Hi there,

Just moved to a beautiful 93-acre lake here just outside of Tampa,
Florida after living in Fort Lauderdale for a number of years.

Obviously I moved here to enjoy my lake and so I was wondering,
outside of doing a general search on "buying a boat" or on "bass
fishing" or "lakeside boating", is there a place online -- or an
offline book or course -- where I can go to learn about what to look
for when buying a boat, and maybe even more important... what to look
out for!

I'd like to figure out what I need and what to avoid, so when I either
look in the paper or go to a dealer, I'll have some kind of knowledge
base to start with.

I have 3 kids so I'm looking for a fish and ski boat. One that can
tow the kids on 2 tubes at once, or one that can pull one of us on
water skis, and of course, one that will be relatively easy to
operate.

Like most people, I want to spend my time "fishing", not "operating
the boat".

Used boat is better so I can make all my mistakes and learn the first
time around, so if there are used boat "musts", I'd love to hear about
them.

It's HIGHLY unlikely the boat will ever leave the lake to go into the
ocean.

Thanks a bunch in advance, I appreciate your time.

Craig Garber
http://www.kingofcopy.com

A place I really like for general boating issues from beginning to end is
http://www.boatingabc.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi . A real helpful,
knowledgable and friendly place with no BS (other than me of course).

Start out used if you can. You will learn a lot before you buy (hopefully)
and then you will learn a lot more after you buy (impossible to learn it all
before first purchase). It is next to impossible to purchase a lifetime boat
the first time. Of course, you wouldn't necessarily want a lifetime boat if
you have 2 growing kids. Tubing and skiing is great but wakeboarding is
number 1 around here (west coast) and those kids are going to influence you
(more than you may thunk).

Good Luck and Enjoy.

You probably paid an inspector to check out your house before you took
ownership, or made a purchase offer. For about the same money, you can hire
a surveyor to check out any boat you buy, before signing anything. Do it.

And, if you're buying from a dealer who also runs a marina, wander around
the docks and ask a few people how the service has been. Not the
dependability of the ice machine, but the mechanical service.

I would try buying used from a marina, and see if they offer warrantys
for the first season (0r even a 60 day warranty) if the factory
warranty has expired, anything thats going to go wrong will most likly
happen immediatly. In a boat 90% of your concern should go to the
engine For you being a beginer I think you should stick with an
outboard, just because they are more reliable, more maitance free, but
a lot of people don't like seeing the motor and they are more espensive
right now, When buying an outboard first off look at the drive if will
be pretty obvious if it ever hit anything, ask if its ever been rebuit,
but basically outobards will run forever, if it starts and sounds good
its a good bet, with i/o's look at the bellows(rubber tubes from
outdrive to boat) if they are brittle they will need to be reolaced
($500) you might want to crack the lower unit gear lube drain, see how
clean it is or if their are little pieces of metal in it (which would
mean the gear case is on its way out) Check to see if their are any
visable water lines on the motor because if the starter or alternator
were ever under they might not last, but basically take whatever you
buy for a test drive, problems should be obvious, check out some
Godfrey Hurricane deck boats, they are everywhere in Florida so you can
most likly get a good deal on a nice boat that fits both water sports,
fishing , and cruiseing, and you can also get them in outboard and
i/o's, but i definitly think mark is right, eventually your kids will
force you to upgrade to a mastercraft or nautique