On Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:25:45 -0400, John H wrote:

Hey, when you're investing many thousands, spending a couple hours doing
some analysis can pay off in a big way.

It does take time, but only because of the thinking involved.

Anything that encourages an assesment of your real needs and
priorities is a good thing. When we went looking for our "retirement"
boat we down rated speed since presumably we would have more time
available for cruising. We put a high premium on
redundancy/reliability because we had many prior experiences with
plans being disrupted because of mechanical and electrical issues.
Therefore we wanted a boat with twin engines, twin generators, dual
nav/helm stations, etc. We also wanted a boat with good fuel range
and water capacity so that we could make long passages to the
boondocks and be able to stay there for a while. Then the admiral
threw a curve ball into the mix. She wanted a boat big enough for
grand children and their parents. Of course all of the boat brokers
would ask how many grandchildren we had. The answer was, and is, zero
- but no matter to the admiral. The extra cabins are useful for
storage of course.

And *that* is how you end up with a 50 footer that weighs about 40
tons fully loaded. :-)

The redundant critical systems have paid off many times over,
paticularly with the generators which get worked a lot.