Bob D. wrote:
Alright Alright already so I'm long winded. Sorry. Hopefully what
follows it's an intersting read with SOME value. Also, ignore the
spelling, I'm in a hurry and typing with my toes today :^)


I have yet to see anyone offer any significant
empirical data, even significant anectdotal evidence, that any boat of a
given brand name is clearly superior or inferior to another brand name,
when factoring in things like initial cost, and care.

Oh? Try going 30 miles offshore in a Bayliner and a boat of similar
sized designed for ocean use.

Alright Harry, I'll bite. So according to your statement the evidence
that Bayliners are inferior is cannot travel thiry miles off shore? What
about a Wellcraft? How about an old favorite of mine, a Jersey? Of all
the boats made, you seem to infer that Bayliner are the only ones that
cannot travel off shore so they are the only ones you'll label as
inferior?

I seem to infer? I inferred no such thing. There are lots of crappy boats.



Also can you be more specific in your statement "Oh? Try going 30 miles
offshore in a Bayliner and a boat of similar sized designed for ocean
use."?

I'll not bother to cite more than a couple of examples. I have a friend
with a 2003 Bayliner Trophy 25' walkaround. We frequently ride out
together to fish, each in our own boats, and sometimes together in one
boat. Last time we chatted, couple of weeks ago, he had 50 hours or so
on the engine. The boat is falling apart. The windshield frame has
broken off the cabin top in three places. He's had shorts in the
factory-installed wiring harness. A hatch cover has broken off its
hinges. He's got hairline cracks in the rounded inside corners of his
hull. The boat pounds badly in the typical Chesapeake Bay chop, and when
he trims the engine in enough and drops the tabs to make the chop
tolerable, the boat buries her bow. The boat won't back down in a
straight line. The seams on the cabin cushions are unraveling.

I'm sure his list is longer by now. It's been a few more weeks.

I've seen Bayliners in rough water pop the rivets that hold their hulls
and decks together. I've seen Bayliners with plain, untreated plywood
behind seat cushions. I've seen Bayliners where the hullsides and botton
"tin can" in moderate seas.

I wouldn't go out of sight of land in a Bayliner, much less 30 miles
offshore.

What's *your* boating experience, Bob? Mine goes back more than 50 years.



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