Fishing boats for east coast of Florida?

[tuffr2]

Let me ask two more questions:

1. Is it unreasonable to run out to the gulf stream to fish? Like if I want to fish for Dolphin?

2. Is it unreasonable to try to go out overnight. Fishing two days and sleeping one night?



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[valhalla360]

1. Sure you can run out to fish for the day. Lots of people do.
2. For this I would be looking at a bigger flybridge boat with a full cabin. (though you will find the occasional die hard doing it in smaller cuddy cabin boats or even open boats but I wouldn't recommend it)


While Bertrams are nice, there are a number of mid range flybridge boats that will do the same tricks (silverton, mainship, luhrs, etc...) With a $40k budget, these are very doable. The ongoing expenses though will be much higher than the trailerable boat. Before buying our current boat, we sold a 31' silverton 1979 for $25k in good running order.


Even with the slower 20kt boats, a day trip is still very doable. That's basically 2hrs out and 2 hrs back. You can probably knock a 1/2 hr off each way if you don't mind the fuel bill.

[tuffr2]

I do not want a boat that I can not trailer. I want the boat to get cleaned and gassed up on land. I do not mind driving a bigger truck to tow the boat. Plus towing could get me to different locations in Florida and beyond.

My question about staying on the boat over night in the ocean is - how realistic is that? Can you stay on your boat where you can not anchor? How dangerous is staying on your boat at night? Can you sleep or do you need to stay awake to keep watch?

If it is unrealistic to stay on the ocean at night then I do not need a comfortable cabin.





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[Arthur Garfield]

"My question about staying on the boat over night in the ocean is - how realistic is that? Can you stay on your boat where you can not anchor? How dangerous is staying on your boat at night? Can you sleep or do you need to stay awake to keep watch?

If it is unrealistic to stay on the ocean at night then I do not need a comfortable cabin."


Very realistic-many sleep out in ocean.
sailboats heave to,power boats drift or sea anchor or drouge.

Please don't take personally but your question are quite Naive'.
Start your wayfarring/fishing hanging around fishing docks /make friends
and fish this way out over ocean.
Smaller the boat more you'll get knocked around.
Take boating COURSES !
Whatever vessel you decide and further out you go-greater safety gear
you should use-anything less and you lose certain amounts of safety factors !

When the wind is out of north the gulf stands up and feels terrible to body.


All the Best

[Stumble]

Tuff,

We routinely run out 40 miles and back for the night. Most of the mid 20' boats discussed here are perfectly safe (assuming an awake watch keeper) but it isn't very comfortable or very much fun on a center console. There is also a question of range. If you are trolling on many of these boats there is just a limit to how long you can realistically stay on station.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

To take the wife I need a hardtop for shade, and at least semi-comforable. Oh, she liked the 38' Fountain..ugh.

Key point: shop for boats with good heads. And then if you intend to overnight, with other key "comfort" features your wife can likely list. Then find a boat wrapped around those key features.

Some center consoles have minimal sleeping quarters; Grady and Boston in the 30' range both come to mind as examples. Those are the high-priced spread, but other's likely exist too. (Stamas? etc.)

Otherwise, cuddy cabins can probably work.

Beam can affect towing rules. Up to 10' is usually OK but days/hours are often slightly restricted. Shouldn't be a big deal for planned towing, but research on the topic will likely be useful.

In my mind, two outboards are better than 3, 4, 8, whatever. (I would probably even prefer 1, for coastal work and with unlimited towing insurance.)

Inboard diesel is even better... but that comes with additional issues, there aren't that many models in the "short" range, etc.

-Chris