On Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:49:18 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

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.

Well, when the other gender gets involved, some of the objective analysis
gets shoved aside by subjective desires. It would be interesting to know
all the criteria you considered and how you weighted them. You undoubtedly
did some mental weighting, but seeing it on paper would be interesting.

On Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:58:23 -0400, John H wrote:

Well, when the other gender gets involved, some of the objective analysis
gets shoved aside by subjective desires. It would be interesting to know
all the criteria you considered and how you weighted them. You undoubtedly
did some mental weighting, but seeing it on paper would be interesting.

When you buy a boat that you expect to live on for months at a time it
is *critical* that the admiral be involved. Whenever she says
anything negative about the boat I can always say to her: "this is the
one you wanted", and that is important. :-)

I never did a rigorous weighted matrix exercise but the priorities
were clear in my mind and we looked at a lot of boats. Given the
subsequent rise in fuel prices I am really glad that we did not get a
sportfish or motoryacht although we did consider it.