Re: Would You Lone Your Boat To Anyone?? Poll
I let a former friend borrow my boat one time and I will never let anyone borrow any of my boats again! He was always responsible with all of his belongings and those things that I had lent him?until he borrowed my little bow-rider. When he returned it (at night when I was sleeping) the poor little thing was tore all to hail. The short list includes a missing skeg (broke off flush with the gear housing), a torn up prop, most of the gel coat on the bottom missing, trash, empty beer cans, and puke all over the interior, the raw water intake ports on the lower unit plugged with mud, and the best part?a seized motor. Several people that I know who saw him on the water called me and they said that it looked like he was trying to destroy the boat (he did a pretty dang good job too). It appears (from talking to those who seen him) that he grounded the boat several times at high speed on mud shoals and powered the boat off. That plugged the water ports and caused the engine to overheat and lock up. He got a tow from one of the lake cops (whom I know and called me to fill in the missing bits of info) and somehow managed to get it back on the trailer. Trying to call him proved a waste of time and a personal visit resulted in a long, heated verbal exchange where he tried to deny any wrong doing?even after I told him that a lot of people had seen his antics. He said that they were lying and that he took good care of my boat. When I showed him the pictures that I had taken his response was ?well sue me then?. And that exactly what I had to do. Long story short?I ended up winning the case because I had several creditable witnesses along with a lot of before and after pictures (thank goodness for that date-stamp my old camera put on all of the picts!). I ended up having to garnish his wages because he refused to pay up even after a court order, Until that little incident we had been best friends for over 20 years. I don?t know why he did what he did to my boat or why he got an attitude after I asked him very nicely to get the boat fixed, but it taught me several valuable lessons. One, you might think you know someone?until you lend them something valuable, or they break something expensive. Two, to keep a friend a friend never loan them money, your tools, your vehicle, or your boat!
