Small boat for kids
07-25-2019, 02:48 PM
#11
Registered
iTrader: (1)
$100,000 + ski boat seems to be the ticket around here. Doh !
07-25-2019, 02:56 PM
#12
Registered
13' Whaler!
07-26-2019, 06:17 PM
#13
Registered
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Hudson Valley New York
Posts: 208
Likes: 0
Received 10 Likes
on
8 Posts
I had a 13' Mini Hawk with a 25 Tohatsu. The boat was so much fun. Your soo close to the water, it feels faster than you are going. Had complete guage set, fixed fuel tank, lights, battery, the works.
07-26-2019, 10:50 PM
#14
Gold Member
Gold Member
I've wanted to buy my kids a Donzi, and will at some point in the next couple years. Went and looked at a 16. They are quite small and I don't think would be right for our water. Think an 18 or 20 would be better.....
07-27-2019, 05:28 AM
#15
Registered
Recently seen a couple of 10’ GW Invaders locally.
Way cool boat w/style.
Also after w/the Whalers.
Grew up in a 13’ and have had two since then.
Unsinkable, float in a heavy dew, and as Ziemer said, won’t lose any money.
Way cool boat w/style.
Also after w/the Whalers.
Grew up in a 13’ and have had two since then.
Unsinkable, float in a heavy dew, and as Ziemer said, won’t lose any money.
07-27-2019, 10:49 AM
#18
Registered
Any better perimeters than "small boat for the kids" - age of kids, expectations, use, budget, LOA and power min/max.
Personally, I would opt for a Mako CC over a Whaler - better/dryer ride, still holds value, can tube or whatever behind one (with appropriate power) and bigger resale audience...can carry more load (people or gear) w/o significant bow steer and loosing freeboard
Mini hawks are a cool lil beast... Grew or someone tried to get into the mini market (tons of osmosis).
16 Donzi - watch these things - nice ride, fun with the small block 8's and good manners around the dock. They can scare the hell out of you riding alone or if the load is off balance. Had a 16' 2+2 and if you backed off the throttle with one person in the boat or 3... the automatic tendency was for the boat to flop off riding the v and it was an underwear filling few moments until the boat resettled - ours wasn't the only one... 18 and 22 did not do this in the slightest and ride only gets better with length..
Personally, I would opt for a Mako CC over a Whaler - better/dryer ride, still holds value, can tube or whatever behind one (with appropriate power) and bigger resale audience...can carry more load (people or gear) w/o significant bow steer and loosing freeboard
Mini hawks are a cool lil beast... Grew or someone tried to get into the mini market (tons of osmosis).
16 Donzi - watch these things - nice ride, fun with the small block 8's and good manners around the dock. They can scare the hell out of you riding alone or if the load is off balance. Had a 16' 2+2 and if you backed off the throttle with one person in the boat or 3... the automatic tendency was for the boat to flop off riding the v and it was an underwear filling few moments until the boat resettled - ours wasn't the only one... 18 and 22 did not do this in the slightest and ride only gets better with length..
Last edited by speicher lane; 07-27-2019 at 10:51 AM.
07-27-2019, 03:05 PM
#19
Registered
We bought one to use for vacation one yr.
Place we were staying had rentals but were expensive and border line rigs.
Knew this from staying there before so bought a 13’ Whaler just for that trip then tow it north after vacation and sell.
I remember two things.
Number one was where we were you had to pay attention to tide and shallow backwaters if you were on the golf.
Based on that we drove the boat to a large local marina to buy a chart of the local area for navigation.
I remember the guy asking what boat we had and I pointed to our dock lines going down below the bulkhead from their dock posts and you couldn’t even see our boat :-)
He handed me a chart, laughed and said this will be fine.
We went back the next day to get another chart for more area of exploration!
Second part of the story was going out the next day and exploring, and knowing that it had a 6 inch draft that a mako does not, and heading into 5 inch deep water at 20 miles an hour and coming to a grinding halt.
Got out in my flip-flops, tilted up the motor and pushed it into Deepwater.
