The best expert may be you.
I was at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show a couple of weeks
ago to see one of our new boats recently launched by Cape Horn. I had
lived in Florida for over 20 years, but it is amazing how you forget the
buzz and excitement that surrounds a show of that size. It was
particularly fun to listen to folks praise one boat and, without
hesitation, trash another. Of course in the next breath you could hear
other folks making exactly the opposite judgment. OK I'll admit it, I
even found myself participating.
The truth is we all fell into a trap: believing our
personal opinions were (or should be) universal. Trust me, the boat
business would be much less complicated if things were that simple.
Then, there would be two or five or a dozen boats for you to choose from
and not the hundreds that really fill the marketplace.
The multitude of choices exists, however, for good
reason. That reason is the huge variety of combinations that individual
needs truly demand. That said, I am convinced that the real folks to
watch out for are the salesmen, writers, or even buyers who refuse to
acknowledge or accept somebody else’s honest viewpoint. Whether in
living rooms, sales rooms, or chat rooms, such zealots, unfortunately,
insulate themselves with the reassurance that their opinions, informed,
hair brained or otherwise are really true: and true not just for
themselves, but for all the rest of us as well.
You may consider yourself a novice, but remember this:
experts (even me) most often are only expressing an opinion. That
opinion, I might add, is rarely valid for more than a small range of
boats, a smaller group of owners, and an extremely narrow range of
cruising ambitions. Explore the facts, but learn to trust your
instincts.
But then that’s just my opinion.
