Thanks Brian. I am planning on a somewhat shortened version of the pilothouse/cuddy from the Newport (I am 5'10" so shorter cuddy probably, and maybe a 6' pilothouse, although maybe stretch that to 8' if I build to 30'). Something along the lines of a Defiance Admiral pilothouse in proportion for house/cockpit. I am thinking at least 100 gallons of fuel (ideally around 150 gallons), a 120 gallon bait tank, a small fresh-water tank (maybe 10 - 20 gallons), marine head, and dreaming about a seakeeper 2 underneath the bait tank (those run about 400 lbs) at some point down the line. So from a displacement perspective, I don't think I am going to be running on the light side very often, and definitely will have times where I am running on the heavy side. Hopefully a pilothouse in general is enough to make the big/wide version float deep enough to not cause issues. If I needed to build with heavy in mind I could always do that too.
Not changing the keel panels or lofting is what's making this change entertain-able for me. If I had to go buy another thousand dollars of plywood to do it I think that would be a deal breaker. Is the size of the jig going to change for a 30' boat or the wide version of the 28'? If it did change could I make the jig for the 28' standard boat work? Could I add length to the stringers to do a 30', maybe scarf on an extra couple feet or even just glue a couple 6 foot LVL to the sides and offset the transom notches? What's the name for a 'great' Great Alaskan?
As for the wide load permit, in California it isn't really a big deal from my understanding, you just pay for an annual permit for something like $90 and you are pretty much good to go. All local tows around here are all well-built infrastructure, with lots of people towing large boats.