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I am happy to report that after seven months of waiting, I took delivery of my 2022 150 Montauk two weeks ago. For all my frustration with the process, I have to say that I love the boat. This is my first boat, and I think it was an excellent choice. The main reason I chose the 150 over the 170 is that it fits in my garage and I can tow it with my little Subaru Forester. This makes ownership pretty cheap and easy. I wanted a boat that I could easily handle all by myself, and this is definitely it. The dealer gave me a free lesson with a Coast Guard licensed captain. The guy was generous with his time. We did lots of docking and undocking drills, especially into the wind. We also covered launching, recovering, and pivot turns. I learned a lot about the nooks and crannies of the ship canals in Seattle. See my personal page for photos.

In the first two weeks I put nearly eight hours on the engine, and completed my burn in process. I also love that it's so maneuverable and easy to handle, both at sea and on the trailer. I love the utility of it. I plan to try my hand at fishing and crabbing next year. I also plan to just explore the local rivers and sloughs with friends. As small as it is, it's really a "go anywhere" boat. I plan to visit all our beautiful mountain lakes with it as well as islands in Puget Sound. Now the weather is crap, but at least I got to use it a little before winter. This winter I can outfit it like I want, get some more boater training, watch a lot of YouTube videos about fishing, learn how to use my Axiom 7, and research places to go in the spring.

I've always heard that new boats have a lot of issues, but my boat seems to work perfectly and perform exactly as promised. I've only had one issue. After I took it in saltwater the first time, I tried to use one of those earmuff things to flush the engine with a hose. I couldn't get it to pee though. Finally I gave up and took it to a local lake, where I backed the trailer into the water and ran the engine for five minutes. There it peed just fine. Maybe I'll use a big bucket next time.

It's also interesting that they made a couple of minor changes for 2022. One is that you now get a spare trailer tire standard. They also replaced the two plain gauges with one multipurpose one. It doesn't look as cool, but it's a lot more useful. In addition to the big round tach, it has a small digital display at the bottom. You can use it to check engine RPM digitally, battery voltage, engine time, and a few other things. I find it quite handy.