While I'd never discourage anyone who can afford one to buy a new boat, it sounds as though the "newly married couple without kids" is contemplating the addition of future rugrats by your phrase "something a small family could also use as a weekender."
Having owned nine sailboats over the years, with only one of them a new boat, I'd suggest you at least consider buying used.
The one new boat was my first one: an 11-foot Snark. $200 in 1980.
