posted 09-03-2008 10:29 PM ET (US)            

1. The hull is stern heavy, and has a tendency to "pound." If the boat doesn't already have trim tabs, I'd highly recommend them. The motor also needs to be mounted at the right height, and you need a good cupped propeller for stern lift. Once the hull and motor are set up right, and you've got some experience under your belt, you can run the boat in most conditions very comfortably.

2. The 1998 Optimax is a great motor, but some of them had problems. Mine blew the powerhead at 60 hours. Even though I was the second owner, and the motor was out of warranty, Mercury gave me a new powerhead. I just had to pay shipping and installation. That powerhead has been flawless. However, even though it doesn't seem like an old motor to me, Mercury seems to think it's an old motor, and has discontinued some of the parts. Obviously, this is a problem when you need one of those parts. The 135 is matched very well to the hull. It gets the boat right up on plane, and will make the boat go about as fast as you could reasonably want to travel.

3. The fuel tank is one of the plastic tanks, and it allows some gas vapors to leach through (you can smell it in the bilge and in the console). It can be alarming at first, but it's not a problem and is not an explosion risk. The fuel tank is not well vented, so it has a tendency to "burp" fuel back up the fuel filler hose when you're filling the tank, making it hard to fill. The fix for this is to wrap the fill nozzle with a paper towel so that when you put the nozzle into the fill hose, it seals the space between the nozzle and the hose. Then you can fill the tank as fast as you want, and it won't burp up until the tank is full.

The positives:

1. It's a very large 18 footer. The wide beam of the boat does make it very, very stable (but also contributes to the pounding). The weight of the hull does help to smooth out the ride somewhat. It's got a high bow that really knocks down the spray.

2. It's very versatile. It has a shallow draft (11 inches at rest, I think), so it can go into some pretty skinny water. However, it's also capable of some limited offhsore use (pick your days carefully). With the "comfort" package, it's a decent cruising boat. Stripped down to the basics, it's a great fishing machine.

3. It's very efficient. With the 65 gallon gas tank, you can run the boat for days without ever having to fill it up. I'm constantly amazed at how little fuel it uses.

I don't know how the ride compares to a 170 montauk. I had a classic montauk before the dauntless, and loved it. But it had gotten too small for my family. We've just about outgrown the dauntless, now, but we don't do as much family boating as we used to, so now it's used primarily for fishing, usually with 2 or 3 aboard. The Dauntless feels like a much larger boat than the classic montauk.

Lars