After a fair bit of complaining my wife has finally agreed to give her blessing on me buying a new (or used) boat. I mostly like to fish in the sound though I will occassionaly chase trout or perch in freshwater should things in the sound be slow or I'm taking the kids out. I've decided that I want to go welded aluminum with an outboard and have been looking at all the boats you might expect including Alumaweld, Hewescraft, Duckworth, Smokercraft, North River, etc.

Like most people these days I don't have tons of money to spend and am therefore looking at boats in the 17' - 18' range. Here's my question...

Would a 17' or 18' boat be large enough for two guys to safely make a run say from somewhere like Mukilteo to Point no Point in reasonable (not perfect but not stormy) conditions? Or would I really need to step up to a 20' or large to make runs like that?

Thanks in advance,

Aaron