I know of no better boat for your purposes. The boat can easily be rigged for single handing. With a #3 or #4 jib the boat is a joy to single hand--responsive and well behaved even in a big breeze. In a breeze it will reach at 8-9 knots under main and #4 jib. The boat is easy to sail in and out of harbors, like a dinghy.. It can be spun around in its own length and slowed or stopped easily by over-trimming the main. I regularly sail my boat into an upwind slip in moderate air without even bothering to drop the main. The boat is light enough that you can stop it by grabbing a piling. For your purposes you could simply leave a small outboard mounted with the strut on the transom. [Getting the outboard on and off the transom is the only inconvenient feature of the boat, but this will be easier on the new boats which will have a step built into the transom as did New Moon, the last boat built. See pictures of New Moon in the Photo Gallery.]