On the hunt for new boat

[TinPants]

Hello Everyone-- New member here but old guy to fishing and boating having been at it starting in the 50's with Dad on the Columbia River. My boat ownership has been all over the place including 5 years owning a 21' Thunderjet Offshore hardtop. I'm back in the hunt for a 22 or 23 foot "tin" boat with a hard cabin. My use is 100% fishing, no overnights or party barge. I've looked at Weldcraft 220 Ocean King and liked it, even though they do not have a self bailing deck. My TJ also did not. I'm looking this weekend at a Wedcraft 220 used model built in 2012 so if anyone has good or bad to say about it I'm all ears. My use will be the lower Columbia River and maybe some large lake fishing. The cabin with door on this model wins over my wife as it does this old guy when the weather is wet and cold. The used boat is offered with a 150hp which is minimal power if use the 1-hp per 25 lb rule, but then again water conditions seldom allow speeds much over what I would expect with this power plant.

Ok now help me out if you know anything or have suggestions.

[kmorin]

TinPants, not a lot of replies piling up so I'll give a reply, by way of Welcome.

Welcome to AAB.com, glad you dropped by to post, some of your remarks are more specific than I can intelligently address (some here will remark that anything I reply to is not validly labeled intelligent?) but I'll give some feedback anyway, and rely on you for the needed bag of salt to these remarks.

Most of the currently built welded aluminum boats in the 20-30' range are very well built but 95% of the builders seem to skip the surface treatment of the alloy- unless those boats are painted and then they have to remove the mill scale in order to get paint to stick- I find that fact depressing but informative. If paint won't stick without surface treatment- why would you leave that 'mill scale' on the boat?

Mill scale is what promotes and hosts the 'white flowers' corrosion patterns you will or have seen on 100's of welded boats after a few years and it can be removed easily - so.... for any boat you consider - please consider either buying a boat with 'clean skin' or cleaning her your self as part of the purchase process?

MY next remarks are about bottom shape and age. First my age is 65 and somehow or another that number is not getting any smaller? Next, the sharper the bottom the less impact but there is another factor in 'ride' and that is all up speed. If you go slow (and at my advanced age I do and I prefer too ) the impact or ride of the boat is much improved! Isn't it funny that going fast pounds, while going slow slides smoothly? But younger people like hard riding faster boats, while older people seem to like the softer ride of slower paced travel?

So, younger people are less 'impacted' by a hard ride (pun intended) and older bodies seem more impacted by that harder ride (double pun intended) therefore paying 130$ per hour to run a pair of 300hp engines and beat my worldly carcass into more jello and pain-in-the-morning is much less appealing to me than spending a third that amount and hour (meaning my money in fuels goes 3X farther) and wake up having spent an enjoyable day or two on the water.

First Mates: I think the rule of thumb is "if the cook is happy the home is happy" so if you're fortunate enough that your First Mate will actually leave the hard with you - afloat? Then: don't do something that will change that good fortune. MY Rules of thumb for boats that will accommodate a 1st Mate:
#1 Closed in cabin;
#2 Cabin heater;
#3 Closed in head and
#4 enough of a galley to wash and clean the surfaces-

Of course from this distance all my speculation may be bilge water? But those are the considerations I've seen mistaken and well made with the associated results.

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai, AK

[hamachitoro]

Hey tin pants, there's a 22' Armstrong hard top cuddy for sale right now on Craigslist for $40k. I bet you could talk em down. Nice little boat.

[hamachitoro]

Seattle craigslist.