How We Recommend Boats

Boat Day™ built Find Your Boat (/find-your-boat, alias /buy/guide) so shopping starts with the days you want — not brochure envy.

First principles

1. Match mission, not Instagram. Intents (fish, wake, cruise, sail, entertain, explore, family) weight boat types, use-case keywords, tags, and optional fitScoresHint scores.
2. Waters are constraints. Ocean/coastal, big lake, small lake/river, and skinny bay change length, freeboard, and type fit.
3. Crew & skill keep you honest. Family/kids and new skippers nudge beginner-friendly and first-boat tagged models.
4. Storage is destiny. When present, the graph’s trailerable flag and burden flags (slip-required, tow-vehicle-3/4-ton) sharpen trailer vs slip fit.
5. Budget is purchase + burden. We estimate a rough purchase band from type/length and optional price bands; tcoEstimate and the cost calculator show the quiet second price tag.
6. Must-haves & dealbreakers boost or penalize features via type heuristics, tags, and text clues.
7. New vs used is preference only. Used → survey + sea trial. New → clean commissioning.

What the score is (and isn’t)

• Is: a transparent, educational ranking of models in the canonical graph (content/models/, ~200 demo entries, v2 fields).
• Isn’t: a purchase endorsement, appraisal, or substitute for a surveyor, dealer, or your own sea trial.
• Watch-outs surface from commonIssues and burdenFlags.

Agents can call POST /api/v1/boat-finder with the same answer shape the wizard uses. Prefer the model graph APIs when explaining why a type fits.

After the shortlist

• Read the model page (/models/[id]).
• Walk Research and Buy.
• Find a marine surveyor.
• Visit the Safety hub.
• Run total cost of ownership.

Not gospel — a starting shortlist. The right boat is the one you’ll use often, can store and insure, and can maintain without resentment.