Married 15 years now and she keeps me grounded.
I’ve heard it said many many times the two best days for a boat owner is the day he buys his boat and the day he SELLS IT!
Weekly FR Boating Thread ping!
Selling your Pride and Joy theme.
80 degrees and sunny in Charleston today - my birthday - let the boating season begin!
My brother recently sold his boat, I think it was a Catalina 24 or 27 (don’t quote me) to a fellow who insisted he did not need any kind of marine survey. The boat had been out of the water, on a trailer, for at least 3 years. My brother told the guy it was smart to get a survey, but the buyer simply insisted he knew all he needed to know about boats (even though he had never owned one before)
Fortunately, my brother wrote out a sales receipt stating that all defects had been disclosed and that he (seller) had recommended a marine survey prior to sale, and that if the buyer should forego the survey, it was entirely at his discretion. Furthermore, he made the bill of sale to be “as is, how is”.
Buyer bought the boat & trailered it back to his place. Discovered the engine was seized. He yelled and screamed and tried to guilt my brother into a money accomodation.
Didn’t work.
We had no sailing experience what-so-ever but bought a 30' Rawson sloop at Gove's Cove on Lake Union in Seattle (the same place the the houseboat in "Sleepless in Seattle" was filmed). We found work at a resort up in the San Juan Islands at Deer Harbor, Orcas Island.
We ended up living on the boat for four years, cruising the waters from Tacoma to the upper end of Vancouver Island. It was a wonderful period and we still live off the memories. These pictures start early on with the boat out of the water for bottom painting etc. and end with the day we sold the boat, also at Gove's Cove:
