gregsons,
Congratulations on your new 185! Is your boat already built or will we be building it for you? Let me know and I'll see about doing a few things along the way that may be fun.
There is a picture of one in our brochure last year and the year before of an Aqua mist 185, with a family of 4 as the models. That's me and my family, and MY BOAT. I run it for 2 years and loved it. The most memorable trip was when those pics were taken. The week of July 4th, 2003. It was the last trip for us in that one, and was a week in Islamorada Fl.
The value of the hull really shined that week, we were able to run with the flats boats on the gulf side, the full 26 miles to Flamingo Bay to the amazement of the guide who just that morning looked at the giant boat and sneered, YES you can follow us if you can...... LOL....I spent dinner that night with several of the guides going over the myths of hull design and shallow water. The following morning we had two new friends riding along for a 13 mile run to some great Mahi fishing on the Atlantic side.That's the beauty of the 185, it can go almost anywhere, and with my 12 year old daughter at the helm no one felt uncomfortable with her inexperience at the helm in 3 footers.
It's a trade from a Vee hull, but when it's so forgiving a child can handle it in choppy seas, I consider it a trade up. The guide told me they could double their season with a bot they could fish boat sides of the Key's with. I think they were the most impressed client I've ever had on a boat of any size.
Other than that trip we spent our weekends in NC doing just what you said, flounder fishing, we also learned that Redfish were hanging in the grass beds, and speckled trout loved a live shrimp in the same beds in May/April. It was a whole new way of fishing in NC I didn't know about. We did enjoy offshore often, but with a 4/5 year old along we only chose the best days for that. (Mama over-ruled me on that if it looked rough to her...lol)
The boat is a "tank" it can take the roughest conditions and as long as you keep the bow pointed in the right direction, I'm not sure how big a wave is to much for it. Once in Hawaii we had a customer in a 17' (same hull we just added 6" and a new inside) 20 miles out to lose the engine, after a 4 hour wait for a USCG cutter the seas had built to 14+ feet (per USCG records). The captain and crew were transferred to the cutter and the owner begged the cutter Capt. to tow the boat in. Reluctantly the CG Capt, sent a boat over to attach a towline. The fist rope was too big to fit the bow eye, so a smaller tow line had to be deployed.
The sun had set by the time all this was done.The Cutter Capt. deployed 300 ft of 1" tow line and throttled up to 24 KNOTS! For a 4 hour trip, (Cutter harbors was on another island) later the CG Capt said he knew the bow eye would pull thru and the boat would be lost, but he had agreed to the tow just to satisfy the owners wife. He had pulled the tow bit of commercial vessels in the past in seas smaller than these. At port, the whole crew of the cutter came on deck to see the little boat had survived what they knew to be the worst conditions imaginable to tow such small vessel in, all expecting to see a SS bow eye attached to the tow rope. What they did find was an upright and swamped 17' boat, missing it's windshield and the console somewhat torn from literally pulling the boat thru the waves.
A new windshield, some minor fiberglass repair to the console, and getting the water out of the fuel tank, the boat was back fishing a couple of weeks later. I never heard what caused the engine failure. But this is one of many stories we have about the boat surviving extreme conditions, beyond any reasonable expectation. The fact that the boat remained upright during al this gave me a whole new outlook on how stable the Cathedral hull is. The 185 is a better version of the same hull, below deck fuel tank, self bailing cockpit, storage, lots of storage. The only boat below 20 feet that my wife doesn't have "survival" gar all over the deck. Everything has a place to stow!So don't feel you have to apologize for not getting a vee, I'm many way you got a whole lot more. And in boats less that 20' that we build, it's our #2 or #3 best seller, so many people, now that they have a choice still want and like the Cathedral hull. I'll be building me another very soon.
FYI: When I put the non-skid in this plug, I was shocked that it took about 16 sq. ft. more than the older 22' Runaway. Meaning it has more flat fishing area that a 22' boat.
The E-Tec engines are broke-in already, make sure your prop gives you max RPM's even if you don't*max it all the time, and in my 28 w/dual 250' E-Tecs I chose the XD-100 oil after a talk w/BRP engineers. It cost twice as much but uses half the oil. The dealership will have to program the XD 100 oil into the engines CPU and write XD100 ONLY! on the oil tank so no one makes a mistake.
You're gonna love the engine!, it's quiet at flounder fishing speed and you'll see no smoke after the self programmed double oiling goes away after 10 hours (10 I think).
Thanks for choosing a McKee and welcome to the club.
Key McKee
McKee Craft
Will give a few more bits of advice later, got people calling my name in the factory. Too many war stories and not enough facts....Sorry. I can get on a rant, especially about the 185. "It was my pet design for years and finally got to do it"
Just ordered my first McKee! 
