Are 19fters Good For Coastal Boating? (SoCal Boaters Chime In!)

[Guitarjesus]

I've only done lakes so far, but I live in Southern California, an hour from the water. Is it safe to take an SX190 out in the San Diego area on the water? We want to expand where we cruise the boat and hope we didn't go too small for our first boat ti be able to do open waters around here.

 

[JBehrens]

Welcome! I am also local to the SoCal area and take the boat out all the time with some restrictions. It's a 19ft boat, you need to be honest with yourself about that and be prepared that it's not going to handle like a 24ft, "safe" depends on what you are asking the boat to do. 1-2ft in the morning, fine, 6-8ft in the afternoon, no thanks. I take my boat in Huntington, Alamitos, and Long Beach harbor. If I want to go out in the breakwater then it's going to generally be out of Alamitos due to the Long Beach sea wall. For the most part this is due to our overall comfort level in the ocean, guys take 190's to Bimini and Catalina so they can handle open water if you are carful and prepared. San Diego area is usually milder then the Huntington/Long Beach area, Mission Bay would be a good place to check out. If you pay attention to the weather, and go out in the morning on calm days then you should be fine, afternoons are generally worse for us. I would recommend you get a good VHF radio, possibly a chart plotter or at a minimum Navionics on the phone, take a boating safety class if you haven't already. It's also worth it to have the coast guard auxiliary do a safety inspection the boat, I have learned a lot just for a 1 hour conversation with an inspector.

 

[HawaiiBreeze]

Aloha,

I'm running a 19 out here and it handles just fine in anything that you would normally go out it in. If you wouldn't go out during a particular weather pattern to begin with then any 19 would be subject to the perils. As stated above by JBehrens ... get a VHF radio. I might also add flares. You might want to brush up on the requirements of going off shore there. Out here anyone going further than 1 mile off shore must have the VHF radio etc and I've been boarded twice in less than a year by the CG and they basically gave me a colonoscopy on my equipment.

PS There is nothing like mixing it up in the waves when the conditions are good.

 

[Guitarjesus]

Welcome! I am also local to the SoCal area and take the boat out all the time with some restrictions. It's a 19ft boat, you need to be honest with yourself about that and be prepared that it's not going to handle like a 24ft, "safe" depends on what you are asking the boat to do. 1-2ft in the morning, fine, 6-8ft in the afternoon, no thanks. I take my boat in Huntington, Alamitos, and Long Beach harbor. If I want to go out in the breakwater then it's going to generally be out of Alamitos due to the Long Beach sea wall. For the most part this is due to our overall comfort level in the ocean, guys take 190's to Bimini and Catalina so they can handle open water if you are carful and prepared. San Diego area is usually milder then the Huntington/Long Beach area, Mission Bay would be a good place to check out. If you pay attention to the weather, and go out in the morning on calm days then you should be fine, afternoons are generally worse for us. I would recommend you get a good VHF radio, possibly a chart plotter or at a minimum Navionics on the phone, take a boating safety class if you haven't already. It's also worth it to have the coast guard auxiliary do a safety inspection the boat, I have learned a lot just for a 1 hour conversation with an inspector.

Good advice. Thanks