Boat Recommendations

[ChooChooSnakeMan]

My first two boats were fish and ski boats. We loved them but 8 adults in a 19 to 20 foot boat is not practical. If you really need to haul that many on a regular basis then you need a larger bowrider / deckboat in my opinion. My first fish & ski was an Ebbtide Dynatrak 18' with a 115 merc outboard. It was great for my wife and I and our two girls as they grew up. When they got bigger and wanted to bring friends along we needed more boat so I got a 20' Viper Coral 202 with a 225 Merc EFI outboard. Now that our girls are grown with husbands and 5 kids between them we needed a much bigger boat to handle 11 of us. I found a low hours great condition Ebbtide 26 1/2' Fun Cruiser and we love it. Even with 26 1/2' I wouldn't want to have many more than 11 on it, unless it was just to sit down and go for a ride to dinner and back. The Ebbtide and Viper boats have not been made in a long time. I will say that we had the Viper for 11 years and it was a fantastic boat. It would run 70 mph loaded light and the Coral models were known as one of the best if not the best fish & ski boats for fishing. The live-well was 40 gallons and the storage space was great. I tournament bass fished out of it and didn't really feel at a disadvantage compared to the guys with the big bass boats. In cold weather the full windshield was pretty nice! The Coral Fish & Ski is a bass boat hull with a Fish & Ski cap as opposed to other brands which are more runabout hulls with a fish & ski cap. If you can find a Coral 202 in good condition I think you would be pleased. Skeeter also made a fish & ski for many years that had a good reputation. Good luck with your search.