Re: Best starter boat for the Chesapeake?
Sonny,<br /><br />You are asking for an all-purpose boat; unfortunately, there is no such thing!<br /><br />That said, let's look at your priorities:<br />a) Handles choppy water; You need a v-hull for sure, preferably a deep-v with high freeboard (in other words, such things as tri-hulls are out).<br />b) Can be towed with your Explorer; We will get back to that...<br />c) Seats four and can berth overnighters; this pretty much rules out center consoles. CC's are an awesome design, but only for fish-only boats, and even then mostly for milder, warm-weather climates (like Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and Southern California). You want a cuddy cabin or a walkaround. Bear in mind that in the size range we are talking about, you will be able to comfortably carry no more than four adults, but comfortably overnight no more than two adults.<br />d) Mainly cruising, maybe some future fishing; if fishing was a higher priority, I would highly recommend a walkaround; however, you will have far more boats to choose from in a cuddy cabin configuration...especially if you are on a budget.<br />e) Some water sports; this is not within my area of advice.<br /><br />Given all this, you want an 18' (or higher) cuddy cabin (or walkaround, if you can find the right price), in a deep-v hull with high freeboard. You want an outboard...no inboard/outboard in this size range if you value interior space. Such boats will typically come "standard" with 115-125 hp O/B's; because on the Chesapeake you will frequently have to outrun surprise weather, you will DEFINITELY want to opt for more hp than this, perhaps 150-175 hp.<br /><br />Now for the bad news...<br /><br />This 18' hull alone will weigh almost 3000 lbs (a dealer will tell you it weighs around 2500 lbs; he is "fudging" a bit). Add 350 lbs of motor, 300 lbs of fuel, 150 lbs of batteries, 850 lbs of trailer, 150 to 200 lbs of other gear, and you are towing almost 5000 lbs. (Hope you got a class III hitch!). Put another 800-1000 lbs of people in the cab, and you are awfully close to your Explorer's GCVWR.<br /><br />You say you have the Explorer with tow package; this could save you somewhat. I assume this means 3.73 limited slip gears and a transmission cooler. You would NEED these to haul your boat up slippery ramps and prevent tranny meltdown in traffic. I am assuming you have automatic tranny. It probably doesn't much matter whether you have the 4.0L v6 (~210 hp) or the 4.6L v8 (~240 hp); both are underpowered for this application, as you really want at least 275 hp for this setup...luckily, you are not in hill country. Hopefully, you have four-wheel disc brakes. You would DEFINITELY need trailer brakes.<br /><br />In short, I think you COULD tow the boat you really want with the tow vehicle you have, but not very safely...especially if you are not experienced, or have children you want to live to see grow up. Maybe you would be OK if you stuck to low-speed roads (i.e., no freeways) and only had to tow a few miles to launch...<br /><br />Bear in mind that I am a safety-oriented person and I like to ensure that I do not exceed 75% of any given capacity of my tow vehicle (i.e., build in a minimum 25% safety margin on TW, GCVWR, Rear GAWR, horsepower, etc.)<br /><br />Another option with your tow vehicle is to go to a smaller cuddy cabin boat, perhaps in the 16-17' range; you would be safer on towing, but you would be far more cramped with 4 adults and would have to pay far more attention to choppy weather on the Chesapeake. I personally would NOT go this route, because a cuddy cabin that small is too tiny, is not really "right" for anything, and would be difficult to resell. If you do this, you will always wish it was bigger.<br /><br />Finally, you could go to a v-hull open-bow or a center console design, perhaps in as long as a 19-20' size (these are lighter in weight than cuddy cabins). This would handle the chop OK; however, you would then give up alot of your weather protection and the overnight capability. On the other hand, you would then have a boat that WAS right for either day-cruising or fishing, and would be very easy to resell.<br /><br />I hope you find my advice useful.<br /><br />(Note: this post has been edited on 7/27/04 to add some advice and clarify some previous items)