I do remember and I did a trick last summer with my old 16' jon boat and 4 hp merc. I hauled it to Florida in the back of my truck to visit my Daughter, she lives right on Stick Marsh. almost got swamped several times by pontoons slow rolling by me. I caught about 30 in 2 days , most were over 4 and 2 were over 8. A couple dragged my boat while reel was pulling drag. Crazy fun but I was skeered of the gators I heard growling behind the sticks.

I have a 1997 Tracker Pro team 175 with a 2020 Merc 75hp 4stroke. A much heavier motor than what those boats were intended for. They will not sink unless you do something ignorant in them.

The only issue I have ran into with a riveted aluminum boat was 2 leaky rivets . Very slow leaks , but I imagine if you tied it to a dock and left it without a bilge pump it would probably fill up with water within about 8 hours . Many of the newer boats have floatation foam per coast guard requirements . Unfortunately I tested my floatation foam once . Not a good time but the boat didn't go to the bottom of the lake . Some people remove the floatation foam from their boats for one reason or another so make sure the foam is still in the boat you are looking at to avoid a surprise .

We had a 12' Sea Nymph back in the 70's that had foam under all the seats... You could swamp it but you couldn't sink it... Dan

aluminum or fiberglass my Dad couldn't swim so he always wore one of those orange life preservers and ski belt just in case. can you picture it

The Aluminum boats usually only sink once.

They do when they do and don't when they don't

The Coast Guard give every boat a rating as to the floatation and max weight/people. I owned a Lund for many years great boat and never crossed my mind, I would think those heavy glass boats might sink first.