Sunday, November 18, 2012

Boat ownership!


Ok, so maybe the title is a bit misleading.  I don't own it yet.  However the gentlemen's agreement is in place ( well maybe the seller is a gentleman anyways ).   I may or may not have mentioned a 1977 Chrysler 30' sailboat on the blog.  I think I mentioned it on Facebook.    But that is the boat for me.   I had looked at an Aloha 28' that was in great shape with all sorts of toys.  The owner of that boat, Bud, is a genuinely great guy who I now count as a friend.  He was selling his boat because he had heart failure and couldn't sail anymore.   He did however have a friend he was teaching to sail that wanted the boat, but didn't have the money so I told him to sell it to her on a payment plan so she could still sail, and when he felt good enough he could at least be a passenger on the boat .     I was kicking myself for letting the boat go, but I knew it was the right thing to do.




It turns out he had a friend that had this Chrysler he was living on, and had anchored out near Palmetto FL.  I had never heard that Chrysler had a marine division (however short lived), so was skeptical about the boat, but new that taking a look wouldn't hurt anything.  Once I stepped on the boat I knew that this could be the boat.   First of all, it was the first boat I had been on that's deck was rock solid.  No soft spots of any kind.  Down below I thought there must be some kind of illusion going on, as it felt really roomy down there.   Lots of built in storage, an interesting layout of the v-berth (crossing single bunks at different height), and a generous main cabin as well as roomy quarter berth.

Fred's (the boat owner) situation was he was moving back to Spain (he was British) soon, and wanted to sell the boat fairly quickly.   He mentioned a price of 10K, as we talked it went down a bit to 7K, and the final price became 5K a couple weeks later as his situation changed a bit and he has to leave earlier.  Patience apparently does have some benefits.

I apologize for the lack of pictures on this, but there will be MANY coming as I take possession and figure out where I will keep it.  My lease goes til the end of April, so I'll try to find something cheap until then (not sure if I'm comfortable anchoring it on my own just yet).

The day appears to be fast approaching when I will switch from Land to Liveaboard!!!!