Macojoe: It scary too think that a lot of folks pay $31K for a pretty 300hp ( like some of my neighbors ) with all the bells and whistles , 4 stroke superman technology, bun warmers, low whiskey alarms etc ,but I truly believe that its mostly a marketing game for people with more money than sense in my humble opinion and an incredible profit margin for the dealers who probably could not change a spark plug if their life depended on it. A friend of mine (another old guy) is a retired canadian mountie who manages a fish/caribou camp in northern quebec that is over 1,400 milles due north from Montreal in the sub- artic and everything comes in on Otter float planes. The camp work horses are 8 very old 22ft semi vee very heavy wooden skiffs that the indians made powered by 70's model Merc 115's and a couple of old johnson 90's that still put in 4 to 5 hours a day overloaded in heavy sea conditions , old crappy gas, Canadian Tire TCW-2 oil in leaky paper cans and western auto spark plugs that I would of thrown away 10 years ago. The bilge pumps are cut out one gallon milk jugs and the depth finder is a stick with marks on it .The big boat that picks up the moose, bears, caribou, Argos , 4 wheelers and heavy gear is a 28 foot wood flat bottom skiff type boat with a new (1985 evinrude 235) that has at least 3,500 hard hours on it and it starts at the first lick. These motors have never seen a trained mechanic or been back for a check up and were bought used from the states years ago to by pass the recreational user /sales tax problem which kills the canadian back country fish guides .I am all for progress etc but greed is the big factor here with anything having to do with boats and we are all getting screwed big time in my humble opinion . A guy who wants to get a 15hp outboard for his little john boat to take his kids cat fishing is going to spend at least $2K just for the motor..I can buy a used car for that ......Frank
