MILD THUNDER

iTrader: (3)

I bought my first boat in the spring of 2003. It was a 23ft open bow with a 454,ag/bravo setup. Didnt know much about boats, but it was a local guy, and he went on and on about how great the boat was. I liked the boat, and we agreed on 11k for it, since it was an 89, even though he was asking 14k. I had the boat out the first couple times, for maybe an hour or two, just puttin around the lake. I begin to notice it lose power and started to miss. Then, it began popping thru the carb. After many weekends of trial and error, I found out the cam went flat. Removed back seat, tore motor down, and replaced the cam. Got er done, running good, go out to test it out, and the first time I planed off that day the drive grenaded! Now its fall of 2003, and I was having the drive redone, and decided to play with the boat, before it got too cold. Noticed a soft spot on the floor. Before I knew it, I had the entire floor out, and the floor and stringers were all water logged/rotted from water that entered from a small crack in the hull. Replaced all that, new drive, sold it in the spring of 2004 for 5500 bucks as is. Lost about 10g on that one.

Spring of 2004 I find a nice Four Winns Liberator 241 for sale with a new 540, new bravo drive, new interior, new trailer. Buy the boat for 18k. Take it home, wait two weeks for the lake to thaw. Drop it in, go for a short ride about 1 mile, at 3500RPM, then come to a idle. Oil pressure at 5lbs. Turned out the motor was junk, and needed a full overhaul due to poor machine work. Bring boat in may 2004 to get engine rebuilt. Shop had it till aug 2004. Cost to rebuild, 7k. Used it for a month, ran good, then put in strorage. Sold boat in spring of 2005 for 16k. Lost 9k on that one.

So it basically cost me 19k and tons of man hours and sweat for about 25 hours worth of boating. Fun isnt it sometimes?