Mike, here's a resource I use to do searches for boats, tools and trailers. http://www.allofcraigs.com You can selct the region and state that you want to search. I have been watching the site for two or three years and have never seen an eighteen foot driftboat listed. I watch it several times a week. There's a pretty nice looking boat in Corvalis listed right now.

Rick Newman

Mike, you are the first person I have found that knew about all-of-craigs. It isn't the only place I go, just one of many.

My experience with powering drift boats suggests that they don't want to travel in a straight line very well. Constant attention to the motor to stay on course. So I guess it comes down to what do you want to do with your boat the most and where are you willing to compromise. If an eighteen foot driftboat has a longer "flat patch" than a sixteen footer then it potentially will work a little bit better.

My boat experience suggests several things; one boat won't do it all, you can't want too many boats, you probably won't get all the boats you want and to paraphrase Mick and Keith  "You can't always get what you want".

You may just have to figure out how to build a three boat workshop. Room for two boats and space to build the next one!

Have you found WoodenBoat Forum? There are some designs that might work better for your time in estuary's Here's a link to one built by a guy from Spokane; http://www.stagboatworks.com > There also some posts by guys that have built these real quick and dirty in just a few days.

Rick Newman