I guess it depends on where you are launching. I have property with canal access over by the Tahuya river, and I take my little 12 foot boat with an old 3 horse Johnson to pull traps all the time when the water is calm which it usually is since we are down towards the end of the canal. I have dropped traps out a little further by hoodsport, and the water gets a little more choppy out there so I take my 19.5 footer for that. I think you shouldn't have any problems, but if boating in the saltwater is a new thing to you I would spend some time out there getting used to it before I piled my boat full of people, and such.