Our first boat was a 30 footer. Like you we had been around boats for a long
time but had never owned one.

We did a ton of research before buying, trying to sort out the "bayliner is
crap" sort of advice as well as determining what our needs were (sounds like
you've got the needs part figured out).

I read up a lot on hull design and learned the difference between open water
boats and protected bay boats. And looked around a lot to see what other
people were using and what they seemed to think.

As far as the Bayliner thing goes, there's a lot of Bayliners in my marina
and they seem perfectly fine. We're on the St. Lawrence/1000 Islands area so
none of us are dealing with the type of stuff you would need a Hatteras for.
But it all comes down to your intended use. I'm not familiar with the
boating area you mention so you'll want to see what the other guys are using
and ask them what they think.

Just my 2 bits.



"Diverguy" wrote in message
om...
I've been around boats for a long time because I've been on Dive boats
but have never owned a boat myself and have never really operated them
myself. I would like to get a boat that my family of 4 can go out
from Orange County to Catalina for the weekend (23 miles). I would
also like to go out and go diving with a few people. I don't plan on
staying on the boat for more than 1 or two nights. Being my first
boat, I would like to get a used one to help reduce the cost. My
thoughts are to get a 26-28ft with a cabin. First, am I crazy for
getting this size boat as my first one? Also, I was looking at the
Bayliner because the cost is a lot lower than others. The bad news is
that I see a lot of negative feedback for Bayliner boats. I'm looking
for a boat that is seaworthy, dependable, etc. but I don't need the
fancy interior stuff like teak, etc. Any recommendations would be
great. Please email mail in addition to posting on the newsgroup
). Thanks.