danattherock
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- Joined
- Mar 5, 2013
- Messages
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Been searching for a boat off and on for 2 years. Wife and I got a small son and a german shepherd that goes everywhere we go. Want room to take a buddy here and there on certain fishing trips. Will be fishing lakes near home and shallows, creeks, and such at the coast. Bay boats for the most part are too expensive, and offer little open floor room in the boat. Flats boats are great for the fly fishing I am interested in, but are small and offer less room than the bay boats. Found a few boats I really liked, the Young Boats 20' Gulf Shore would be my dream boat, but I am having a hard time dropping $35-45k in a boat. A working man, but also, I got a few other expensive hobbies.
In the past few days I have been researching higher end all welded larger jon boats. Looking at Sea Ark currently, a 20 foot 72" wide (at floor) boat with 0.125" thick hull that would have a 115 HP Yamaha and side console. A custom order from Sea Ark in Arkansas, it would have gray hull, gray Gator-Hyde lining on the inside (truck bed liner), trolling motor mount and pre-wire, 0.125" tread plate flooring and optional side covers on gunwales to cover the ribs on the inside. This gives me a 145" side wall to mount my fly rods to, a very valuable thing to me personally as I fly fish exclusively. Three captain chairs on the back bench in matching gray and a Yeti cooler with cushion I can move to two locations with tie down brackets depending on if I need the extra seating for which it would accommodate two. If not needed for seating, would be on side of boat in front of side console, leaving a very wide open deck space.
Total is looking like $25,000, my max budget in recent months, of which most other boats of interest to me surpassed. It feels crazy and right all at the same time. As usual, looking for input here to gauge my sanity. First boat purchase and about to go nuts picking one out that meets my needs, yet I can afford. I have drove all over NC looking at boats, but at 6'6" 300 lbs, the ones I can afford seem like they are made for 3rd graders. Till I stumbled across this 20' jon boat with 95" beam and wide open floor plan.
Crazy to buy a $25k jon boat?
What say you?
#-o
This is a picture of the basic boat and layout, sans options listed above...
-Dan
In the past few days I have been researching higher end all welded larger jon boats. Looking at Sea Ark currently, a 20 foot 72" wide (at floor) boat with 0.125" thick hull that would have a 115 HP Yamaha and side console. A custom order from Sea Ark in Arkansas, it would have gray hull, gray Gator-Hyde lining on the inside (truck bed liner), trolling motor mount and pre-wire, 0.125" tread plate flooring and optional side covers on gunwales to cover the ribs on the inside. This gives me a 145" side wall to mount my fly rods to, a very valuable thing to me personally as I fly fish exclusively. Three captain chairs on the back bench in matching gray and a Yeti cooler with cushion I can move to two locations with tie down brackets depending on if I need the extra seating for which it would accommodate two. If not needed for seating, would be on side of boat in front of side console, leaving a very wide open deck space.
Total is looking like $25,000, my max budget in recent months, of which most other boats of interest to me surpassed. It feels crazy and right all at the same time. As usual, looking for input here to gauge my sanity. First boat purchase and about to go nuts picking one out that meets my needs, yet I can afford. I have drove all over NC looking at boats, but at 6'6" 300 lbs, the ones I can afford seem like they are made for 3rd graders. Till I stumbled across this 20' jon boat with 95" beam and wide open floor plan.
Crazy to buy a $25k jon boat?
What say you?
#-o
This is a picture of the basic boat and layout, sans options listed above...
-Dan