Your first boat story

[dcarver]

Re: Your first boat story

Well I guess I'll continue this old thread since it was pretty entertaining to read.
My wife and I have grown up with boats our whole life. After we graduated college her dad bought her a boat. 2007 14ft alumacraft with 15hp mercury 4 stroke. Her dad and I planked it and I built in a storage locker. Used it for 3yrs and I always wanted a bigger boat for skiing and the tiller was getting pretty old after a while. So I ended up selling it and making $300 and we looked at a bunch of turds in our price range and a bunch of people lying about how nice their boat was. Learned a lesson in all the searching though. If you want a nice boat, get more money. Anyway we found a 1994 Manta Ray 189 sport with a 4.3 mercruiser alpha one gen II outdrive. Boat runs good. One soft spot by the ski locker that I'll just put a band aid on for now. Bought 2 new seats and cleaned the ever loving **** out of it. 3M fiberglass restorer and it shines like new. Put a new 4 blade prop on it (yet to take it out since). It's basically my summer project. It is definitely lake ready but I like my stuff to be nice no matter how much they cost. So with the help of this forum I bet it'll be better than new.

 

[briangcc]

Re: Your first boat story

My family and I spent a number of summers from 1980-2000 up at Forest View Lodge in Bancroft Ontario. For the first few years we'd bumb rides from my uncles on their small 16' fishing boats. At some point along the way, my dad got the crazy notion to buy a boat. So after going to a few places, and family members not wanting to help us much in our search, we stumbled across the 1956 MFG 15' with matching 30 HP Big Twin Evinrude. We knew absolutely nothing about boats and that boat probably should have been in a dumpster when we picked it up in 1986. But it was oours and spent more time in the marina getting worked on then actually in the water on vacations. So my parents let the boat go...no maintenance on it so it sat in a barn, un-used from 1992 on to probably 2004. I was in college so hey, no trips for family vacations so no need for the antique.

Flash forward to 1998 and we finally go back up to Forest View Lodge and since the boat is in such dis-repair, my parents decide to rent a boat from the lodge - a 14' aluminum dinghy with some sort of motor - I forget the HP. I got soaked riding in the bow of that boat and vowed I'd never do that again.

So the spring boat show comes to the Niagara Falls Convention Center in 1999 and I do a little pre-detective work soliciting sales materials from Sea Ray, Bayliner, etc. Day comes and I drag my dad along to the boat show. No one wants to talk to me at all...except Bayliner. Wanna guess who got the sale that day on a brand new 1800LS? Yep, Bayliner. After I put the money down on the boat, I received a few calls from their competitors asking if I had purchased a boat. So I explained that I had, the experience I had at the boat show, and said had they actually shown an interest that I might have one of their boats in my driveway instead of the Bayliner. The reps gave me the obligatory "thanks for the feedback, we'll look into it" speech.

So the following year, the boat show comes to town and I decide to check it out to see what new features and toys are out there. Imagine my surprise when the same staff from last year were now eager to assist me. Voicing my opinion must have hit a nerve or something...

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Your first boat story

I would write a story, but these pictures tell it fairly well. . .

We saw this boat on our way through Woods Hole . . .

We saw our boat in similar fashion after coming back from the Ice Cream shop in Edgartown . . .