Personally, I think that a 28 foot stern drive, single motor boat is the
toughest "to control" boat out there. Anything larger, you'd almost have to
go with twin screws. Anything smaller, you could "man handle" your way
through some mistakes with the help of 2 deck mates. Just thinking about
backing into a tight slip on a windy fall day on a 28' single screw makes me
wince . . .

J


10/21/03 5:55 PM

Don't be afraid of a 28-footer as a"first boat." The learning curve for
handling a 28 footer isn't really any longer than for a 21 or 22 footer, and
in
a lot of ways the greater mass of a larger boat helps promote stability.

The brand name of the boat you select will be less important than the design
characteristics. Bayliner probably builds both suitable and unsuitable boats
for your purpose....but if you're going to be somewhere under 30-feet size
wise
you might want to consider boats that are designed for offshore sport fishing
conditions. In the NW, boats like C-Dory, Skagit Orca and a few other brands
would be worthy of investigation and consideration.