Re: Funny "TLC needed" boat ads on Craigslist.
Well let me tell you guys about a very GOOD buy... It wasn't from Craig's List, but rather from the Boat Angel program that sells on E-bay. I had never owned a boat (at age 48) and after seeing so many 100's of pictures my friends were posting on FaceBook, I decided that I wanted to get in the game. We live about an hour from the coast and about 40 minutes from Lakes Marion (Santee) in South Carolina.
We had no idea whether we were even "boat people." I used to spend all my weekends playing golf. After a lot of debate over buying new, fairly new, or a project boat, I started visiting dealers and looking on E-bay for used boats. I looked at everything that the Boat Angel program had, and for a couple of weeks it was mostly junk far worse than what I wanted to tackle or either way too far to travel. I ended up finding a '89 Sea Ray bowrider in terrific condition with a great trailer. The owner (only 1 owner) listed that it didn't run and he later told me that his mechanic said it would take $4k to get it in good reliable running condition. Basically, he was one of those guys that couldn't screw in a light bulb and his mechanic was trying to take him for a ride.
We had her out without spending a dime on her (lose wire on the starter) but trip #7 the impeller went out, but it was the weekend before opening day of college football, so she was going to be parked anyway. After about $375 for starter, steering cable, trim solenoid, bellows and seal kit, and impeller kit, this boat is absolutely fabulous. My wife and I are now re-upholstering the entire boat to go from teal and gray to garnet and black (yea, we are USC Gamecock fans) and we are going to paint too.
The trailer has oil filled hubs, three new tires, and the spare is mounted on a spare hub just in case. The guy I bought it from was the original owner and had had the boat for 20 years.
I bought the boat at auction for $1525.00
Would I rather spend hours and hours on the water with half naked women or four hours with guys who pee behind trees? Yep, we're boat people, and now I'm looking for a camper to put at the lake so we don't have to drive home and will probably buy a pontoon at the end of this summer.
