I am relatively young, but have been lucky enough to have been able to enjoy being on and operating a boat since I was 15 (30 now so half of my life). My family has owned 3 Center Consoles ranging from 20’-28’ during that time and in 2020 my dad and I purchased our current boat; a 26’ diesel powered center console. For those “in the know” a straight shaft inboard center console is a pretty rare breed, fitting for a P-F member
. Like any boat it has its compromises and is far from perfect, it’s slow, loud, has no usable storage space under the console as that’s where the engine lives, and being a single screw is terrible at low speed maneuvering. But the upside is the seaworthiness with all of the iron down low in the bilge, clean transom, it trolls/fishes like a big boat, and is very fuel efficient.
I routinely have been a 220-300+ hr per year user. Which for those less familiar with boats, is to say very high usage for someone with a full time job. My game is primarily inshore/midshore fishing in the NE from May-November anywhere from 1 mile to 80 miles from our slip.
Boat ownership is absolute headache and a money pit like no other, truly. It’s the only reason I stay in my godforsaken state, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The last 3 seasons I’ve slowly optimized the boat for the way we fish and it’s a constant work in progress but it is getting to a place where I am pretty happy with it. In fact I will be taking the coursework for my OUPV license starting tomorrow and am looking forward to starting to run some guide trips and do a little more “over the table” commercial fishing in the coming years.
This post is a bit of a ramble and I’m sure I’ll to it and the thread later.
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