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Marc:

I own a 2015 150 Super Sport. I use it on Lake Erie (famous for its chop and its quick-change weather). I am not familiar with your waters, so I can't compare. Lake Erie surprises most people who've never seen a Great Lake--it's an ocean. The water, however, is different in that we don't get swells often ... the shallowness of Lake Erie and the way it is situated in the weather means we get "chop", or waves with a short period (peak to peak).

We've taken in some water in these conditions. Over the bow one day with four people onboard, drift fishing, bow was into the waves, two people in the front, two in the rear, and the corner of the bow dug into a boat-wake enhanced wave. My kid got surprised by it, as he was focussing on a bag of chips, which was ruined by the water. The cold bucket of water he took also shocked him and his first reaction was to prepare for another. But no more came. Literally, a bucket of water was all that came over ... a big splash.

I have NEVER had water come over while running, the bow lifts up out of the water, has a nice deep V to cut through waves, has reverse chines to blow the spray down and away from the boat. We've not been out in a storm yet, though our biggest challenge was a blustery day in Sandusky Bay, where a combination of wave action right out of the lake and boat wake from huge yachts put seas in the three-foot range. We moved slowly, but with no danger of water over the bow.

The stern is my achilles heel. My usual ramp is right into the lake, so you back the boat down the ramp into waves. Because I like to go out only on nice days, this is never the problem. The problem is when the weather changes while I'm out and have to retrieve in bigger waves. A couple/few times I have done this and while attempting to dock, or while cranking the boat onto the trailer, the stern took waves over. The latest time I did this, I had a stiff breeze, had to take a couple stabs at docking, and made the mistake of backing past the end of the leeward side of the dock out into the waves. Instant four inches of water in the boat. That's about 500 pounds of weight. But ... got to the dock, got the boat on the trailer, and watched it all pour out the transom drain. One time when we launched, we forgot the plug and took water. We left the plug out, started moving, and it all drained out. I have no electric pump (though I am going to install one), and I have a manual pump which has never been used.

That's the water situation. Let's say this ... the new design 150, 130, etc have much higher side walls. In fact, that's the biggest change. Inside the design of this boat is the standard normal Whaler ... if you visualize a line from stem to stern, this boat does not point down into the water ... they just added height to the sides, which makes for a lot of added confidence and seaworthiness. The ONLY place I really worry about is the transom.

Seating. Tight. Half of my trips are by myself, in which case this is the greatest boat ever ... I can manhandle it at the ramp, docking, etc. I can put up my bimini while piloting, never leaving the helm.

But when it's my brother and my two sons, it gets tight. I chose the folding helm seats, which bolt through the standard bench seat. These are comfortable and the ONLY problem with them is you have to walk over the port-side seat to go front-to-back in the boat. The folded down seat has edges that rip the sh*t out of tender inner thigh areas. I thought about keeping the folding helm seat at the helm and replacing the other with a flat cushion, but I could not bring myself to make my wife or my brother sit as such. Just gotta be careful crossing over.

They make a fixed bucket seat option ... which will really get in the way of movement on the boat. One improvement we have thought of would be if the port-side (passenger) seat could reverse for fishing purposes (we troll from time to time).

We have the cooler seat pad, which is a good seat. That makes three seats on the boat. Seat number four is the fish cooler, un-padded thus far. Seat number five would be either on the bow or on the floor in front of the console. The corner "steps" are too small for seating in a moving boat. We do not have the bow cushion that would make that a comfortable area--we're more a fishing than cruising operation here.

As for power, I'm 260 pounds, my brother is 200, my sons are 190 and 150. No problem. The boat, you can feel, is different with that load, but not bad--plenty of power, no change to seaworthiness.

If we were going to regularly have four on board and fishing all the time, I would say I bought the wrong boat. A center console would have been better. But we're not ...

I still don't know if I answered the question ...

To me, I waited until I could afford a Whaler before buying ANY boat. I guess I regret 30 years of not being on the water ... but I was busy working all the time and raising little kids then, etc. I am such a Whaler fan I couldn't imagine any other boat. Here's what I really like.

1) Total and complete unsinkability. You will never see a news report or YouTube movie of a Whaler as she slips into Davy Jone's locker. You might see one swamped or flipped, but it's always going to float.

2) The way the hull feels ... durable, stiff, and quiet. No bilge. No hidden compartments. No rattling as you pound the waves. Every other boat will sink if you put a hole in her down low. I can run over whatever I want ... the boat will be fine. For Lake Erie, these newer-design deeper-V hulls are AWESOME. I can run pretty quickly across 1 to 2 footers, skimming over them, and when I do hit one hard, the hull doesn't slip sideways, or skate horizontally, or grab a wave and yank the boat. Even when I've gotten a little bit of air, the landing isn't a smack like some of the older Whalers.

3) The interior. I throw some biodegradable soap on the floor and swab the deck, the interior walls, the console, the seats, everything without too much care. Then I spray her down with the hose. Every other boat needs to be more delicately cared for. When clean, the gleaming white of a Whaler is a sight to behold.

4) The hardware. Other than the cheap plastic cupholders (are you listening Whaler?) that I replaced with deeper stainless cupholders, all the hardware is top-notch. The rails are beautiful, strong. The cleats are over-built (I had trouble finding a ski towing harness with clips big enough to go over the substantial lifting eyes on the stern).

5) Long-Term Investment. This is my first and last boat. It will outlast me, I know (I'm 50 years old). There aren't really websites dedicated to restoring other makes of boats--they just don't last (wooden boats an exception, I have lots of Lyman friends). There are 50 year old Whalers out there. In the year 2065 ... someone will be driving my boat around ...

Finally, your assumptions in the original post all seem to be spot on about cost, towing, etc. What your wife might not think of is that kids are really adaptable on boats ... have been sitting on hard (wooden) Boston Whaler 13' boat seats for decades, and having a blast. If you're truly cruising calm waters, the bow is a decent seating area. Having cushions on my fish cooler in the back would be nice ... maybe twin fish cooler seats???

The floating couch bow-riders are an attractive option ... so is a pontoon boat with BBQ Grille, etc. What you have to do is define what boating means to you. No boat seems to get every activity just right. We could never grille on our boat. We're going to be tight with a small tube on board. Our seating is not lounge-style and never will be.

Boat shows are not helpful. Everybody gets on board and loves the floating couch. You won't know for sure until that couch hits some waves and weather. On my Lake Erie, for the purposes I use my boat ... NO COUCHES. And I like couches!