I ran around for years on 17 foot Carolina Skiffs. Some tales of crossing the sound are now the stuff of legend, but real trouble never came close, fear of it sure did though
I have a 16ft Gheenoe with a 9.9 and go all kinds of places I probably should not. I get plenty of odd looks from other boaters that seem to say, "What is that nut doing?"
when I lived on the coast, I did just fine with a 14 jb and a 7.5hp motor, but I was always a little jealous of my friends with "real" boats, but never jealous of their maintenance and costs.
Ive run 16 bass tracker and now a new 14 tracker set up for fly and its got real western on me around Tybee sound st catherines and ssi. I stick to rivers now. Scared the mess out of me.