A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Frank, my wife’s cousins husband. Usually it’s our wives that talk with each other and Frank and I are kept up to date by them. In fact the last time we talked on our phones was in 2023 when we passed by their cottage on Lake Ontario bringing our new boat home. So at nine in the morning when I saw his number come up I immediately thought “ oh no , what happened?” Luckily Frank was calling for another reason and we had a great talk.
Turns out Frank was interested in a classic British sports car located in Connecticut. He wanted to know if I would consider taking the ferry from Port Jefferson over to Bridgeport and go take a look at the car. Kathy and I did not hesitate and two days later we made the trip over and back to see the car. Being in Florida Frank was so thankful for us taking the time to go look. Really, it was a beautiful day and I love helping spend someone else’s money!
Kathy and I were talking about it a couple of nights ago and we ended up talking about the boats we have gone to see starting thirty years ago. At the time I was working for the National Park Service as a boat operator and held a Captains License for that job. I started looking at boats around the area, Boston Whalers, Grady Whites and the like. Something in the twenty to twenty three foot range.
In the Spring of 1995 we were getting our taxes done when the accountant suggested we should get a boat, open up some type of business and write off the expenses. That sounded like a dream to me so I decided to look at larger boats and expanded the search area. There was no internet, which meant that pictures like we have now were rare, maybe one or two in print, so I relied on various papers and magazines for my search.
There was one in particular not on the list that even though I did not see it I had talked with the owner and we had agreed to a price. It was a gas powered twin engine boat in very good condition according to the owner and had a recent survey to back that claim up. I had purchased a set of Cummins 6BTA diesel running take outs that I was going to install in her. I envisioned this as a great father son project and had the engines checked out at a Cummins dealer in Maine where I purchased them. The day before I was supposed to head up to sea trial the boat the owner called and said he could not go through with the sale as he loved the boat so much.
To say I lost my temper on the phone might be an understatement. The next day I put the engines up for sale and in a few days sold them for what I payed for them. A week later I got a call from the boat owner saying he decided to sell the boat! I tactfully told him I was no longer interested. The following is a list of the boats I remember going to look at along with the mileage traveled to get there. It is probably on the light side since I can’t remember all of them. Only two of them required a hotel stay, being young I was okay with driving back and forth to Maine or Annapolis in one day! No more of that. We stayed in a hotel in Tampa, and Alexandria Bay.
Distances are round trip:
1987 30 Black Watch, located on Marthas Vineyard. We drove about 632 miles to find this boat in what looked like a barn. It was filthy and the early Black Watch boats had a reputation for water in the coring. No sale!
1986 Hatteras 32 Flybridge located in Portland Maine. A 714 mile trip to see a boat with engines and below deck spaces that made it look like the boat sank. No sale!
1975 C/C 30 Tournament located in Brielle NJ. A 262 mile easy jaunt to see this classic, that the broker took pains to make look gorgeous. The cabin was filled with scented candles but they could not hide the odor, or the many cracks in the superstructure. With a few thousand hours on the engines, she needed some help! Pass!
1985 Bertram 35 Convertible, Brooklyn NY. We stopped to see this on the way home from seeing the Chris Craft. It was basically a shell but the yard would rebuild her any way we wanted. Nope.
1985 28 Bertram Flybridge, Annapolis MD. 564 mile round trip, it took all of ten minutes to walk away from this beauty. The boat was old, but I could see past that. But when I went down between the engines I saw a lot of water in the bilges with a lot of rust. Clearly not taken care of. The topper was when I pulled the starboard engine dipstick and found chocolate milk where oil is supposed to be. This indicates water in the oil so, nope. As I was doing the checks the broker asked my wife if we were sailing her home that day!
1986 Tiara 33 Flybridge, New Bern NC. This was a 1244 mile round trip flight, and a long ride to and from the boat from the airport. Nothing like making the trip to see a boat ready for the scrap yard. No way!
1985 32 Hatteras Flybridge, Tampa Fla. Another long trip for nothing. 2400 miles round trip to find a boat so full of muscles in the exhaust pipes it could not even run right. Nope.
1989 31 Rampage, Oceanport NJ. A few trips there and the boat was ours. My dad and I made the trip home on a beautiful early summer day running from the tuna tower all the way to Patchogue. We had a great time with that boat introducing our young boys to boating. We moved her out to Mattituck after the first summer, and still boat out of there. 500 miles.
1989 35 Egg Harbor Flybridge, Merrick NY. A couple of trips and a sea trial and she was ours. We had her one season when we decided that the flying bridge was not for us. A smaller boat and a jetski came next. A side note, I sold the boat the next spring and the new owner sailed her home. The starboard engine (454 Crusader) dropped a rod on the way to New Jersey. 94 miles
1996 Pursuit 2800 Inboard Georgetown Md. This was the smaller boat, twin 350 Crusader v-8s. Took it for a test ride and bought it that day. It was loaded with spiders and webs but cleaned ups nicely. Just a bit to small for our growing boys but we had lots of fun. 460 miles.
1999 Pursuit 3000 Express, Huntington NY. We had owned the 28 for a year or two when the marina got a Pursuit 3000 Express in and we went out for a test ride. It was a snotty day but that boat cut it like butter. It had twin v-8 Mercruisers in it but I wanted diesels. I went looking for a diesel powered one and I found one in Huntington. Within a few weeks it was our next boat for twenty years. We loved that boat but simply outgrew her for what we wanted to do after retirement. 68 miles.
2005 38 Rampage, Huron Ohio. This boat looked as clean as could be online, and I was excited to go see her. Always a fresh water boat, she looked brand new. I tried to get a surveyor to take a look at her but never had one to go see her. He lived a mile from the boat but was always busy. We went to see her and she passed my first inspection but I told the broker I would not buy her until I had a moisture survey. He kept telling me he would give me the moisture meter but I declined knowing my emotions might cause me to overlook the results if there were any bad spots. Not knowing my qualifications ( 4 years USCG and two as part of USCG Naval Engineering) he kept bugging me and I gave in. He gave me the moisture meter and all my wife heard was the meter beeping away, this boat was loaded with water in the coring in many spots. We walked, maybe ran from it. 1134 miles
2006 Tiara 36 Open Alexandria Bay, New York. Our Current boat. I found this boat the day it was listed online. We made the trip up north one beautiful and freezing cold day in October of 2022. By January we became the new owners and got to work on cosmetic items like cushions etc. I gave her routine maintenance and after seven round trips up to work and stay aboard she was ready to come home to Long Island. We left August first and six days later we docked in Mattituck after a very spectacular trip home. We want to head back up and explore the upper Hudson River and even travel back to the Thousand Islands, it is simply gorgeous. 5856 miles, not counting the 500 or so miles we traveled coming home.
13928 miles! Was it all worth the effort? The fun we have had over the years with family and friends, the adventures including bring our latest home from the St. Lawrence River and the Erie Canal? An unqualified yes!