This post is very long. However, this is a great story about how God blesses us even when we think He doesn't care. So Enjoy and try to stay awake.
So I have had an old fishing boat for, I don't know, ten maybe twelve years. It was purchased for $100. It did not have a trailer or a motor and was sitting next to a bike trail we were riding on a fam vacation. I have a trailer my Grandma had given me and my dad let me borrow his motor off the pontoon boat. So we made it sea worthy again. It had been sitting for a number of years outside uncovered. We had to do some big time cleaning. But we made it work. After a few years fo using my dad's motor I bought my own. I got a really good deal on a boat, motor and trailer. We pulled the motor off the boat, towed it to the junk yard, and tossed it. The trailer was a little more heavy duty than my old one so we opted to use the new one instead. The motor was an 85HP Johnson. It ran perfect. So that was the boat set up for many years.
Fast forward to present day. Through the course of a few different events our motor had been taken off our boat. We had toyed with the idea of getting a new boat but we had too many more important things to spend our money on. So I went to pull the boat out of storage for another year. After pulling the boat home I discovered that the floor was a little soft in some areas. I decided to fix it. I cut out the floor that I thought was bad. After I got it out I realized that the foam in the bottom of the boat was filled with water. (Really not good!) I made some plans to rectify that. However after a little investigation I found that all of the wood in my boat was bad.
Crap. We need a new boat. Ours is no longer safe. Maybe it would be ok with Just Rachel and I but it is not good enough for little Remy. So I started looking at new boats. You guessed it. Project boats. The old boat was fiberglass and very heavy. (Mostly because it was half filled with water.) So I decided this time around I wanted aluminum. Being that we have no money I started with the cheapest boats I could find. There is not rally much for under $1000. But that is all I looked at. I found a couple of ok deals but nothing great.
Then I found it. I found a late 1960's early 70's Blue Fin Aluminum boat with a trailer. No motor. I did some research and found out Blue Fin's have a very good hull. So it will last a long time. It was north of the cities about 45 mins. I little far for us but it was not far from my Aunt and Uncles. So We were going to stop in and see them too. The best part... The guy was only asking $250. That's cheap everything else was around $600. We still had a money issue. So, I decided to sell my nicest gun to fund our little project. I sold my gun for about $100 to $200 less than I should have just to get the money quick. But I felt it was ok because the boat would be something my whole family could use. Well when I called the guy to set up our meeting time he said he sold the boat the night before. Ouch. No gun, no boat that stinks. However, he said he had some other boats that were very close to this one. He said he would email me pics. So I gave him my email address and waited. He said he would email me in a couple of hours. Well after about six hours I called him. I told him I was going to be buying a boat soon and would like to meet him on Sat. or Sun. He told me he was too busy to email and he was not interested in meeting me. What a guy. A real trooper if you ask me. That's craigslist people for you. Oh well. It could have been worse. He could have set up a time to meet me and then killed me. Or set up a time and then flaked on me. So at least he told me before I drove down there.
I was very bummed. So I kept looking. My dad felt bad enough for me that he spent some of his Friday night on the phone with me both of us searching the internet for something that would work.
Then we found it. I was on St Cloud Craigslist. I had been searching boats $400 and under because that about what we could spend. I did a search for $600 and under. I came across a boat in Evansville. Here is the listing:
It was titled Sylvan Fish/Ski
"1980 Sylvan Fish and Ski boat. Spartan Roller Trailer . Motor is an 85hp evanrude that has three scored pistons, so the motor does not run! All motor parts are in the boat. Trialer hitch is slightly bent, but can be fixed. Boat has a small hole above the water line just below the drivers seat. Need to get it out of my shed. Great boat if you have a motor."
Now if you have been following my very long story... I have an 85hp johnson that runs great. The problem was the guy was asking $600. I emailed the guy, asked if he still had the boat and if I could call him. He emailed me back right away. So I called him and we set up a time to meet that night. Our good friends Molly and Ryan were in town and Rachel was working. So Molly, Ryan, Remy and I all loaded into the Honda and we drove to the middle of nowhere south of Ashby.
The story was the guys had bought it in 98' used it once. Bought a bigger motor. Used it for an hour and the new motor blew up. He then parked the boat in his shed and it had sat there ever since. He had barn cat's so it was dirty. Very dirty. Rachel and I went back down the next day to look at it again. I offered him $400 cash and he took it. That is not what we thought would happen. So there it was... Our New Boat. Here are some pics.
