Worst boat you have owned / worst purchase

[kaferhaus]

Re: Worst boat you have owned / worst purchase

when I was in my early 20s (30yrs ago) I bought a 36ft chris craft cruiser for what I thought was the steal of a lifetime.... what a POS...

It had twin 318s... don't remember what transmissions... the engines ran fine for about a month and then it was a constant problem with one or the other.

After about 30hrs or so the hull developed several small leaks (carvel planked boat...) that caused the bilge pump to cycle every 4-5 minutes. So I had it hauled to find that the hull was rotten with "worms". The boatyard that hauled it was familiar with the boat and told me that they'd told the previous owner 2yrs prior that about 40% of the hull needed re-planked. He told them to clean it and paint it that he was going to sell it and let it be the next guys problem.

The marina owner (this was obviously a wet slip boat) subsequently told me that the boat had only been out of that slip 3-4 times in the 5 yrs before I bought it... the previous owner used it for "entertaining" his mistresses....

Guess what the name of the boat was?

Anyway I lost my behind on that deal of a lifetime....left it at the boatyard and walked away. two years later the bank and I were even....

I've bought more than a dozen used boats since. But I'll never get burned on another one. I now assume the boat has issues that I will not find on even a thorough pre-purchase examination and put a value on the boat accordingly.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Worst boat you have owned / worst purchase

I didn't even realize my worst boat was as bad as it was while I owned it...

I was about 15 and working all summer at a little lakeside restaurant flipping burgers, mowing grass and helping to maintain the couple of small rental cabins they had on site. My buddy was working half a mile up the lake at a marina and I would pop in to pick him up after work in my little Springbok tinnie complete with centre console and fire-breathing 7.5 Merc (still have that rig to restore for my own kid now...).

As I was hanging around the gas dock waiting for him to get off shift one afternoon I noticed sitting high and dry under a tree a little sea flea I hadn't seen before. I don't know if "sea flea" is a common term across North America but basically it was a little hydroplane of plywood construction with a crappy white paint job, ancient drum and sloppy cable steering and no motor. Probably about 9 feet LOA. Actually not a true hydro since the hull was almost flat but you probably get the gist.

Anyway, the wiley old crook who owned the marina saw me checking it out and sauntered over to set the hook and reel me in. Before I knew what I was doing I was emptying my pockets and begging my buddy to top up my meagre pile of cash to attain the princely sum of $50 (as I recall the old weasel even charged me sales tax to boot). Then she was all mine.

I towed her home with the tinny with the plan of dropping the little Merc on her. Once secured to the soggy transom with the gas tank crammed as far under the low sloping bow as I could get it, I fired up the motor and headed out into the bay.

What a blast. The thing had no seat and I didn't have the patience that first ride to connect the steering so I just sat on the floor with my back against the transom which resulted in the motor tiller basically resting on my left shoulder and the twist grip well out in front of me.

I gave it a crank (awkwardly since my hand was backwards to how you would normally hold a tller) and the little boat headed for the sky.

Up, up, up went the bow, the little Merc digging in with all those seven ponies. Finally (and luckily) the bow slapped down and we were off. I'm grinning now just thinking of it. Don't know what top speed was at WOT but with the Merc screaming in my left ear and my eyes two feet off the water it felt like a hundred miles an hour. In a flash we were at the end of our little bay heading for the reeds when I decided it was probably time to turn.

So, I pulled the tiller into my neck as I leaned to the right, ready to counter the tilt into a sharp left turn. Ha.

Instead of turning, the damn boat just angled left...and kept going straight as you please into the weeds, starboard quarter proudly leading the charge.

That's the day I learned my first lesson in the fine art of naval architecture. Glass smooth slightly convex hulls with no strakes travelling at speed tend to want to continue in a straight line even with significant application of off-centre thrust.

I got her stopped before hitting shore (the reeds really helped , de-fouled the prop, got her turned around and headed out into bigger waters to test the turning radius. Seemed to be about two hundred feet at WOT, adjustable to about a hundred if you pulled off the throttle and then goosed it repeatedly to force the stern around. That strategy produced a glorious hull slapping, chine walking, spraying, skidding turn and more grinning.

Anyway, as you've no doubt concluded by now the thing was a total death trap. Between the almost complete lack of directional control, soggy hull and inability to weather anything rougher than ripples, I'm amazed my parents didn't chop it up for firewood at the end of the first day zooming around under their alarmed eye.

I used it for the rest of the summer then, somehow, magically, developed the good sense to retire it to a shady spot near the cottage pumphouse where it moldered away for the next decade or so, finally reclaimed by mother nature.

I wish I had taken a picture of the thing but alas, no. I do still have the steering wheel up in the rafters of the a garage at the cabin as a fond reminder of my brief, torrid affair with my little rockette. My best and worst boat yet!

-edit- Oh wow - here's a pic from a Google search of Sea Flea. Coulda been me. almost the same motor and everything...