Lowlysubaruguy
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2012
- Messages
- 514
Ive been looking at 26 to 30 foot boats now Im shopping. I live in the NW but in a couple of years plan to spend three months a year ( the cold dark wet snowy ones) in Florida diving fishing and boating. Ill trailer it back and forth so I have a width limit in mind, thats complicated because I live in a spot that has a very narrow troll bridge and tunnels both direction on each side of me. The good news is once my boat is back to my home land I live a couple miles from a boat launch and can easily get it to water. I live a miile from the Columbia river and will do a fair amount of boating here as well as possibly the Puget sound from time to time.
The boat could be 9 feet wide if the trailer was 8'6" . I own a 20 foot welded aluminum boat thats 17 years old and like new. I keep my boats a long time. While I am hard on equipment I service them equally as hard and repair everything that breaks or wears out before its dead. Im a little OCD to boot.
A cat has proven to be to wide when i get to a big enough platform so cats are out. I also want something i can easiily get to the bow a walkaround class of boat however I do not want or need a really fat walkaround bow eating up some of its cabin area as I do still need enough berth to sleep every now and then. And to complicate this I want fresh water shower and a decent toilet with macerator. Needs to have as large of a swim deck as possible with a walk through door.
Ok boats Ive interest Proline Robalo Striper something like this. However i have looked into having a welded aluminum boat made for me. In the 26 to 28 foot class . But I just dont see any welded aluminum boats in Florida while im there. Is there a reason for this other than the fact that there more popular up here in the NW or is there something I need to know about welded aluminim and life in warm salt water. It will most likely be moored in water the time it spends in Florida.
Money wise i can have a custom built boat made for a lot less than a new fiberglass boat a little more than they are used but Im just not findiing the right used boat in my area and i really dont want a boat from Florida that has not been cared for very well.
And then theres powerplant questions by the time I outfit this with the outboards with enough HP to make me happy I could easily have an inboard with some real ponies and fresh water cooling?
Well thats probably enough to spurr some input and more questions thanks in advance
The boat could be 9 feet wide if the trailer was 8'6" . I own a 20 foot welded aluminum boat thats 17 years old and like new. I keep my boats a long time. While I am hard on equipment I service them equally as hard and repair everything that breaks or wears out before its dead. Im a little OCD to boot.
A cat has proven to be to wide when i get to a big enough platform so cats are out. I also want something i can easiily get to the bow a walkaround class of boat however I do not want or need a really fat walkaround bow eating up some of its cabin area as I do still need enough berth to sleep every now and then. And to complicate this I want fresh water shower and a decent toilet with macerator. Needs to have as large of a swim deck as possible with a walk through door.
Ok boats Ive interest Proline Robalo Striper something like this. However i have looked into having a welded aluminum boat made for me. In the 26 to 28 foot class . But I just dont see any welded aluminum boats in Florida while im there. Is there a reason for this other than the fact that there more popular up here in the NW or is there something I need to know about welded aluminim and life in warm salt water. It will most likely be moored in water the time it spends in Florida.
Money wise i can have a custom built boat made for a lot less than a new fiberglass boat a little more than they are used but Im just not findiing the right used boat in my area and i really dont want a boat from Florida that has not been cared for very well.
And then theres powerplant questions by the time I outfit this with the outboards with enough HP to make me happy I could easily have an inboard with some real ponies and fresh water cooling?
Well thats probably enough to spurr some input and more questions thanks in advance