Pelin – generally good sea boats, tend to push a bit ofwater around but both Columbia and Challenger hulls have decent flair so mostwater is sprayed out away from the boat. Quality second hand depends on thebuild/builder  and a lot were a bit underpowered so the engines canbe a bit tired.

Markline – 900 a bit small by the sounds of your needs, 1100could meet your needs, quite a forgiving hull carry their beam well forward soneed horsepower to push them along. Can be a bit wet and throw water over eventhe flybridge, hardtop would be good. Good cockpit to accommodation ratio forfishing. Watch out for pox in the hulls, they were  laid up with chopper guns in the days beforethe issues with humidity were well known. Also can suffer from cracking in the bulkheadattachment to the hull and I’ve seen one with delamination along the side thatthe owner liked to come up against the fueling jetty quite hard. Can be ahandful in a following sea.

Bertram – great sea boats, great fishing/game fishing with abig cockpit. The trade off is accommodation size particularly smallerones. Smaller ones can be a bit tender, particularly at anchor.

Reflections – another good design from the Young family. Theslightly unusual lines mean you either like them or you don’t. Make sure youare happy with the interior layout for your needs though, the smaller and mostcommon 980 lacks a little privacy for my likes. Well built by McDell marine.

Chris Robertson – harder to define, lots of individual boatsbuilt 70s and 80s. Generally very well built though.