Tips For Buying Your First Boat - The Seller Hides It From You!!

Considering Different Kinds of Boats

The most motivated boaters are anglers. Boat dealers sell about three times as many fishing boats as all other types of boats combined. But plenty of other people buy boats for water-skiing, racing, pleasure cruising, and other activities and reasons. Knowing why you want to boat and what you want to do when you boat helps narrow down the many, many different types of boats to the one you want.

At www.boatingmag.com, you'll find a search engine that lists about 100 different kinds of boats and hundreds of boat brands. The drop-down menus at this site seem to get longer every time I click them. To use the search engine, select the style of boat you want. Select the size of boat, and then your price range. The database sorts through hundreds of boats and gives you a short list of brands and models that may appeal to You don't need to know all about all the kinds and brands of boats on the market today, but familiarizing yourself with the general categories can help you figure out which kind best fits your hopes, dreams, and needs.

Boats for watersports andlor day cruising:

Watersports like water-skiing, wakeboarding (which is just a popular, hip form of water-skiing), and tubing are popular boating activities. Also popular is day cruising, which is just bumming around on the water, maybe tooling over to a waterfront burger joint or moseying over to a popular sandbar for impromptu parties. If any of these activities sound like the kind of boating you want to do, you should look into the following kinds of runabouts and day boats:

• Bowriders and deck boats are open boats with comfortable seating. They're sort of like convertible sports cars on the water. People buy them to tour, water-ski, wakeboard, hang out and swim, or go on evening cruises to popular waterfront restaurants.

• Pontoon boats are large flat platforms floating on hollow aluminum cylinders called pontoons. They hold more passengers per square foot than any other style of boat. Some are equipped with so much horsepower that they can pull skiers, or they can just idle along as the passengers enjoy the breeze and the view.

Boats for fishing:

Fishermen are addicted to their sport and usually devote themselves to the pursuit of one particular species of fish, like bass, walleye, or saltwater fish from bays or open oceans. If you're constantly casting a lure as far from the dock or shore as you can, hoping to get closer to a bite, you're in the market for one of these kinds of boats:

• Bass boats and walleye boats have special characteristics such as casting decks, livewells, and trolling motors that make them ideal for pursuing those species of fish.

• Bay boats and flats boats are built to run in very shallow salt water to allow you to catch fish there. Boaters often use these boats just to explore every nook, cranny, cove, and beach they can find.

• Offshore fishing boats are for catching big game like sailfish, marlin, dorado, Wahoo, and tuna. They're also popular for just riding around and beaching up with friends at sandbars. These sturdy boats are especially seaworthy and easy to hose out, thanks to fiberglass decks that usually drain right overboard.

• Fish and ski boats are becoming incred'bly popular because they give boaters the versati ity of a sporty ski boat and a well-appointed fishing boat with livewells and a trolling motor. For many boaters, this is a great "first boat' that lets them explore their passions.

Boats for overnight cruising:

The romance of living on the water lures many people into boating. Like a motor home on the water, a cruising boat has all the amenities of home in a more compact package. It has sleeping bunks called berths, a bathroom called a head, and kitchen facilities in the galley.

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