"timW" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi there,
My wife and I need a bit of advice on a boat we're
looking to purchase.

I grew up around boats back in my home country of Australia, and
having lived in Florida for the last seven years I decided that it was
high time for my young kids to start building up similar great
memories of days out on the water. To this end my wife and I have been
looking at getting either a cuddy or a small cruiser, and as my wife
seems to be leaning towards wanting a bit of space below decks we've
been leaning more towards the latter, in particular something in th
24' - 25' range.

Of our stated aims the first to come to mind was that we wanted to
keep the width of the boat we buy within the legal Florida limit of a
8' 6" beam to make it less of a hassle transporting the boat around
without a need for permits.

Second was the weight concerns. I have a large Dodge 1500 RAM
conversion van with the bigger V8 under the hood, so it can pull a
decent weight, but I didn't want to overload the vehicle with too big
a boat/trailer combination. A friend who's a pro fisherman with a big
boat of his own suggested that I stick to a maximum of 5,000lb.

So with all that said and done we began looking around a few weeks ago
at what was on offer within our tight budget, and came up with some
interesting possibilities, then a couple of days ago an interesting
deal came our way that on the surface seems like a good buy but flies
in the face of the very guidelines we set down for ourselves. It's a
Carver 1989 Santiago, a 27' footer with a 10' beam and a dry weight
nudging up to 7,000lb! We wouldn't be considering it except for the
fact that it's available t an excellent price and is in pretty decent
shape for its age.
snip

I agree with the previous posts.......you need a dock for a boat that large.
After a day on the boat you can spend the night at the marina and make a
weekend out of it, another good reason for a dock.