July 4, 2011
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Death of a Boat
My husband and I spent last Saturday cruising around and looking at boats that had been listed on craigslist.org. Why? Well, I was trying to find some spare parts for my Banshee. But also, about every 2-3 years or so, I get onto a boat-building kick, and I end up looking at plans for building a boat. And then, I think, it’d be cheaper to try to retrofit an existing boat.
This particular time, I was inspired by the following threads:
http://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15880un — This guy’s work is amazing. He took a plain jane jon boat and completely replaced the deck and seats.
http://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=16008&start=105 — This guy’s work is even *more* amazing. He took a piece of junk and made it float *AND* look good.
It amazes me how expensive boats are right now, even used and junky ones! So, our options when looking at boats were not plentiful.
Here are some of the candidates:
1. Boat #1: This was a 1959 Sea King jon boat. It is so pretty. The pictures just don’t do it justice. Beautiful chine. I wanted to see her in the water, but there were a few problems.
The biggest problem is she was title-less, and she is registered for New Mexico. That alone was a hassle. She also had holes where the rubrail has come off, and those need to be fixed/sealed before she could be considered watertight. The engine. . . a very old engine. The original. I don’t know what this is. He tried to tell me it’s a Mercury engine, but it’s not of any model I can find online, and there’s an “M/W” on the side. MW doesn’t stand for “Mercury Motors.” So, I don’t know what it is. I don’t even know if it works, as we were way out there, and I didn’t feel like trekking back home to get a gas can and fill up only to try start up a title-less boat that doesn’t float.
So pretty though. I hate to see her die. I do hope someone saves her, but it isn’t going to be me, I’m afraid.
2. Boat #2: This was a 1980 inboard boat. That someone had put a car engine into. This boat was *way* outta my league in terms of being fixed, or even wanting to be fixed.
3. Boat #3: I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the Banshee. I was running out of room on my cellphone for pictures. She is sailable, except she really needs a new rudder. The owner tried to sell me the line, “She can sail with that rudder.” But, I remember the time Matt and I got stuck out on the lake, when our wooden tiller handle snapped off the rudder. So no. I refuse to sail with a cracked rudder again. Matt and I fight enough when sailing together, we really don’t need to go rudderless again on a sailing trip.
