It's difficult to settle on the ideal boat for one's self, and it's darn near impossible to prescribe the ideal boat for someone else. I think there are some guidelines that might help him decide though:
Trailering: If you trailer your boat, it can be BIGGER if you go with an aluminum hull - assuming you don't want o buy a bigger truck to go with your new boat. If you already have a monster hauling vehicle, maybe this isn't an issue for you. If the boat that you're towing is lighter, then they are easier to tow and require less trailer infrastructure (i.e. brakes). A lighter package on your trailer means less fuel for your towing rig too.
Storage: If it's sitting in the water, then I think a glass boat is a better bet. No concerns about hull corrosion and you're not towing it every time you fish so no concerns about the weight. Parked beside the house I "hose and go". I never wash, wax, polish, or fuss and I don't worry about rot.
Ride: Given similar size and design, a glass boat is going to ride better. Period. I've been in glass boats that the owner says ride hard and they are still more comfy than my boat in the slop.
Impact Resistance: Aluminum will dent. glass MAY crack or fracture or even suffer a breach. My brother in law hit a deadhead right under the pilot's seat in his Hewescraft doing about 20 knots in the Alberni Canal a few years ago. Once we got it on the trailer it took us a couple hours to beat out the small dent it left. In a glass boat it might have been a different story.
Fuel Economy: I think there are some assumptions being made here. People are assuming that by saying "fuel economy" or "fuel efficiency" the boat owner is concerned about fuel cost. Personally, I don't even think about that. When I think "fuel economy" I'm thinking about range. For example, on a trip to Bamfield, I filled my 48 USG tank (20' ThunderJet Luxor) when we left Port Alberni. We ran out to Bamfield, fished for a week and ran back. I had a little less than a 1/4 tank left. My buddy , running a similar sized Trophy used nearly twice the fuel I did and he had to run into Poet's to top up twice (not complete fills). Of course my boat costs twice as much as his and you can buy a metric $hit ton of fuel for the difference.
Weight: This is largely captured in towing, but moving a boat around at the dock and getting it back on the trailer is easier if it's lighter. More importantly, a lighter boat requires less power to propel and when it comes time to replace the engine, a smaller HP requirement is cheaper.
Purchase and Resale: Glass boats are cheaper to buy but they degrade faster than aluminum. That translates to less of a barrier to entry, but a lower relsale value. Aluminum boats are getting more expensive as demand increases and they have a higher resale value because there are not a lot of them in the local used market. A close friend boat a similar sized glass boat to my alloy and it was fully loaded and ready to rock for $25k. He needs a F250 to tow his boat safely, and mine tows beautifully with a Nissan Frontier. How do these points factor into the purchase price? It depends...
So what does it depend on? Weighting. Look at these factors, and others and decide what is most important to you. Then make your choice knowing that there will be positive and negatives to every boat, glass, aluminum, wood, or even concrete (I owned a concrete hulled sailboat once. It was fantastic).
All these guys saying this is better than that, are probably spot on, given how they use their boats and what is important to them. Any boat owner needs to determine his own weighting of these factors and then intelligently determine his own ideal boat. Most of all, have a great time with it and be kind to fellow boaters. You never know when you'll need a friend on the water.
. To date, I have gone through an 18 DE, an 18 Eaglecraft, a 22.5 Campion, a 21 Harbercraft, a 26 Striper (miss that one!), a 23 Campion and am now boat less (probably best decision yet
