Drawing on fifteen years in the boat business as, successively, broker, yard manager, magazine editor, and surveyor, Hewitt Schlereth presents a comparative method for evaluating boats that requires virtually no prior knowledge on the part of the would-be purchaser. He simply teaches what to look at and then shows how to let your own comman sense and judgment take over. Written in a lucid, conversational style, the book is more than a how-to handbook. lt is sprinkled with wry observations about boating and the boat business; it forthrightly addresses such human issues as how to select and deal with, first, a broker, and then a marine surveyor. Since the author believes boats are for fun, the tone of the book is light, avoiding the tendency of many experts to speak of flaws in terrns of hi gh dudgeon or moral outrage. Indeed, one potentially somber moment, the inspection of a truly doggy boat, produces a sample survey report of genuine hilarity. In all, this is a thoroughgoing book by an expert who addresses himself to the real concerns of boat buyers.