Genius Hour Part III - It's Time to Choose

My Surprising Choice - The Sea is Calling.

If I am going to plunge into the world of boating, I want to be as knowledgeable as I can and not totally dependent on my husband's expertise.  For the most part, he is well planned, well educated, and well prepared for anything (He was an Eagle Scout).  When he had a sailboat, I knew nothing about sailing - I mean, nothing - at all.  That led me to be completely and utterly uncomfortable every time we were out on the water.  So I can be comfortable with the decisions we make and confident when we are out on the water, I want to be well educated about this new family pastime. 

By the end of this journey, I want to be able to utter this sentence with great enthusiasm and confidence, 

"Let's go boating!" 

 

The First Decision - OB vs IO

If you are anything like me, you may be asking, "OB vs IO?"   

OB = outboard motor
IO = Inboard-Outboard motor

Evidently, among boaters, this is a very important decision when purchasing a boat.  So I dug into the research.  First I read a few articles from back issues of "Boating" in which someone in my household so helpfully tagged pages.   The December 2017 and October 2019 issues had articles specifically comparing the two motors which were very helpful.  




Of course, any researcher worth anything then heads to YouTube to continue the investigation.  The following video really confirmed what I had read in the magazines.  Note to self, seek out YouTube when you want the quick lowdown.

After quite a bit of research and many Post-It notes hanging out of my husband's magazines, I decided to make a chart to compare the two because that is what I do.  I wanted to visually see how each motor choice stacked up against the other.  Here's what I found:

Even after all of our own research, we went to talk to the EXPERTS.  We visited two different boat dealers Munson Ski & Marine where we talked to Matt, a third-generation boat dealer, and Basa's Marine, where we talked to Brianna, to take a closer look and ask a few more questions.  Finally, it was clear for our family's needs that OB is the way to go.

Let the adventure begin!