Me and My Boat: Buying a Boat

      At this point I am going to start sharing my experiences with my sailboat.  If anyone thinks that sailing is not adventurous they’d be wrong.  Does the name Magellan ring a bell, or how about Shackleton?  Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to compare myself with those two intrepid adventurers, well maybe in spirit, but certainly not in action.  However, I believe sailing is every bit the challenge as surviving in the wilderness is.  More so even, depending on the circumstances; either way, adventure is where you find it.

August 2009,

Me and My Boat

By

Robert Bruce Taggart

Last summer in late August I was working in Houghton County when I happened to drive by a boat for sale.  This was obvious from the red and white “For Sale” sign taped to the side of the boat, that I saw as a rushed past on my way to where I was going.  I didn’t pay it much attention.  It’s not like I hadn’t seen many others of the same variety.  I think anywhere you live, especially if it’s near water, one is bound to see the occasional boat for sale.  And so it was with this one.

I continued to my destination, did what I had set out to do, and then made my way back.  I was working on a peninsula and so had to come back pretty much the same way I had arrived.  However, I did take the alternate route which would usually save me time, as it was more direct then the road I come on, but both ended in exactly the same place. 

Upon reaching the intersection of both roads I hesitated, and looked back down my original path.  I was thinking about the boat.  “What the hell”, I thought to myself and turn back down the way I had originally come retracing my route.  This is why the alternate route wasn’t the most direct, at least that particular day.

A few miles down the road I came to the object of my curiosity, a sailboat.  It was on a trailer parked on an access road to wooded area opposite of the lake; Portage Lake that is.  Had I been on the other side of the peninsula it would have been Lake Superior.  However, both are connected.

Anyway, the boat such as it was, was a sailboat as I have previously mentioned.  This is probably why it spurred my interest.  My wife and I had been interested in getting a sailboat, ever since we moved to Marquette Michigan, but we were not driven or obsessed with the idea.  Up to that point we had managed to purchase a canoe, which did enhance our water sport prospects from where they had been previously.  However, it is damn hard to water ski behind a canoe, and paddling that fast really wears you out quick.  Not that you can water ski behind a sailboat either, but at least you don’t have to paddle it.

So, here was this sailboat with a “For Sale” sign taped to its side, sitting on a trailer just off the road.  I pulled up next to it got out of my car and went over to check it out.  I don’t remember exactly, but the sign on the boat said something like, “sailboat for sale $500 or best offer”.   “Hummm”, I thought, “that’s pretty cheap, what’s wrong with it?”  This was my sentiment at the time because I had checked out other boats here and there, and they were always significantly more expensive, to the tune of several thousand dollars.  Probably the reason I hadn’t bought one yet.

The boat was a 21 foot sloop manufacture in 1971 by the Clipper Marine Company of southern California.  It was painted an obnoxious green color which was flaking off exposing the yellow paint beneath.  It had a build up of moss and possibly some lichen growing on it.  Not to mention a huge amount of caked on dirt.  The bottom, although hard to see, was neglected by the artists touch and was whitish with semi blue streaks in areas.  The boat was hideous looking!  I fell in love right there on the spot.

But not so fast, I’m not taken with every obnoxious green boat I run across.  I needed to investigate a bit further.  I looked over the side into the cockpit.  It was the same wonderful color as the rest of the vessel.  I also noticed various other endearing aspects such as the wonderfully constructed main hatch cover.  This was a hodge podge of cheap plywood pieced together to cover the hatch and undoubtedly leaked like a sieve.  There were also noticeable defects in the boat, mainly broken hatch covers.  But that stuff didn’t bother me too much.  I needed an answer to the big question…..Would she float?

I looked in the window and could make out some of the interior through the dirty acrylic that served in that function.  It looked to be in about the same shape as the rest of the boat.  Excellent!  I would find many other issues as I got into it, but that can wait for now.

What I wouldn’t find out until I had purchased the boat is that there had been standing water in it for years.  This had completely rotted out all the woodwork inside.  There was foam flotation concealed beneath the wooden decking which was completely saturated, and other then providing ballast, served no purpose; especially flotation.  Had the boat taken on water (large amounts of water) in that condition, it would have surely sunk.

After my initial inspection of the boat I was enthused by what I had seen, and besides, the price was right.  I went to the address indicated on the sign to go talk to the owner.  The address was basically just across the street.  Obviously this guy owned the property on both sides of the road.  Unfortunately, my quest for information was short lived.  The owner wasn’t home.  I wrote a note and placed it on the main entrance to the house in such a way that whoever lived here couldn’t miss it.  With that, I left and started to contemplate what the possibilities were. 

I could envision sailing the boat but had more immediate needs.  Like, how would I pay for it?  And even more pressing, how would I talk Marcia into it?  Usually, that amount wouldn’t present a problem, but we had just spent a large amount on our truck.  We had to have the rear end replaced due to the bearings going out.  The joke was that my wife got a new rear end for her birthday.  That left us a little short of cash. 

That night I told my wife about the sailboat.  She wasn’t overly impressed and pointed out our financial situation.  I explained that this was a great opportunity, but ensured her that I hadn’t talked to the owner yet and wasn’t going to make any hasty decisions.   She said it was my call, hoping I would make the right choose….her choice.  Big mistake. 

The owner called that evening and we discussed the boat.  He told me that he had owned the boat for ten years but had only had it in the water once.  He had painted it the wonderful green color it now was but had never been gung ho about fixing it up.  I figured he painted it that color to hide it in the woods, it was perfect camouflage.  The owner also told me that before he owned the boat, the previous owner had parked it for many years as well.  He said it had two feet of standing water in it when he got it.  So, all and all, the boat had been parked for as long as 20 years with virtually no use.

The conversation told me what I needed to know.  The sailboat had been badly neglected over the years but was structurally sound.  The owner’s logic being that: if it holds water in, it must keep water out.  It had not been sunk, nor had any major damage to the hull.  It was salvageable. 

The sale would include the trailer, and the owner had the mast and the boom with the main sail as well.  However, it was missing the rudder and tiller, and a jib.  Those mentioned being important components to any sailboat and probably an additional reason why the boat was so cheap.

I told the guy that I was interested, but would have to discuss it with my wife and would get back to him, although I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for it.  What the hell, my family could survive on ramen noodles for a few days until we got our next pay check. 

On a whim I decided to talk to my parents about it.  I wouldn’t call them major boat enthusiasts but I figured it was worth a shot.  I went to their house and explained my latest nutty idea.  The selling point being that the boat was worth more then the present owner wanted and I could literally turn around and sell it for at least twice as much as the asking price.  Not that I had any intention of doing so.  Also, I had every intention of paying them back for this small loan, and could reimburse them within a few weeks. With both of my parents rolling their eyes, they reluctantly issued me the funds required to make the purchase. 

I called the owner back and set up a time to make the transaction and pick up the sailboat.  It would be the coming weekend.  I asked what size ball would fit on the trailer, just to be sure I would actually be able to haul it back to Marquette.  That being said, it looked like I would soon be the owner of a dilapidated sailboat.  Joy, I was as happy as a kid on Christmas morning.