Panhandler
Senior Member
We have leased our house and are headed to the USVI for a minimum of three months (not including travel time) after hurricane season. One of the many questions we are facing is what to do with out 22' center console bay boat. A 2012 with a Yamaha F150, it's been our do anything go anywhere boat for the Florida panhandle and my wife and I both love it. About once a week one of us will mention selling it and the other asks "could we just tow it down with us?"
Part of me believes it's a bad idea to even think of towing the bay boat down. It would be a pain if we stay at marinas, it can't handle bad weather as easily as our 52' trawler, the bay boat would probably be easy to steal, and I'm just not crazy about the idea of towing such a large boat such a distance. However, it would be a lot of fun to explore in, fish out of, and it would be nice to have something more substantial than our 13' inflatable. We plan on taking our time getting to and coming back from the USVI and the bay boat would be great to explore with. And, with just a single engine trawler, I like the idea of having the bay boat as an extra safety measure. While not ideal, I'm sure it would move the trawler better than the 15hp on the inflatable in a worst case scenario.
What are your thoughts? What about the difficulty of towing something so large, relatively speaking? Theft? Would you sell the bay boat and look for a 14' Boston Whaler or something similar to tow? What am I not considering? Thanks!
Part of me believes it's a bad idea to even think of towing the bay boat down. It would be a pain if we stay at marinas, it can't handle bad weather as easily as our 52' trawler, the bay boat would probably be easy to steal, and I'm just not crazy about the idea of towing such a large boat such a distance. However, it would be a lot of fun to explore in, fish out of, and it would be nice to have something more substantial than our 13' inflatable. We plan on taking our time getting to and coming back from the USVI and the bay boat would be great to explore with. And, with just a single engine trawler, I like the idea of having the bay boat as an extra safety measure. While not ideal, I'm sure it would move the trawler better than the 15hp on the inflatable in a worst case scenario.
What are your thoughts? What about the difficulty of towing something so large, relatively speaking? Theft? Would you sell the bay boat and look for a 14' Boston Whaler or something similar to tow? What am I not considering? Thanks!