Stryker PRO 420 (13’ 7”)

I have the 2025 Stryker Pro 420 with a 2025 Yamaha F-25 power trim outboard. I’ve ran it for about 35 hours now and this is what I like and don’t like about the boat. I love some of the accessories and how thought out the storage is. The Stryker shield is amazing. I did some night boating and when I was heading back into camp I accidentally got hung up on a dead head that had a fairly sharp protrusion. I was stuck on it for about a minute until I was able to move my passengers to the rear of the boat and I was able to reverse off of it. The next day I pulled the boat out of the water to inspect the hull expecting to see a large gouge but there wasn’t even a scuff in the Stryker Shield. I was super impressed with the durability and would highly recommend if you’re looking at a Stryker boat to get the pro for the full hull protection. My issues with the boat are mostly handling and performance related. The first problem I had was not Stryker’s fault. But when I bought the boat the dealer had mounted the motor with the cavitation plate just above level with the bottom of the hull. So the first time I took it out I was having major issues with prop ventilation when trying to get on plane and whenever hit any kind of mild chop. When I got the boat back home I lowered the outboard one set of holes and now the bottom of cavitation plate is exactly 1/2” below the hull. Yamaha recommends that the cavitation plate should be between level of the bottom of the hull to within 1” below and I’m right in the middle, so I should be good right? After lowering the motor the issue of prop ventilation when getting on plane has mostly gone away. But I’m still having prop ventilation issues as soon as the water gets a little choppy and especially if I’m heading into the wind. I’m constantly having to get my passengers to shift their weight around to keep the bow down because the moment it rises just a little the prop is loosing grip on the water causing me to loose propulsion and fall off plane. This has been a constant battle when driving the boat in somewhat choppy conditions. If the water is smooth as glass it preforms great. At times without any wind on calm water I was able to get the boat up to 43kph which I thought was pretty impressive considering it’s only a 25 hp motor. I’m not really sure what to do at this point. I’m not able to lower the motor anymore because it’s only 1/8” before the motor is sitting on the transom and I don’t really want to oval out the mounting holes to get it down that last little bit. I think the only option left is to install a hydrofoil but I’m not too keen on drilling holes in my brand new outboard just to see if that fixes the problem. My last complaint is with some of the noises I hear when boating on choppy water. I get a lot of loud clicking and squeaks. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what’s going on but if I had to guess it’s coming from the joints in the floor boards and the squeak sound is definitely coming from somewhere around the transom area. Maybe where the floor buts up to the transom? But I can’t say for sure. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from while I’m driving the boat. All that said I would have left a 2.5 star review if I had the option. I don’t think it deserves a 2 star review because the boat is well built, however between having to constantly shift weight around in the boat and all the odd sounds it makes has me thinking this boat is really only good for fair weather boating.