Bushie - I was making a generalisation rather then a specific comment on a particular boat. I do believe however that the generalisation is pretty much correct for most of the boats he mentioned. The Senators may be the exception to the rule (I don't know them myself) , so technofreak should read all the comments here (especially the comments of owners of similar boats in that size range) and then will be in a position to work out what he should do.

My experience has been that a lot of sub 6.0m tinnies have significant compromises between ride, stability, room, wetness etc that you don't see so badly once you get over 6.0m in size. For intsance I loved the 6.7m Southern we had, where the 570 rode well, but was far too unstable to be considered a 'family boat'. The couple of ~5.5m pontoons I have ridden in rode like bricks, and a quick look at the hull shape makes it obvious why. When I looked at the hull shape of some larger ~7.0m models you could see how they might have quite a decent ride, but if you shrink the same design to ~5.5m you end up with little usable space etc etc. In that size range I believe that it is all about compromises.