out of curiosity, tell me a little about the Great lakes...i heard that they can have like 60foot waves at times!!!WOW, now thats a lake...how deep....what do you catch...etc..????

PS my wife and I r HUGE Michigan Wolverine fans...they freakin ROCK!!!!
 
60 foot waves may happen on Superior or Michigan but I don't think on Lake Erie.  Erie does get rough. Rough enough to take down my friends' 35 'CC.  His was a wood boat.  We primarily fish for Walleyes, a great eating fish but not a good fighter.  The west end of Erie is also great for small mouths and yellow perch.  This coming season we are going to fish for Steelhead, a rainbow trout.  Now that I have a V20 we can venture further out in the lake and also east of Point Pelee.  Erie east of Pelee ave depth 60' with some holes to 200'.  They say once you hook a steely it spends more time out of the water than in it.  Largest waves we have been in with the V20 were 4-5 footers.  Stuck the bow into a large roller coming out of Colchester Harbor.  What a rush seeing the water advance across the fore deck up over the windshield and then on us.  The V20 popped right out. We ended up doing quite well that day on the eyes.  I do root for M except when they are playing MSU.  The Rose Bowl should be a good game.  Bill Mc ;D
 
NO not MSU..J/K. Cool, very cool , i have always been baffled at such a large body/bodies of water that is not salt. i live on the Gulf Coast and if you cant see land on the other side its salt. LOL
 
all i can say is i own a 1978 steplift and its a great all around boat, step means it has a hull that will rise up when you get r going, plane and simple, how it does it i really dont know because the bottom looks the same as any other bottom to me
 
They may all look alike (somewhat) now, but that wasn't always the case. C. Ray Hunt (the man behind the Wellcraft V20 design as well as many other cutting edge designs like Bertram Moppies and many more) essentially brought the deep v hull into the modern age of hull design utilizing a variable deadrise running bottom along with reverse chine lifting strakes running longitudinally. There are several other fine variances of his designs, but his is the one that set new world records with the Bertram Moppie design.
Here's a good read on some of that history.
http://bertram31.com/ray_hunt.htm
And here's a bit more to browse through.
http://www.crhunt.com/

Interesting stuff. ;)
btw; take a look at the Surfhunter 25 od the second URL that I posted and tell me that's not a V20 on steroids. Beautiful boat. I always check them out at the boat shows. ;D
 
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