I'm looking at getting a boat for family fun. I want something with a lot of room on the deck/cockpit, but not a pontoon boat. I want to be able to pull tubes and kneeboards, don't care so much about wakeboarding. Of course fishing is important, so want it to be able to mount a trolling motor and have comfortable deck for fishing. I want an outboard for fuel efficiency and easy maintenance. 22' to 24' and trailerable.

 

So far the only boat I've found that really fits all those things is the Lowe Suncruiser/Tahiti/SD 220/224. With a 150 hp motor it should have enough power to pull stuff. Aluminum hull, so lighter weight should return more performance and economy than a fiberglass hull. 

 

I've been finding 2008 models for around $15,000. I don't want to spend much more than that. They seem to have Merc Optimax 2 strokes on them around that time.

 

Anybody own one of these? Anybody have a suggestion for other similar boats?

My wife had a 19’ deck boat with a 150 Yamaha.  She loved that boat.  It was a great family boat.  The draw back was the high sides made it extremely hard to control when fishing with any wind blowing.

4 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

My wife had a 19’ deck boat with a 150 Yamaha.  She loved that boat.  It was a great family boat.  The draw back was the high sides made it extremely hard to control when fishing with any wind blowing.

Yeah, I can see that being a big issue. It would mostly be just for cruising and hanging out on the lake, so it wouldn't see much serious fishing from it. I was planning on putting a terrova or similar trolling motor on it with remote control and spot lock, etc. 

Sea Ark has the Easy and the Big Easy which sound like what you are looking for 

12 minutes ago, slonezp said:

Sea Ark has the Easy and the Big Easy which sound like what you are looking for 

Those look neat, but not quite as open on deck as the Lowe.