Navigate the hazards of boat ownership with absolute confidence

Next to your house, your boat may well be the biggest investment you ever make. Buying and owning a boat involves one baffling decision after another. Yet informed, impartial guidance is almost impossible to find--until now, that is.

This essential manual provides a method to the madness of boat buying and ownership, plotting a straight course through an ocean of confusion while it answers such questions as:

• Why fractional ownership often makes sense
• How to avoid buying a boat you'll never use
• How to identify the Goldilocks boat--not too big, not too small
• How to choose a powering option
• How to negotiate the best deal on any boat-new or used
• How to be your own surveyor, and why even a new boat may need a professional survey
• Why you should finance your boat even if you have the cash, and where to find the best loans
• How to calculate the total cost of ownership before you buy!

Robert J. Armstrong, a U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Master Mariner, has been a captain since 1962, operating everything from outboard-powered skiffs to 600-passenger cruise vessels. Diverted from boats by only a few years as a television writer/producer/director, Bob has been a boating journalist since the mid-1970s, specializing in boat reviews and seamanship articles. He has worked as a delivery skipper and has taught seamanship and boat handling in the classroom and on the water. HOMETOWN: Miami Beach, FL