Had a pretty productive morning at Lake Murray. Went largemouth
fishing and nailed some nice stripers. Odd how that works.

Had a very interesting chat with the Tidewater Boats rep this morning.
He had three boats at the lake for a customer who wanted to test all
bay boats - 19', but slightly different configurations. One with a
Yamaha 150 four stroke, one with a 150 ETEC and the third with a 150
Merc Optimax.

As I pulled the Ranger out, the customer walked over to me and asked
about my ETEC. I was a good boy and didn't try to sell the engine -
just told him my experience. The sales rep came over and was
listening - started mentioning the whole FICHT thing how four strokes
were the "latest" in technology.

So I just asked the prospective customer which he preferred when he
was running - heh, ETEC hands down. Ever had any problems? Other
than the clock problem, nope. Never had any problems with the FICHTs
I had either.

The rep was trying hard to turn the conversation away from the ETEC.
Even mentioned that he sold more Yamaha's than ETECs. I just said to
the customer there had to be a reason - maybe he needed to think about
it a little.

Guy went away talking ETEC to the rep and the rep clearly wasn't happy
about it.

Funny thing is the customer never even said anything about the
Optimax.