I owned a 12' Harbercraft circa 1975 that I carried around on the roof of my truck everywhere I went. It has seen waves and weather that caused my sphinter to clench in absolute terror and it has never let me down. Wide, deep and tippy it always remained upright. My buddy has it now and he loves it. Great little boats, Canadian made.
However; taking such a boat even into the saltchuck would have been a fool's folly, never mind into open seas. If you have ever seen a rip tide you would likely not want to go into the ocean in anything less than a 40' iron hull. A fellow I fish with and admire in BC showed me sequential photos of a log "swirling down the drain" like a dropped pencil in the ripper, only to emerge moments later like a trident missile less than 20' from his own 18' welded hull. I could imagine that a small boat would do the same thing as the log except that the boat would blast off with me hanging onto the tiller and my wife and daughter still swirling, down the drain. Please consider that when you enter the danger zone.
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