They know what
they like, they know what they think they will need and they know what
appeals to them. But they know very little about boats and boating,
what's important, and what's not. They frequently find themselves a
year or two later with a boat that does not suit their needs.


A lot of boaters end up with a boat that proves to be less than ideal after a
season or two.

I still bristle at the (very common) suggestion that a prospective boater who
has done enough considering and evaluating to know he or she is looking for the
characteristics commonly associated with a 30-foot express cruiser should,
instead, buy a 20-foot runabout. That removes ending up with the "wrong" boat
from a group of possibilities and promotes it to an absolute certainty.

More people probably get out of boating because they start off with a boat that
is too small, too light, (and powered by a worn out, cantankerous, single
gasoline engine) than leave the pastime because they bought a boat that was of
adequate size and displacement for their intended purposes.