A Beginner’s Guide to What You Should Have Aboard Before Leaving the Dock When you're shopping for your first boat, safety equipment probably isn't the part you're most excited about. You're thinking about the boat. The engine. The seating. The fishing
A Beginner’s Guide to Budgeting Beyond the Purchase Price When you're shopping for your first boat, it’s easy to focus almost entirely on one number: The purchase price. Or, if you’re financing: The monthly payment. Those numbers matter. But they don’t tell you what
A Beginner’s Guide to Preparing Your Boat for Freezing Weather and Seasonal Storage For boat owners who live where temperatures drop below freezing, winterization is an important part of ownership. It may not be the most exciting part of boating. But it can help prevent some of the most
A Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Your Boat Reliable, Safe, and Ready to Use One of the biggest differences between owning a boat and simply enjoying one for an afternoon is maintenance. Boats live in a tough environment. They deal with: * Water * Sun * Heat * Vibration * Fuel * Electrical systems * Trailer use
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Coverage Before You Get on the Water Boat insurance is one of those topics many first-time buyers don’t think much about until they’re close to taking delivery. The boat is picked out. The trailer is ready. The financing is done. Then
A Beginner’s Guide to Where Your Boat Will Live When You’re Not Using It Buying a boat is exciting. Figuring out where to keep it usually isn’t. But storage can have a major effect on how easy, expensive, and enjoyable boat ownership becomes. A boat that fits
A Beginner’s Guide to Getting In and Out of the Water With Confidence For many first-time boat owners, driving the boat isn't the most intimidating part of boating. It's the boat ramp. You pull into the parking lot and there are trucks and trailers
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Your Boat Trailer When you're shopping for your first boat, it’s easy to spend nearly all of your time thinking about the boat itself. The seating. The engine. The electronics. The storage. The color. But if you plan to trailer your
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Boat Weight, Trailer Weight, and Tow-Vehicle Limits If you’re shopping for a boat and plan to trailer it, one of the most important questions is: Can my vehicle safely and comfortably tow it? That sounds simple. Look up the boat’s weight.
A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Right Boat Propulsion System When you're shopping for a boat, horsepower gets a lot of attention. But where the engine is located and how its power reaches the water can be just as important as how much horsepower it produces. Outboards,
A Beginner’s Guide to How Hull Design Affects Ride, Stability, and Performance When you're shopping for a boat, it's easy to focus on the things you can immediately see. Seating. Storage. Horsepower. Electronics. Upholstery. But one of the most important parts of the boat is
A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Right Boat Engine Horsepower is one of the easiest boat specifications to focus on. It’s a big number. It’s easy to compare. And it’s tempting to assume that more is always better. Sometimes more horsepower absolutely makes sense. But not
A Beginner’s Guide to Finding the Right Balance Between Space, Performance, Towing, and Ownership When you're shopping for a boat, length is one of the first specifications you'll notice. 18 feet. 21 feet. 24 feet. 27 feet. And it's easy to assume that
A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing a Boat With Enough Room for the People Who Actually Come With You When you're shopping for a boat, passenger capacity can look like a simple specification. Six people. Eight people. Twelve people. Maybe even more. But there's an important
A Beginner’s Guide to Purpose-Built Watersports Boats If wakesurfing or wakeboarding is one of the main reasons you're shopping for a boat, you'll eventually encounter a category designed specifically around those activities: Wake and surf boats. At first glance, they can look like other
A Beginner’s Guide to Finding the Right Boat for How and Where You Fish Walk through the fishing-boat section of a dealership and it can quickly become obvious that “fishing boat” doesn't describe one type of boat. A relatively simple aluminum boat with an outboard is
Which Family Boat Is Right for You? If you're shopping for a versatile family boat, deck boats and bowriders can look surprisingly similar at first glance. Both usually have an open bow. Both can provide comfortable seating for family and friends. Both can be used for cruising, swimming,
Which Type of Boat Is Right for You? If you're shopping for a family boat, there's a good chance you'll eventually find yourself comparing a pontoon and a bowrider. Both can be excellent recreational boats. Both can carry family and friends, spend an afternoon
Essential Boating Terms Every New Boater Should Know If you're new to boating, sometimes it can feel like everyone around you is speaking another language. Port. Starboard. Beam. Draft. Deadrise. Trim. Bilge. Then someone tells you to grab the bow line while they back down the ramp, and
A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Right Type of Boat If you're new to boating, one of the first things you'll discover is just how many different types of boats there are. Pontoons. Bowriders. Deck boats. Bass boats. Wake boats. Center consoles. Cruisers. And that&
A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Right Boat Size Buying your first boat is exciting. It can also get overwhelming pretty quickly. Start walking through boats at a dealership or browsing listings online and you'll find everything from compact fishing boats and bowriders to pontoons, wake boats,
Know what to bring for your first trip, what to verify before buying, and which extras can wait. Buying an RV can quickly lead to another shopping project: outfitting it. Search for “essential RV gear,” and you will find enough recommendations to fill every storage compartment before your first trip.
Plan for the purchase, the setup, and the trips ahead—not just the monthly payment. You have found an RV that fits your family, and the purchase price looks manageable. Then a few more questions come up. Where will you store it? What will insurance cost? Is the towing equipment
Understand what winterizing protects, when to plan for it, and why your RV’s equipment determines the right process. The camping season does not always end with an obvious final trip. Sometimes you return home expecting to go out again in a few weeks. Then schedules change, the nights get