Hello,<br /><br />We are looking to purchase a boat and want to make sure we are looking into the right style of boat.<br /><br />We are looking for something in the ~25k price range with the expectation of putting a couple more grand in to outfit the boat if it needs anything. <br /><br />We want to use it for going around the seattle area and over night trips to the san juan islands, basically the local area. <br /><br />We are novices, but after some time of shorter trips we'd like to venture out south down the coast of oregon and up to vancouver island. Then eventually when we have more experience, down to San Francisco or up the BC coast. <br /><br />My wife and I don't have any children, but we do have a couple of small 20-30lb dogs (a whippet and 2 basenjis) we'd like to take with us. We would also like to have onboard a some friends (say 4 others) for light entertaining, and maybe take 2 other adults with us from time to time on the shorter trips. We'd like to have enough room to take 2 bikes with us on the longer trips.<br /><br />We expect to keep it wet moored in the seattle area.<br /><br />What kind of features should we be looking for for these uses? What style of power boat?<br /><br />My wife likes the older style boats like 1960s chris craft connie or chris craft catalina style from the 70s or 80s. Are these boats very practical? One boat we both like is the 1979 Chris Craft 28. <br /><br />What kind of lifespan can a boat have? <br /><br />We'd like to get a ~28-33 foot boat, is that reasonable for novices(after taking courses), assuming we'd start out with closer trips and venturing to farther destinations as we get more experience.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Jeff & Willow
