Last week my wife and I traveled north to Whitby, Ontario (8-hr drive from Hanover, NH) to visit the PDQ factory. I gotta say, 14 virtually identical powercats lined up at the dock makes a pretty impressive sight! (I suspect it's the largest concentration of powercats in the world at this moment). It was fun to go aboard and see the custom features specified by individual owners. Rob Poirier, PDQ Sales Manager and our host, pointed out however that they really try to discourage major changes because of the cost -- to PDQ and to the customer. Since they're now building two powercats per month, a custom change which adds a week of building time, costs them, in effect, half the price of a new boat. Scary! A major plus (for us anyway) of the PDQ is their high production -- we expect ours (scheduled for delivery May 2006) will be a hull number in the mid 90's. The boats have evolved over the years by incorporating the feedback of some 60+ owners. This shows in a myriad of details and in the general sophistication of the mechanical design. Their obsessive attention to weight (reminds me of an aircraft company) really pays off in performance and economy. More changes are planned for the 2006 model year, these will make their debut at the Annapolis powerboat show next fall. I'm still looking for some good performance data on the 100-hp option. Hopefully this will be forthcoming as about half the new boats are now 100-hp powered. On the long-range cruising question, they informed us that a 34 powercat had just returned from a 6-month cruise down through the Western Caribbean -- venturing as far south as Rio Dulce (Guatamala). The full story will soon appear in the "features" section of the PDQ website. Apparently they were able to make the 350-nautical-mile run from Key West to Isla Mujeres (Mexico) on a mere 120 gallons of fuel. I gather they endured some pretty rough weather as well and were happy with the way the boat came through. I'm looking forward to learning all the details. (This is a trip we'd like try with our own powercat one of these days). The factory visit reaffirmed our choice of the PDQ. Now, we just have to wait another long year before we can take delivery of our very own "Sno' Dog". Henry PS: Was fun meeting up with Georgs for breakfast. Who knew he lives (only a few miles from the PDQ factory) up in the cold frozen north? (High temp on day of visit was a balmy 6° C.)