Customer Reviews

How to Choose Your First Powerboat

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an experienced sailor switching over to powerboats I have been reading both magazines and " How to Choose," books on powerboating.I figure with such a large purchase you can never be to well read.I found Gould's book to be too basic for someone with boating experience.The chapters are brief and often read like a text book.I also purchased Lamy's boat buying book and found it to be more detailed and loaded with interesting anecdotes. Gould's book does get into more details on boat accessories such as anchors, air-conditioning, refrigeration,and electronics and these topics are not well covered by Lamy.Lamy gives tremendous detail on the purchase process, but only briefly covers accesories and primary systems. I recommend this book as a quick read to inexperienced boat buyers,but recommend that experienced boaters also read a few other books to suppliment "How to Choose Your First Powerboat."

Might be somewhat useful for a used boat buyer. If your looking for information on what to look for in a new boat save your money. There is little or no information on what makes one boat better made than another. What information there is, is of the most basic kind ("drip pans under the engine should have no oil in them"..duh). Some of the information is outdated also. I finished the book in about 20min and will donate it to the library.

I bought "How to Choose Your First Powerboat" before I spent much time shopping for a boat. I was approaching the project with no boating experience at all, and really felt the need for some general information about boats.

I thought "How to Choose Your First Powerboat" gave me a thorough overview of boats without getting into minute details. No way did I expect that any one book would make me completely informed, but I wasn't comfortable proceeding in complete ignorance, either. During the (successful) shopping process for a used boat, more than one seller or broker tried to make some fairly far fetched claims about different boats and I had learned enough from "How to Choose....." to avoid at least one carefully laid trap.

Gould does an excellent job of communicating important basic concepts. There are moments of humor, and the style is easy to read.

I would recommend this book to anybody getting into boating for the first time.

Includes very useful information including basic information about boat and trailer handling. A book to consider if you don't know anything about boats and are considering purchasing one.