Bill,
Let me try to explain a little more about what I'm wanting (no needing here BTW
). The way we typically boat is we head to a popular cove where there are 6-8 other cruisers/boats with our closest friends generally all tied side to side. We'll remain tied up most of the day, often times in the middle of the tie up, and there are many young kids that invariably want to do tubing around the lake to have some fun and right now I'm the guy who ends up on our Seadoo pulling 1 or 2 tubes for an hour or two. The Seadoo works fine but isn't very comfortable for long stints, doesn't have a bimini, and I get a 'thumb cramp' trying to hold 20 mph. It can be a lonely ride too which wouldn't be the case with a small runabout where others could join to watch the tubers.
That's the first scenario. The other scenario is the weather is marginal and we're hanging around in our covered slip and everyone is getting bored. We don't like getting caught in a storm in the 328 if we can avoid it because dealing with putting up the canvas and later drying it out and putting it away is a laborious task. It may sound petty but it's a lot of work and I'm looking for R&R not canvas duty. So with a small runabout we could go out, get wet, no big deal, right? It's a 17' boat after all, can't be that much work to dry it out. Plus with a small runabout you can quickly pick up and go and avoid the rain altogether. Not the case in a 328. The reason I'm looking for more than five seats is there are four of us and we commonly have 3 or 4 guests that spend the day with us and all told there's as many as 8 of us that would potentially go for a spin in the runabout. Whether it's a rainy day, a quick trip to have breakfast, going to visit with friends, no matter, it's a lot easier in a small boat and I just don't think 5 seats is enough.
Two years ago, we did briefly own a jet boat, a Seadoo 180 Challenger with twin 110HP 2 strokes for 2 days. We bought the boat used and subject to a water test. What a surprise! The boat handled poorly at the dock with handling that wasn't intuitive at all. The engines were noisy and prevented normal conversation while underway. There was a lack of wind protection and the ride was not that great. Fortunately the person I bought from was understanding and let me return the boat for a full refund. I have no regrets there. Both Seadoo and Yamaha make larger and better boats these days that aren't noisy and have wind protection but they are all heavier, some by a bunch, and require more maintenance than the modern 2 and 4 stroke runabouts. I'm convinced now more than before that a 17-20' OB boat is really what we're looking for. Jet boats are too small or too heavy and IO's are just plain too heavy at least if I'm able to tow underway. If towing turns out not to be an option, I'd very much head in the diirection of a 20' or so IO or just skip the runabout altogether and keep doing what I'm already doing. Why is picking the right boat so difficult!
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