I'm the guy with the 14' Alaskan that Brian is talking about, and I have a few idea's on this subject.
First the advantages of the 14' Alaskan. It's light, so you don't need much horsepower to push it around. It has an old 18 horse Merc with a prop that I use in the salt. It gets on plane with two people in about 5 seconds and runs over 20mph. (according to GPS). With Brians old 20jet, in the rivers it takes longer to get on plane, but it does the job. I have used it to get around on the Sauk, Skagit, Skykomish, and this year on the Bulkley. It was cheap, lessened the amount of 'splainin to the spouse. Now the disadvantages, It's light and cheap. Because of the light wieght you take a pounding in the chop, and the wind does move you around a little. Also the thin aluminum would probably not stand up to some of the stunts I have seen people pull with sleds, in the river. In the 5 years I have had it I have spent 100+ days fishing the salt, about half of that at Sekui. My buddy and I have hooked hundreds of salmon and covered most of the water in Puget Sound. It was by far the best investment in fishing equipment that I have made, but for the last couple of years I have been wanting something bigger. My Ideal boat would have to be dual pourpose river/saltwater. That pretty much eliminates the Whalers, Grady Whites etc. It would need to have room for 4, and be heavy enough to smooth out some of the chop. I'm thinking 18'-19' welded aluminum open (tiller steer) shallow V hull. Something like this http://www.alumaweldboats.com/svls.htm If any of you buy one like this and need a fishing buddy, let me know. The one thing better than having a boat, is having a buddy who has a boat ;-) -----Original Message----- From: Brian L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, November 30, 2001 11:11 PM Subject: Re: Boat advice - Boston Whaler or... >Gotta agree with Rob - i've been looking at smaller boats for South Sound, >lite Seiku, and (jet) river running too. A friend uses a 14' Smokercraft >Alaskan with my old 20hp MercJet on the Sky and Sauk in spring, then puts >the prop back on for salmon at Seiku and Central Sound fishing. I've been >with him on the Skagit and Sauk and it's a great rig for two people. > >The Lund series, Smokercraft, or Klamath (welded) are all on my list as I >browse Boat Trader every couple weeks. > >One thing I would recommend is to look at the 15' and 16' models - the 14' >has a tough time when in the larger swells and that the 15' models I've seen >are a lot more boat than you'd think for the extra foot and you'll be a lot >happier in open water. > >Tiller is nice cause you have more fishing space, but if you've gotta do a >lot of running it gets tiring quick. > >my .02, > >Brian > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp >
