Beautiful boat!

Progressions kick Arss! always pricey though, but you get what you pay for.

22 Activator, one of my all time favorites, but pretty rare.

If your're looking to pull the trigger quick get a Velocity, there's always a few for sale and usually under 10k for an 80's model.

.....and it sounds like you're leaning towards an outboard, good choice for the fam, more interior room

Yeah def leaning towards the outboard. Having more room will be awesome, plus I've already got the jet which has a big block, so an outboard will be a nice chanage.

How does the Donzi 18 Classic handle lake chop? What is the deadrise on it ?

For an economical 20'-22' boat my friend had a Chaparral Villain II with a Mercruiser 300 Tempest sbc. It was a fun boat and we beat the crap out of it.
Not mine.
http://orlando.craigslist.org/boa/1790890029.html

Checkmate had some nice looking 20 ish foot outboard powered boats back in the day that would fit your budget.

Love my Velocity 22. The outboard version has quite a bit more space in the cockpit too.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...o/IMG_0906.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...IMG_0900-1.jpg

My friend runs his out in the ocean all the time. It's an immaculate 1984 18' Donzi with a built 377 small block. Puts out around 425HP. It's amazing what that boat can handle.