Actually, there are quite a few 17 x 60 and 18 x 60 boats out there. They're a tad slower to manuever ... but surprising not much and they are very nice to cast out of they create a stable platform. They also tend to hadle to shallow riffles well as the surface area supports loads better.

Once you graduate to one of those , then you can do as we do in AK ... many have 19 x 66, and most 20 x 72 ... mine's 21 x 72 (second largest in servcie that I know of) and there's even one that is even a 24 foot Willie's(had to use two sheets of aluminum welded together) ... I don't know exact width on that boat.

My 16 x 54 feels like I'm rowing a pop can the first week back in service after rowing my big 'un all summer