So I have had an old fishing boat for, I don't know, ten maybe twelve years. It was purchased for $100. It did not have a trailer or a motor and was sitting next to a bike trail we were riding on a fam vacation. I have a trailer my Grandma had given me and my dad let me borrow his motor off the pontoon boat. So we made it sea worthy again. It had been sitting for a number of years outside uncovered. We had to do some big time cleaning. But we made it work. After a few years fo using my dad's motor I bought my own. I got a really good deal on a boat, motor and trailer. We pulled the motor off the boat, towed it to the junk yard, and tossed it. The trailer was a little more heavy duty than my old one so we opted to use the new one instead. The motor was an 85HP Johnson. It ran perfect. So that was the boat set up for many years.
Fast forward to present day. Through the course of a few different events our motor had been taken off our boat. We had toyed with the idea of getting a new boat but we had too many more important things to spend our money on. So I went to pull the boat out of storage for another year. After pulling the boat home I discovered that the floor was a little soft in some areas. I decided to fix it. I cut out the floor that I thought was bad. After I got it out I realized that the foam in the bottom of the boat was filled with water. (Really not good!) I made some plans to rectify that. However after a little investigation I found that all of the wood in my boat was bad.
Crap. We need a new boat. Ours is no longer safe. Maybe it would be ok with Just Rachel and I but it is not good enough for little Remy. So I started looking at new boats. You guessed it. Project boats. The old boat was fiberglass and very heavy. (Mostly because it was half filled with water.) So I decided this time around I wanted aluminum. Being that we have no money I started with the cheapest boats I could find. There is not rally much for under $1000. But that is all I looked at. I found a couple of ok deals but nothing great.
Then I found it. I found a late 1960's early 70's Blue Fin Aluminum boat with a trailer. No motor. I did some research and found out Blue Fin's have a very good hull. So it will last a long time. It was north of the cities about 45 mins. I little far for us but it was not far from my Aunt and Uncles. So We were going to stop in and see them too. The best part... The guy was only asking $250. That's cheap everything else was around $600. We still had a money issue. So, I decided to sell my nicest gun to fund our little project. I sold my gun for about $100 to $200 less than I should have just to get the money quick. But I felt it was ok because the boat would be something my whole family could use. Well when I called the guy to set up our meeting time he said he sold the boat the night before. Ouch. No gun, no boat that stinks. However, he said he had some other boats that were very close to this one. He said he would email me pics. So I gave him my email address and waited. He said he would email me in a couple of hours. Well after about six hours I called him. I told him I was going to be buying a boat soon and would like to meet him on Sat. or Sun. He told me he was too busy to email and he was not interested in meeting me. What a guy. A real trooper if you ask me. That's craigslist people for you. Oh well. It could have been worse. He could have set up a time to meet me and then killed me. Or set up a time and then flaked on me. So at least he told me before I drove down there.
I was very bummed. So I kept looking. My dad felt bad enough for me that he spent some of his Friday night on the phone with me both of us searching the internet for something that would work.
Then we found it. I was on St Cloud Craigslist. I had been searching boats $400 and under because that about what we could spend. I did a search for $600 and under. I came across a boat in Evansville. Here is the listing:
It was titled Sylvan Fish/Ski
"1980 Sylvan Fish and Ski boat. Spartan Roller Trailer . Motor is an 85hp evanrude that has three scored pistons, so the motor does not run! All motor parts are in the boat. Trialer hitch is slightly bent, but can be fixed. Boat has a small hole above the water line just below the drivers seat. Need to get it out of my shed. Great boat if you have a motor."
Now if you have been following my very long story... I have an 85hp johnson that runs great. The problem was the guy was asking $600. I emailed the guy, asked if he still had the boat and if I could call him. He emailed me back right away. So I called him and we set up a time to meet that night. Our good friends Molly and Ryan were in town and Rachel was working. So Molly, Ryan, Remy and I all loaded into the Honda and we drove to the middle of nowhere south of Ashby.
The story was the guys had bought it in 98' used it once. Bought a bigger motor. Used it for an hour and the new motor blew up. He then parked the boat in his shed and it had sat there ever since. He had barn cat's so it was dirty. Very dirty. Rachel and I went back down the next day to look at it again. I offered him $400 cash and he took it. That is not what we thought would happen. So there it was... Our New Boat. Here are some pics.
This is the bow.
This is the rest of the boat.
and the back...
As you can see it needs a cleaning. But all in all a huge blessing to our little family. Check back soon for updates.
Sounds interesting, I noticed the Arctic Cat is waaaay down the list
ReplyDeleteGary (and Rachel)