Thunor

That's a nice little boat you have there jewgaffer, I hadn't heard of them before. My old boat was a little stabi, I'd love another but they are a little costly now Like your surf friendly boat, what I loved about the stabi was its "go anywhere" useability. I could get it over really shallow bars (25-40cm or so with the motor trimmed right up) I just really want to build my own boat this time around to save $$ and to get precisely what I want. Plus I just like building things, its half the fun Sounds like it was a realy nice boat. Little too big for my purposes though I think...

Thank you for all the responses so far! I had the smaller trailcraft in mind when I made the thread, along with a trailcraft-esque custom centre console I'd tried. The self-draining deck makes sense on paper, but I'm just thinking the danger of going overboard in rolling conditions with those low sides, along with the fact you can't stand up against the sides when fighting a fish, it kind've puts me off. And with the deck raised, I get the feeling that the whole boat is top heavy, or would roll easily. Perhaps I'm wrong, but that's just how I felt when in the boat. I want a small, safe, eminently practical boat. Was going to either buy a kit, or get something designed. Something like this is in the right ballpark (a smaller trailcraft type thing) http://www.marinekits.com/catalogue.php?id=85 If a wave broke this boat, it would all just go straight out the open back so fast that the air underneath the deck would not have the time to want to "flip" the boat (if that makes any sense) the lip on the transom is to prevent wash slopping freely into the boat I imagine... And the internal freeboard seems reasonably high enough, and not knee height. Any thoughts/ideas welcome...

Are self-draining decks worthwhile in a smaller boat, say 4.8m-5.5m range? With the deck sealed and raised to allow for scuppers, it makes me feel like the internal freeboard is only knee high, which just doesn't feel safe. So, are they genuinely functional and a worthwhile trade-off for internal freeboard? Or a kind've pointless sales feature in that sized boat?