Tunnel Hull vs. Jet

[troutcrazy]

My wife has given me the okay to start looking for a new boat. Most of my fishing is on the Cumberland River, Dix River, and Cedar Creek. Would like to go to Cumberland lake and Herrington more and this new boat will be a huge step up from my 14ft. jon boat! I'm looking at a 17' - 18' boat center console. My question is I'm not sure if I should go tunnel hull or jet.
What are your thoughts on which is better?

[birdstrike]

If you know your rivers well and can stay in the channel, get the tunnel hull. It will be much more efficient than the jet and work well on open water. If you need to go skinnier than 8-10 inches you'll want a jet. If you like exploring and running shallower water than you should (like me) get both. Yep, a jet foot and a small tunnel to further protect it. You lose about 20% of your thrust to the jet which means you need a bigger motor than you would with a prop= more weight and gas. But man is it a lot of fun.

This is a great resource for jet info:
http://forums.riversmallies.com/forums/

[MrSplitshot]

I don't know that you'll find the BEST boat for Cumberland River/Dix River is the BEST boat for Lake Cumberland/Lake Herrington.

If I were going to run Cumberland River, Dix River, etc...I'd get tunnel hull (one that's designed for a jet) with a jet drive...a planing style hull, that's designed for shallow water applications. For the lakes, that's probably not what you want though.

www.jamesriverjets.com

www.rockproofboats.com

www.www.riverpro-boats.com

www.snyderboats.com

On that Snyder site, check out the FAQ section...a lot of good info about jet boats there.

[troutcrazy]

thanks for the websites...they have been very helpful.

[ON3 3Y3D WILLI3]

Hey, I have two Weld-Crafts (Benton, AR) for sale in the Louisville Area. The UCDVS (14Ft) Model and the CLT (20Ft). OD Green with RhinoLining. The CLT has Pontoons/Sponsons. I have a Yamaha 70hp Tiller, Brand New in the export box, for the CLT.

Check out:

http://www.weld-craft.com/JonBoats.htm

These boats are new and never in water (they were to be exported to Honduras to my lodge for running the Rio Patuca in the dry season.)

PM me if you're interested.