"Dan" wrote

When I was in the Air Force I spent time at sea on Navy boats. My
primary function seemed to be getting lost on board those things. I think
I will stick to small boats.

If you want to dink around on inland lakes, a 16 or 19 foot is fine. If you
want to sleep aboard or go out on the Great Lakes or the Oceans, you need to
think in the 23 foot and up range.

As far as the smaller ones being easy to sail on, my dad and I started on an
O'day 25, and it was not hard at all. You might want to look into O'day if
you are buying. Shoal draft, swing board keel, and not to hard to trailer
with a 3/4 ton van or truck, with at least a 350 engine. I think you can
find them with an inboard diesel, and that is the way to go. We started
with an outboard, and we converted it to an inboard Yanmar diesel. Tricky,
but my dad was an engineer, and we figured it out just fine. Plenty of room
to sleep aboard, but I don't think you would want to live aboard for very
long. You could, if it was just 2 people, and you put in some extras,
though.

I know what you mean about thinking of building a boat. The thought has
crossed my mind more than once.;-)

An airplane is more capable of getting to more places more rapidly, though!
(required aviation componentg)
--
Jim in NC