Re: Ready for a boat... again!
I don't know the St Augustine area, but in my area, the back bays are extremely shallow in some areas at low tide, so a shallow V deck boat is ideal. They only draw about 13". On the other hand, I would not like to take such a boat thru the inlet out to the ocean, so a deeper V boat would be better if you plan that, and if your bays are over 3' deep at low tide.
Regarding deck boats:
In the early '90s, deck boats looked exactly like pontoon boats (aluminum fence around a plywood-carpeted deck), but they had a shallow V fiberglass hull.
In the late '90-early-2000's they still had the same shallow V fiberglass hull, but the deck area was much nicer fiberglass molded, with better layout and upgrades like sinks and heads (toilets) and such. Most had only a pilot console, but some were duel console with windshields in front of the pilot and copilot seats. These are my favorite designs.
A lot of the modern deck boats are not what I would call deck boats at all, but may be the kind of boat you are looking for. Some of the modern deck boats have a deep V, like a bowrider, but the bowrider area is much bigger than a normal bowrider. It's like they took a normal 19' bowrider and stretched the front of the boat seating area out to make lounge areas in a 22-24' boat. With the deep V, you get a better ride in the chop, but you also sit deeper in the water, so you may have to be careful in the back bays at low tide to avoid grounding in the muck.
You can see from my avatar pic that I couldn't find a deck boat and settled for a deep V bow rider. I carry a special telescoping pole with a wide-footprint base attached for pushing me off the muck when I get stuck. If that doesn't work, I also have a pair of waders for donning when I have to jump out and push the boat off the muck-bar like in the movie 'African Queen'. Now that I've had this boat for a couple of years, I tend to think the deep V I got is the better choice. It seems I encounter choppy water more often than I get stuck in the shallows, so I do appreciate the better ride.
Also, if you expect to be out in choppy water, be aware of the boat's freeboard. Freeboard is the distance from the water to the top of the boats gunwale. You can see from my avatar pic that my boat has a lot of freeboard. It would take a huge wave to break over my bow. That's a nice feeling in nasty weather. Most shallow V deckboats have not much freeboard. The top of the gunwale is fairly close to the water. Most of the time that's no problem, and is handy to swim off of and retrieve your dog or kids from, but you can imagine how much fun it would not be for ocean waves to crash over your low bow.
