Re: Picking up the new boat Sat!
Collier County (Naples) has had the highest number of millionairs per capita than any county in the U.S. for many a year. In the 70's I used to work down there and always took my surf board in the back of the wagon for cheap entertainment. Had to, everything except the local Lums restaurant (remember them) were way more expensive than the meal allowance. There were miles and miles of seaside mansions along those beaches.
Yeah it was amazing and bizarre at the same time... The seller's mother (who actually owned the boat as her husband passed away last November) had the house for sale where the boat was. For a cool 18 million you could own it. Obviously it was a beautiful home, triple 10ft french doors at the entrance, the docks (all of them along this waterway) were identical and all connected. The decks were mahagony, not PT!
And even though there was access through the lawn around the side of the house to the dock she insisted we bring everything through the house to the boat.... she didn't want "foot prints" on her lawn
When I said we didn't want to track up her marble floors her response was "the maid can get that up no problem, the gardner can't do anything about the footprints!"
The son's girlfriend (5'10" blonde and gorgeous) told us that she makes the gardner trim the plants from INSIDE the beds... so he doesn't track up the lawn! God forbid someone should actually walk on it.
But don't get the wrong impression, these were nice folks. Made us feel very welcome and tried to assist us in any way they could.
Just to give you an idea of the "money", the man who owned the boat was one of the original partners in Waste Management along with Wayne "H" (can't spell his name but he owns blockbuster video and the miami Dolphins)
They sold Waste Management years ago for a sizeable fortune. And while they had non-compete agreements, the son did not. He promptly started another roll off container company which undercut WM's prices and cut into their market share. within a few years they also bought him out netting him millions more..
While this boat is a huge step up for me, it was indeed the smallest one we saw in the area. As we were leaving the inlet a 100 footer was coming in that was sporting a "launch" on the aft roof nearly as large as the Pursuit.
They were all nice folks, just live in a different world than the rest of us.
Another thing I forgot to post (actually I'm a little embarassed about it) is another cause for delay in finalizing the purchase was my fault... actually the delay was my fault period.
The sellar had sent me all the information on the boat prior to my bidding on it, including all the service information along with contact information for the dealer who'd sold and serviced the boat... One of my concerns was the generator as I had read that sometimes Pursuit installed the generator where the fishbox was supposed to be. The seller (who'd never been on the boat except to take the pictures on the ebay ad) didn't know and suggested I call the dealer to make sure. I called the service manager and inquired about the fish box to which he replied he'd check the file on the boat and call me back. He called a few hours later and said that the generator was not installed in the fish box space but was up under the helm station where the rod locker would be. So from my prospective I was good to go.
Once we arrived and inspected the boat it was only an after thought that I opened the "fish box".... there was the generator! Well that was a problem for me. I fish. That's my only reason for wanting this boat and I didn't relish the idea of having a large cooler sitting on the deck even though it's a very large deck.
We'd already loaded the boat at this point but I told the seller that this was a "deal breaker" and asked if they'd be kind enough to take us back to a rental car office. He understood and said "I understand, I'm very sorry you were given the wrong information about it".
So we load up... what a pain in the ***... and just as we're pulling up to the rental office (no one spoke the entire way) he says "would $5,000 make this problem go away? My mother really doesn't want to deal with this and I certainly don't want to go through all this again"
My brother and I stepped out of the Range Rover and talked for a minute (actually just talked about the trip and my brother telling me that I was crazy for walking in the first place as I was "stealing" the boat in the first place. to which I replied "he who speaks first in these situations loses" He then realized that I had no intention of not following through with the deal. I was within a few seconds of saying "you know what? We've come this far, it's a nice boat, let's just do this and get it over with"..
So now the delima was the cashiers check was made out for the full amount and the total had changed.... that created the issue with the bank that needed resolved.
So my brother went to West Marine with the girlfriend to pickup the oil and a few other things and I went off to the bank with the seller.
Hey 5 grand is 5 grand. Once in awhile a old redneck gets a break
