bassman284
Commander
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2006
- Messages
- 2,840
Back in June 2001, I gathered my accumulated nickels and dimes and bought a new Lund Explorer 1650 w/ 60 horse 4 stroke Merc, still my pride and joy. Put an ad in the Saturday paper to sell my 14 ft jon w/ 6 hp Johnson, both of mid 70s vintage. Saturday morning, my brother and I made a dring pre-dawn run to our favorite fishing lake to break in the new boat. This is a no wake lake so nothing fancy except the fishing.
Got home a little before noon and checked for phone messages. There were eleven, the first one coming at 6:15 am. Apparently she didn't want to wake me up too early. Got a beer, tablet and pencil and began taking down numbers.
Called the lady who made the early call and she wanted to see it. The closest low speed lake had been drawn down 15 feet and so had no ramp access and the nearby reservoir would be the usual zoo of monster boats making monster wakes so I talked her into coming out to watch the motor run in a garbage can. Said sh'e be there in about an hour.
Pulled the boat into the drive, put the garbage can under the motor, water to taste and pulled the rope. Wound up sitting on my butt in the driveway wit about a foot and a half of starter rope in my hand. Damn.
Called the lady up and told her she could see the boat but wouldn't be able to see the motor run because I broke the starter rope. She said she really wanted to see the motor run. No dummy she. I said I understood and I'd get it fixed Monday and we'd get together.
Meanwhile I'm calling back everybody who left a number ( 17 of them by now) and explaining the rope situation and that I was taking people in the order they called. By Sunday afternoon I had 32 calls and decided to quit calling back.
got the rope fixed Monday a called her up to see when she wanted to come over and see it. She said she really would like to see it run on the water. Bummer. So I set up to meet here at the lake I'd been on Saturday morning which was about 40 miles away.
She showed up with a couple of friends, liked the boat on sight so I dunked it in the lake and we climbed in. I used the trolling motor to move away from the dock and went to start up the Johnson. For some reason that escapes me (then as now), I had removed the hose from the tank. I hooked the hose up, gave a few squeezes (none of which felt qute right), and gave the rope a tug. My hope for a first pull start was shattered. As well as a second pull start. As well as a 10th pull start. I'm fairly bummed with no excuses except, "This has never happened before." The bulb was feeling weird so I speculated that the hose was bad even though it was almost new.
I was going to run us back in with the trolling motor when I took another look at the bulb and realized the arrow was pointing the wrong way. doh. I said, "Don't tell your friends." She said, "I have to tell them."
Reversed the hose, gave a couple of pumps, pulled the string and "puu-u-ur-r-r-r-r."
Boat sold.
Got home a little before noon and checked for phone messages. There were eleven, the first one coming at 6:15 am. Apparently she didn't want to wake me up too early. Got a beer, tablet and pencil and began taking down numbers.
Called the lady who made the early call and she wanted to see it. The closest low speed lake had been drawn down 15 feet and so had no ramp access and the nearby reservoir would be the usual zoo of monster boats making monster wakes so I talked her into coming out to watch the motor run in a garbage can. Said sh'e be there in about an hour.
Pulled the boat into the drive, put the garbage can under the motor, water to taste and pulled the rope. Wound up sitting on my butt in the driveway wit about a foot and a half of starter rope in my hand. Damn.
Called the lady up and told her she could see the boat but wouldn't be able to see the motor run because I broke the starter rope. She said she really wanted to see the motor run. No dummy she. I said I understood and I'd get it fixed Monday and we'd get together.
Meanwhile I'm calling back everybody who left a number ( 17 of them by now) and explaining the rope situation and that I was taking people in the order they called. By Sunday afternoon I had 32 calls and decided to quit calling back.
got the rope fixed Monday a called her up to see when she wanted to come over and see it. She said she really would like to see it run on the water. Bummer. So I set up to meet here at the lake I'd been on Saturday morning which was about 40 miles away.
She showed up with a couple of friends, liked the boat on sight so I dunked it in the lake and we climbed in. I used the trolling motor to move away from the dock and went to start up the Johnson. For some reason that escapes me (then as now), I had removed the hose from the tank. I hooked the hose up, gave a few squeezes (none of which felt qute right), and gave the rope a tug. My hope for a first pull start was shattered. As well as a second pull start. As well as a 10th pull start. I'm fairly bummed with no excuses except, "This has never happened before." The bulb was feeling weird so I speculated that the hose was bad even though it was almost new.
I was going to run us back in with the trolling motor when I took another look at the bulb and realized the arrow was pointing the wrong way. doh. I said, "Don't tell your friends." She said, "I have to tell them."
Reversed the hose, gave a couple of pumps, pulled the string and "puu-u-ur-r-r-r-r."
Boat sold.
