Are Optima Batteries worth the $$$?

[H2O]

My boat is in need of battery replacements and I'm looking for suggestions on which batteries you guys would recommend. Optima has some eye catching ads on TV and in the magazines and they also are very eye-catching with their red, blue, and yellow tops. They are definitely more spendy and I was hoping for some advice if it is wise to spend the extra money or just stick with the common batteries from Fleet Farm, Wal-Mart, and the other obvious places. BTW, I use three batteries in my boat so I was also contemplating spending the "big" money for an optima to run the starter and go with the "cheap" ones to run my trolling motor. Maybe I should do the opposite? I have a 115 Mercury on the back and my trolling motor has 55lb of thrust.

[leechlake]

I have three "regular" batteries in my prov. I have a 16' lund with a 25 hp that stays tied to our dock from April til October. Some times it doesn't get run for a month, I put an optima in that boat this Spring and the best part about it is that it doesn't run down during the lulls in activity like my "regular" batteries. So, for that reason alone I really like it, if you use your boat a lot and the batteries are charged frequently you'd have to look at justifying it for other reason, apparantly due to their design they take the pounding of waves better than other batteries.

[AQUAJOE]

I think the Optima batteries are the best batteries I have used. If I ever need to replace the current ones I have had for the past 5 years. I will replace the them with another Optima.

Well worth the money.