Good afternoon. I’m looking to connect with some owners of the 1996 era Hull, 25’. I’m looking for info on Hull composition, deadrise angle, who designed it, performance traits, and personal experiences from owners. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
Composition: hull is solid glass, polyester resin, with gelcoat as a finish. Decks, pilothouse roof, transom, covering boards, and other areas are cored with plywood, encapsulated by glass.
Deadrise: Deep Vee hulls are 21 degree, XL hulls are 16 degree, Modified Vee hulls are 14 degree.
Who designed it: As far as I know that would be Linwood Parker, or an in-house engineer. I’ve never heard of one of the “famous” small boat hull designers associated with any of Parker’s boats.
Performance: Literally days worth of reading on this site. Like GoodChance said, start searching and reading. Lots of good info, very little deadweight here (unlike other sites).
Personal experience: I’ve been fishing a 1995 2530 DV since I was a kid. It’s great inshore all-purpose boat, with applicability offshore in the right conditions. They’re simple, accessible, no-frills boats. If you’re of average/above average skill, they’re very easy to modify and work on. They have their downsides: the “Deep Vee” models are not really comparable with what many modern boatbuilders produce by that name. It’s never going to run like a Regulator, Contender, or a SeeVee. The pilothouse models are relatively rough riding across the board, especially the Modified Vee models, but are dry, stout, dependable, and seaworthy when handled correctly. The plywood core used throughout the boat is susceptible to water intrusion from previous owner modifications, or poorly installed factory hardware. If you run into that and you’re not handy with boat repair, it’ll be expensive; if you are, it’ll be time consuming. But you can make these boats into anything you want them to be, as evidenced by the many purposes they’re put to in the small maritime world.
Start digging into the threads here, the search function is your friend. Welcome aboard!
