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DauntyDave:

Those other brands of boats you mentioned aren't bad boats, but they are not Boston Whalers. Key Wests are made right here in the town where I live, so I see a lot of them, but if you look at the quality of the boat and the hardware, they don't compare.

You might appreciate this having been an engineer. My dad was the head of the structures division at NASA. We started our boating life in 1968. We went to a number of boat dealers around the Washington DC area and literally two thirds of them compared their boats to Boston Whalers. My dad said "well, if they are comparing their boats to the Boston Whaler, that must be the brand to buy", so he did.

I've personally owned 6 Whalers since I started buying boats in about 1983, and I've never bought another brand.

It's going to be hard for you to wait until spring!