Thread: SE AK boat help

New to Southeast Alaska and am looking at boat options. All my experience is from the east coast so this whole aluminum craze is foreign to me. Anybody here have any advice? I am looking in the 20' range, outboard only. Me, my wife and 3 year old and/or a buddy or two for mainly day trips. Brands that keep popping up in my search's are hewescraft and just ran across a cdory that got the wife all excited.

C dory is a solid glass boat. I'd avoid hewescrap like the plague. If you're not doing overnights then aluminium is your best option, low maintenance and durable but cold. Glass is heavier so it needs more power =$$$ needs more maintenance but warm and quiet. If you're hunting, aluminium too dangerous to beach a glass boat in rocky southeast Alaska.

Price range?

here's a couple brands i would look at

Almar

Pacific Skiff

Here's a classified that sees lots of good aluminum boats.

http://aluminumalloyboats.com/viewfo...939d59fbfe9538

I'm partial to Almars since I ran one for six years off the Washington Coast. Occasionally a pretty sweet one will come up for sale (still kicking myself over not checking out a 19' pilothouse about a year ago). I also like Lee Shore boats but they don't come up for sale all that often.

Originally Posted by BFD

Price range?

I'd love to keep it under $30k. Overnights would be cool with the right boat but not mandatory. I have a 3 year old so a berth for him to chill in would allow for more time on the water.

Well look around for something used, my buddy got a nice 20' bayliner for $4k lots of boats for sale just keep your eyes out...

Probably lots of hewescraft/other pukers for sale around.

He wants a boat for the ocean not a shitty lake boat. He also sounds short on experience, no offence, so a seaworthy tough boat is what he needs. My uncle and cousin died in Frederick sound, experienced mariners both, southeast is dangerous. Get the right boat.

yeah, more than enough time spent on lakes with ski nautiques, hurricanes, etc and a 17' bass boat that I left behind in the move. Defintetely don't want a lake type boat. Also spent some time on a 24' center console whaler with a 250hp off the NJ coast. Literally no experience on southeast waters. I will be easing into it. I'm lining up trips with as many people as possible to get a feel for the water. Just starting the boat search. Thanks for any help provided.

not many whaler's around. What we got here is chop, not swell, currents and shit make for some weird weird water. Most of my friends have 16 foot(ish) lunds which are pretty sweet for hanging out close to Auke Bay trolling in Tee Harbor etc. Some have boats with cabins, mostly bayliners (which aren't great) because you can find them cheap. the average puker likes hewsecraft, I do not.

If I were buying a boat it would have to be small enough that I would be able to afford using, meaning a smallish motor. I'm guessing you don't want a skiff, but I like em, harder to get in trouble when your boat has no cabin because going out in snotty weather is so horrible you will never want to do it. A 22' skiff with a simple cabin is pretty sweet

I'll be there in August if you need help finding fish

Find me in August. Would be happy to take you up on finding fish.

gotta ask as i haven't heard the term yet....puker??

Puker, beer can, weekend warrior, people that have no business on the water. Sometimes charter boats are referred to as pukers.

Day trips to fish (glass ok, c dory is nice) or day trips to hunt and explore islands/coves on foot (no glass)? (or you can buy an inflatable to get back and forth from anchor = pita)

Everyone I know with a boat out here has aluminum for personal use, no berths in your price range (add another $10-15K+, hell add a lot more for two big kickers, like Jed said), but some with a pilot house (which can be a godsend).

-And to reiterate what has been said, it is not the swell, it is the wind chop and currents that you need to learn to deal with. Get some training before you take your lady and baby out and get some survival suits. I know a bunch of people who have spent time in the water, some don't come back, some come back and are different, none are the same as they were.

my next door neighbors, Dad's a real hero, they are all tough as nails.
http://www.viking-life.com/viking.ns...kanwaters.html

I'm (not too seriously) looking for a 16-20' Lund/Alaskan with a 35 kicker, or so, for subsistence use and getting places. -not what you are looking for

Good Luck in your search and remember getting home is the ultimate goal.

Old seine skiffs are awesome too. For simple burly boats that can take water

Especially in Kodiak I wouldn't trust my life to a lund, they capsize too easily.

A lund is fine in Kodiak as long and you don't plan to run up around the cape... Nice boat for the 3 bays and easy enough to trailer over to anton larsen

Seine skiffs are sweet

Puker= Sportfisher

Sure a lund is fine if you pick your days and never go out when its bumpy. But he's talking about Kodiak. A seine skiff is almost infinitely better for running around on the Rock. I wouldn't take a lund past buoy 11 any day but a real skiff, no problem. Lund is what my uncle and cousin died in, capsized.

Seine skiffs are unwieldy out of the water, I want something I could drag a bit, otherwise I love those tubs.

I would definitely be picking my days.

Talk about sketchy, my buddies 14' Whaler is scu-haaary

-Sorry to hear about your family Jed, that sucks.

yeah lunds definately aren't the best choice for Kodiak, but workable. I'd rather have something welded in the 22 foot range

Why bother dragging a boat? Just anchor it up Aleut style.

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I would buy something like this.
http://crboats-permits.com/bowpicker0149.html
however it is not what you want. Your wife likes the sea dory because it has a cabin. I agree. Don't take your family out in an open skiff. When my kid were little we had a Bayliner Contessa. It was a great family boat. I didn't like the inboard gas motor. I would recommend take your time spend some time in the harbor and see what other people are running.

You need something like this.....a very plucky and rugged little aluminum boat.

http://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/2913290559.html
my opinion is if it is light enough to drag around on the beach you really do not want your family in it.

Originally Posted by BFD

http://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/2913290559.html
my opinion is if it is light enough to drag around on the beach you really do not want your family in it.

A hewescrap? I used to work at Silver Streak and we did a lot of aftermarket mods to those, unless they've changed they're not well built.
I'm totally with you on the dragging thing though. Except with a zodiac, I'd put my family in a zodiac.

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I might have misinterpreted your thread, BlueBird. The other boat I posted might be a little more than you wanted...but the cuddy cabin DOES come in handy...as well as the aluminum hull.

But here is another option...an aluminum RIB.

They come in a variety of sizes...and the inflatable hypalon rubber pontoons will give it quite a bit more stability over a plain aluminum skiff like a Lunde. They DO cost a bit more...so expect that.

Down in SE, you'll get a lot of crazy, ferocious williwaw winds that come down from the mountains and icefields...sometimes blowing 70-80 knots in minutes and then gone. That, and the countering channel currents can wreak havoc on small boats and turn an afternoon outing to a disaster in very short order. Make sure you get something substantial enough for the conditions planned.

The best advice for you is to do what BFD suggested and watch the local Juneau float docks and see what the locals are using. If you're just talking about day-trips to sheltered areas around Douglas, then an open boat might do. Anything else, get a cuddy/stand-up pilothouse.

Oh yes...like someone said...make sure you pick-up a set of 'gumby' survival suits...you can pick them up cheap from chandlery surplus stores and craigslist/ebay. They can and DO save lives!!

Originally Posted by Chugachjed

A hewescrap? I used to work at Silver Streak and we did a lot of aftermarket mods to those, unless they've changed they're not well built.
I'm totally with you on the dragging thing though. Except with a zodiac, I'd put my family in a zodiac.

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This particular boat is a Hewes... It doesn't look all that 'crappy' to me....at least from the pic. Never been aboard one, so not sure of their stability...they're pretty popular for river work, though....I see them all over Ak.

Looks like a fiberglass house, though....I'd rather prefer an aluminum house.