We're shopping for our Loop boat too.

I'm a Navy pilot turned airline pilot. We moved to the Memphis area from Hawaii a couple of years ago and found our new paradise on Pickwick, which is how a surf boat ended up in the family. Over the years we've owned a Sea Ray 200BR, a Scarab 255, and now the Heyday, and we've boated Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii, the Jacksonville area in Florida, Fort Worth, and now Pickwick. A Loop boat is a big step up from anything we've handled. I go into that the way I go into anything with a cockpit: assume the thing that bites you is the thing you didn't check. This whole product came out of that habit. The Hunt is where we apply it to our own money. More on why I built the tool is on the about page.

The 84% that's really a 44 to 92

Second showing: a 2007 Meridian 368 Motoryacht, twin Cummins QSB 5.9s, listed at $224,730 on Boat Trader. On the headline it scores close to the Sea Ray. The honest range tells the real story: only 10 of 20 questions are answered, so that tidy 84% is actually a 44 to 92. A quiet listing isn't a better boat. It's a mystery wearing a flattering headline.

The price sits over our ceiling, and price is the one gate you can negotiate, which is why it reads amber instead of red. And a detail worth showing you: the listing states a 13'7" bridge clearance and a 13'7" beam. The identical number in two unrelated fields is what catalog data looks like when somebody's software filled in the blanks. Which number is real? That's a question for a tape measure, not a spec sheet.

Since our visit the ask has moved exactly forty dollars. We logged it. The record remembers so we don't have to.

And a genuine thank you to the owner, who drove four hours to show us his boat himself and made the afternoon a pleasure. Great boat, honestly kept. Our hesitation is nothing the boat did wrong: at 36 feet she may simply be a bit small for two people living aboard for a year. That's a fit question about us, not a knock on her.

How to get your wife to a boat showing

You don't lead with the boat. You promise her a surf session first. We run a Heyday on Pickwick, and Jenny will say yes to just about anything with a wake session attached. So that was the deal: she got her morning on the water, then I dragged her through a 1996 Sea Ray 420 Aft Cabin, twin Cat 3126 diesels, $119,900, listed basically in our backyard.

On paper it checked every box we care about: the walkaround queen aft, two heads with real showers, the washer and dryer, diesel power. But paper is paper. That's why we went. Jenny walked in expecting a glorified camper.

"Two bathrooms? For a boat from the '90s?"

The surf session got her in the door. The boat kept her there. And the honest next move on this one isn't a checkbook. The Cat 3126s of this generation use the HEUI fuel system, and that's the one spot where a survey can turn up a big expensive surprise. As much as we liked her, the next step is a proper survey and sea trial, eyes wide open. That's how you avoid becoming the person who lost thirty grand on their dream boat.

Three months on, the ask hasn't moved a dollar. The board above knows.

A genuine thank you to Captain Ron at Captain's Choice of Pickwick, who walked two strangers through a boat on Father's Day. And yes, his name is really Captain Ron. If you know, you know.

Next March 1 we head to Florida for the six day Inland Power Cruising course with Southwest Florida Yachts, working toward the AB 103 and AB 104 Advanced Powerboating certifications. We chose the twin engine track. Both boats we've toured so far run twins, and learning to handle them is its own homework. It will be our first real stretch running a big boat, and it gets written up here like everything else. Between now and then: more showings, more questions, and the board above quietly doing its job.