Without the Mrs. even spelling her drink.
I have many whaler stories that another boat could not have done.
Place we were staying had rentals but were expensive and border line rigs.
Knew this from staying there before so bought a 13’ Whaler just for that trip then tow it north after vacation and sell.
I remember two things.
Number one was where we were you had to pay attention to tide and shallow backwaters if you were on the golf.
Based on that we drove the boat to a large local marina to buy a chart of the local area for navigation.
I remember the guy asking what boat we had and I pointed to our dock lines going down below the bulkhead from their dock posts and you couldn’t even see our boat :-)
He handed me a chart, laughed and said this will be fine.
We went back the next day to get another chart for more area of exploration!
Second part of the story was going out the next day and exploring, and knowing that it had a 6 inch draft that a mako does not, and heading into 5 inch deep water at 20 miles an hour and coming to a grinding halt.
Got out in my flip-flops, tilted up the motor and pushed it into Deepwater.
Without the Mrs. even spelling her drink.
I have many whaler stories that another boat could not have done.
07-28-2019, 11:54 AM
#20
VIP Member
VIP Member
I like the Whaler suggestions as I too had 13' and 15' Whalers growing up, then an 18' Donzi while in college at the Jersey shore. The Whalers were great boats, lots of fun, and the Whalers gave my mother peace of mind that it was unsinkable, and my father liked the idea of the Whaler never decreasing in value (we bought used Whalers), which they held their value.
I would have preferred an Allison, Hydrostream. or a 16' Carlson tunnel boat but my desire for speed at age 5 through 18 was not the deciding factor, my parent's common sense that I would have been driving the hot-rod type boats beyond my skill set as an elementary school age kid was the reason. I had flipped a 10' aluminum boat with a 5.5 Evinrude O/B with tiller control arm in Absecon inlet while jumping while sport fishing boat waves, causing my small boat to fly like my father's Cigarette and previous Donzi's that were entering and leaving the Farley State Marina waves at age 7, with my parents on the beach at the Cove in Brigintine.
Thank goodness the bench seats had flotation or it would have sunk; I was thrown a rope by the same sport fishing boat that I flipped from it's wake then hooked the rope to my nasal green colored aluminum boat and I was towed close enough to the beach so that the adults could swim out and pull me onto the beach with my boat barely afloat. My parents were scorned and lectured by others on the beach that day for allowing their young son to boat on his own so young in that "sh*t pile" aluminum boat. It was quite the spectacle. But I was an athletic and rebellious boy who demanded redemption so back out on the water I went. My father got the motor fired up, I got out on the water again and went boating, again, but less reckless that same day. Mother insisted since I was a maniac boater trying to emulate his father that I need an unsinkable Whaler.
I would have preferred an Allison, Hydrostream. or a 16' Carlson tunnel boat but my desire for speed at age 5 through 18 was not the deciding factor, my parent's common sense that I would have been driving the hot-rod type boats beyond my skill set as an elementary school age kid was the reason. I had flipped a 10' aluminum boat with a 5.5 Evinrude O/B with tiller control arm in Absecon inlet while jumping while sport fishing boat waves, causing my small boat to fly like my father's Cigarette and previous Donzi's that were entering and leaving the Farley State Marina waves at age 7, with my parents on the beach at the Cove in Brigintine.
Thank goodness the bench seats had flotation or it would have sunk; I was thrown a rope by the same sport fishing boat that I flipped from it's wake then hooked the rope to my nasal green colored aluminum boat and I was towed close enough to the beach so that the adults could swim out and pull me onto the beach with my boat barely afloat. My parents were scorned and lectured by others on the beach that day for allowing their young son to boat on his own so young in that "sh*t pile" aluminum boat. It was quite the spectacle. But I was an athletic and rebellious boy who demanded redemption so back out on the water I went. My father got the motor fired up, I got out on the water again and went boating, again, but less reckless that same day. Mother insisted since I was a maniac boater trying to emulate his father that I need an unsinkable Whaler.
Last edited by Smarty; 07-28-2019 at 12:40 PM. Reason: Sh*t
