On Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:52:02 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

MY long experience with cruising the Florida west coast has convinced
me that the best boat for me would be a Troller/sailor like the
"Diesel Duck" line of boats except they have too deep a draft. They
would be ideal for California. I have been tempted to contact the
designer to ask him to design a shoal draft version I could build.

There was a rancher from northwestern Canada who wanted a shoal draft
trawler so he had a "Diesel Duck" like boat designed with a flat
bottom and built from aluminum. It had a draft of just over 3 feet.
He and his sons literally portaged it down shallow Canadian rivers to
the artic ocean, and then motored it around the world. It had a
really small 55 hp diesel that was highly fuel efficient, and gave it
a cruising speed of about 6 knots. It had passive paravane type
stabilizers but still rolled a bit as you can imagine. They put the
boat up for sale after circumnavigating for some small fraction of its
original cost.

http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com...ldnonstop.html

Not everyone's idea of a cruising boat, but it can be done.