RE: rough water advice
i run on lake Ontario up here in Canada so i run in anything from glass calm to 12" chop i have a 57" Apache hull that is awsome in the big stuff but a bit of a dog when it like glass i also have a 40" cat that is also a blast to run cant run quite as hard in the bigger waves but that is due to the size of the boat more than the size of the waves the only thing we cant scale down if you are going to have to run in big waves get a big boat if setup right you can get a cat to run well in rough watter find a hull style you like and build it an Apache type hull would be a good choice to start out with