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Buyers' Guide to Outboard Boats


Selecting and Evaluating New and Used Boats


by David H. Pascoe, Marine Surveyor


July 31, 2002
Destin, Florida

Some have wondered, "Pascoe surveys yachts, so why is he writing a book on outboards?" Easy answer there: As the prices of these boats continued to escalate in recent years, increasingly I am asked to survey outboards as people have become willing to pay me a reasonable fee. This continued to the point where nearly half the boats I did were outboards. And since outboard buyers are most often first-time buyers, such a book made sense to me.

This book is totally dedicated to blue water type outboard boats, not jet boats, I/O’s, pontoon boats, bass boats or mega yachts. You won’t be just reading part of it and disregarding the rest. Or paying for something that is irrelevant.  What I mean by "blue water" type boats are boats that are sea worthy for heading out into larger bodies of water, not just small lakes and protected bays, etc.

As you know, this is a get along, go along world, but I’m not a member of the club. For that reason I dare to say things that no marine publisher would allow to be printed because they are part and parcel of that industry, and they want to get along too. I’m not out to sell you a boat and frankly, it’s of no concern to me if you don’t’ buy one. My only goal is to sufficiently educate you that you can make your own informed decisions. In doing that, I don’t pull any punches about the problems we have with boats and the boating industry. I explain to you in detail why things are the way they are so that you can avoid some of the mistakes that others make.

Buyers' Guide to Outboard Boats strives to be relevant to both the novice and more experienced boat owner by addressing the real world issues he faces based on the hundreds, perhaps even thousands questions I’m asked by customers when I do surveys for them. Many people want to totally simplify the matter by asking, "Which boat should I buy?" Ah, if life were only that easy! No one can answer that question since no one but the buyer knows completely what he wants and can afford.

Even so, I do my level best to lead the reader to his own answers. I do, of course, have my own opinions and I’m not afraid to give them. One of these is that I think it is unwise to shortchange quality on a product that is constantly sitting in water and frequently flying off the tops of waves with your life contained between its gunwales.

David Pascoe

Author and Publisher
July 31, 2002
Destin, Florida

On July 2nd, we drove to Tallahassee to pick up the first batch of our latest book from the printer.

It was with a great sense of relief that this arduous a three year effort to put it all together had finally come to a conclusion.

Though in truth it was an idea I had conceived of and refined over the course of nearly ten years and all throughout the production of my first book, Surveying Fiberglass Power Boats.

As a self-published book, we do all the layout and graphics ourselves, a tedious task if ever there was one. We’ve got about 140 pictures and illustrations, nearly all taken or drawn by myself, so any lack of professionalism falls on my head alone.

But, I think you’ll find that whatever they lack in the way of fancy presentation will be more than made up for in relevance.

The one thing I did not do was to merely decorate the book with meaningless pictures provided by courtesy of so and so.

These photos in my book are from my own photo library of over 10,000 photos taken over the years.

It’s also come to my attention that some think that maybe this book is just an assemblage of the articles on this web site. NOT SO!



Buyers' Guide to Outboard Boats

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