T&T: Digging a hole in the water

[TK Allen]

Dave, everything you said makes a lot of sense to me...

BUT... (you knew that was coming!)

At roughly 2 grand a pop, it will be difficult to justify putting every boat
that fits my profile (price, length, engines, layout, etc.) through this
degree of scrutiny.  In other words, I need to be able to filter out a lot
of boats myself.  I fully recognize that hiring people with decades of
experience to represent my interests is an imminently wise thing to do but I
would like to be able to narrow my choices down to no more than just a
couple of boats before bringing the experts into the picture.

So, the obvious question becomes, what do I look for to separate the
possible winners from the also-rans?

Or, is it just not reasonable for someone without years of experience with
boats (namely, me) to think that I will be able to identify at least SOME
significant structural or mechanical problems myself?

Is this one of those situations where if I am not prepared to spend 10 - 20K
or more to have a lot of different boats checked out by experts I have no
business buying a boat?

Thanks.

TK Allen