Quote:
Originally Posted by sperbonzo
I have a 27 foot wellcraft cuddy cabin at the moment, which I use for Diving, and general cruisin' & boozin', and I've been boating all my life, mostly on the ocean.
If you are looking for a boat to fish off of, then the one you you are looking at to buy is a bad choice. That is a cruiser, and built for comfort, not fishing. If you want a boat that you can fish off of, but still sleep aboard, then a 32 foot Walk-Around Pro-Line would be good for this. It is build for fishing and yet it has a comfy cabin with a head, and a small side galley
The problems with the boat your looking at is...
It doesn't do well in bad weather on the open ocean, things break in rough seas on those boats, and I/O engines are harder to fix.
It is not a self-bailing cockpit, so it's VERY difficult to wash the blood and scales out of it.
The cockpit is too enclosed and when a fish runs around the front of the boat you can't stay with it,
There are no live bait wells or places to clean the fish.
be aware that any boat in the 25 to 35 foot range will run you 15 to 25+ gallons per hour at cruising speed, and with all the maintenance, you are looking at a pretty big nut every month. Having said that, the ironic thing is that the more you use a boat, the less you have to work on it. (The more lube is getting pushed through the engines, the more electricity is burning the corrosion off of the wiring, etc...) I put about 40 hours a month on my boat.
Also... you should ABSOLUTELY buy a copy of "Chapman's Piloting", and read it from cover to cover. This is the bible for boats, and every boater should know it.
Have fun!
...and remember, BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand. :-)
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Really great advise
Assuming the boat will be in NC it probably won't get used year round due to weather so that plays into your " less used means more work " point. It's really hard to find a boat that does everything well. If you want to fish well you will have to sacrifice comfort for fishing features and vice versa.
The boat in the pictures looks like something you would take out on calm day with a group of people that just want to be on a boat and don't really care about actually catching a fish or going fast or getting wet and the owner is willing to pay some crew to clean it up afterwards.
I've never owned a boat but I'm lucky to have many friends with all kinds of boats so I've had some really great experiences courtesy of them. I would have to be filthy rich before I would buy one. The kind of person that fits owning a boat is one that will get a LOT of use out of it. As many have already testified to it amounts to being just a hole in the ocean so you need to think really hard as to whether the expense is worth the experience.