Very interesting article (I am interested in the 26 foot Glacier bay.) The 34 is too beamy to be practically trailerable, but the layout is very nice. There is a Glacier Bay Owner's Forum at: http://www.glacierbayowners.com/forum/default.asp Posts are only allowed by Glacier Bay owners--and the number of posts displayed are limited. When I first started reading this forum, there were some comments about the diesel powered 34 footers. Those have "timed out"--The major problem seemed to be an owner who had a heavily loaded boat and was taking it to the Caribbean down the "Throny path"--apparently the fuel burn was much more than he had anticipated and speed less. I wonder if the test boat fuel consumption is optimistic? The outboard boat appears to have a hard top. Generally Glacier Bay acknowledges that the hard top boats have a slightly higher fuel burn, than the open boats. One owner posted on "The hull truth Forum" that he gets "1.2 to 1.3 miles a gallon at 30 to 33 mph on his 330TE" powered with the Suzuki outboards--this was an open light boat. This seems higher than some other owners have posted.Suzuki engine tests showed very similar resulsts: http://www.suzukimarine.com/boatbuilders/boattests/glacierbay_3470.php http://www.suzukimarine.com/boatbuilders/boattests/glacierbay3470.php The tests a year apart were slightly different. However although these are described as displacement boats--notice the speed increase of about 7 mpg in going from 3000 to 3500 RPM--and very much lower incrimental increases below and above this level--the type of data one would expect in a boat comming onto a plane. This is the 5.9 liter diesel--being rated at 380 hp--(QSB series and getting a little over one hp per cubic inch displacement) This same basic block at one time was rated at 115 hp NA. Cummins has an excellent reputation. But this us pushing a lot of HP out of the small bock engine. Most boats which need this hp are going to the 8.3 liter engines. The Cummins weighs about 1500 lbs with gear each. The outboards weigh 580 lbs. The difference in weight is almost 2000 lbs for the twin engines. I wonder if the weight difference is being consumed by the need for greater HP in the diesel (760 hp diesel vs 500 hp outboard)? The Glacier Bay 34 is quite a heavy boat at around 14,000 lbs. (Vs 7500 lbs for the World Cat 32'6" cat--which is comperable in layout) The other comment I have seen, and noticed in looking at one Cummins diesel powered cat I have personally observed about this size--is that there is not much room in the hulls to work on the engines, which are located under the cockpit soles--and in fishing boats, this takes away from the capacity of the fish boxes. For the difference in price of $100,000 I would go with the outboards. Bob Austin