On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 20:47:21 -0700, Tim wrote:


Vic, you still have plans to move to FL? Did you decide on a boat
yet?

In early Oct the wife and I are going down to Punta Gorda to stay with
my Dad for a week, then a week on the beach at St. Pete.
I'm hoping to make a little progress. As much as I've worked the
bait, so far my wife has shown no inclination to stick her head out
from under the ledge and take it. The "ledge" is our house, garden,
and our kids nearby.
My Dad is looking smarter all the time, and without suggesting his
purpose, has been pushing us to spend a day or two with a step-sister
and her husband in their home a bit north of Tampa on the way down.
They're close to a river which goes to the gulf, and gulf itself is
about an hour drive. They live in a "traditional" house like ours,
in a non-tourist type setting, unlike what we usually see when we
visit Florida. I'm going to try to work that out, and I'm also going
to put some horticultural type visits on our agenda to satisfy
her green thumb appetite. In other words, I'm going to use all my
fishing skills to select structure, bait and tackle to get her hooked.
But she may not bite.
An alternate I might look into is renting out my home here and renting
a home in Florida for a year as a sort of trial. Luckily I'm in a
good location here, and that should be a net gainer for us, but I
haven't looked into it closely, so I'm not sure.
Anyway it's all a bit complicated, aggravated by the fact my wife is
17 years younger than me and her job provides our health insurance.
I'm not wealthy, seven kids, some not yet established , blah, blah.
Maybe too much info, but there it is.
Boats. After months of web research, the only boats that interest me
are the Carolina Skiff and Mac 26X/M. I want shallow draft and
economy. New, a 24' CS fairly tricked out and with a 115hp is around
25k. The 26X/M new or a few years old decently equipped and with a
50hp is 25-30k.
I've been haunting the CS and Mac forums for a year now.
Both boats have shallow draft and good gas economy.
The CS is the better fishing boat and the 115hp pushes it to 40mph if
you need that speed. It'll float in a foot of water.
The Mac sits a little deeper, maybe 18", has sails and you can live in
it for short periods of time, allowing wider excursions than the
skiff.
As others have said, and Chuck said it quite well, it doesn't sail as
well as a sailboat, or power as well as a powerboat, but it powers
better than any sailboat, and sails better than any powerboat.
And despite it's reputation as a light duty sailer, if I got caught in
big waves, better the Mac than a skiff. A pounding is better than a
dunking any day.
Given what I want a boat for, it might work.
Now this is all just talk, and I have so little experience in boat
handling you might as well call it "none."
There are a number of guys where I'm going in Florida running fishing
charters on CS 24's and I'm going to take one (or more (- when I get
down there, and also look at some new and old sailboats.
Of course I'll do some brain-picking down there.
So it's all baby-stepping for now.
Hope I didn't bore you with all this crap, but I find it helps me
formulate plans when I write it out. One thing for sure, getting my
butt near where I want to boat is going to be a lot harder than
selecting a boat.

--Vic