I am "officially out" of boating
 

Hi OSO'ers. I still "lurk" around here and post occaisionally. I sold my Powerplay last February and was deciding to buy or not to buy another boat.

As most of you know I was trying to buy another Powerplay and that deal got hosed by GOODT (scumbag mechanic) and he still owes me money. I have finally decided to get out of boating for a while (maybe forever??) It is too expensive and there are too many bad stories or incidents you keep hearing about almost weekly now.

I have decided to sell my truck and my Havasu home. I am getting back into cars again because it's much cheaper!! I am following my good friend HavasuCig, he sold his Skater and bought an A/C Cobra replicar (endorsed and now built by Shelby, but not an original Shelby car)

I am also buying a Ford A/C Cobra and get this....a new 427 Roush engine (yes, as in the famous Jack Roush) with 550HP and 535TQ is $15K!!!!! (with a 2yr 24K miles warranty) A boat motor with those numbers would be in the $25K+ range :eek: The car is wicked fast and only weighs 2500lbs.

I will still be around here and there, I just wanted to wish you all the best in life and boating....cheers :drink:

Gerard

P.S. Here's a picture of the car

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

sweet ride... I have always wanted one... I hope you get back into boating someday... I believe with reliable diesel power boating is much more fun not worrying about breaking anything, and that is what I plan to get... if it can't be done I'll probably get a car...

Ernie

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Too bad, I understand the $$ part of it however. I'm not rolling in $$ and it's a stretch for me to be in my 33' Powerplay so to counter the $$ drain I've learned how to do some work on the boat myself and have save big bucks. My trips are a bit shorter too and WOT is less frequent as well and it all seems to help out. I tried the car thing a few years ago, but it just didn't have the impact that being on the water for a day with friends/family had. There are scumbags in every industry so I wouldn't let that deter you from pursuing what's rewarding for you. If you go to the car forums, there's just as many getting hosed over there as in the boating industry. However, I feel that for the most part there are good people in this boating family, they just don't get the publicity that the scumbags do. Good luck and hopefully us PowerPlayers will get you back in the fold someday.

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Noice ride!!! Cars are great. Funny thing is I left the car world for the boating world. It got expensive, at the same time I was rebuilding boat engine and so I went the other direction :D. I think boating is much safer the cars though. Plus not to mention the going to the bars docking up and partin all night..... :drink: Note to self, need portable stripper pole installed :D :D :D :D

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Good luck with everything. Not having a boat is no reason to leave here though.
Also, not to get you worried about anything, but let me share a quick story:
About 10 or so years ago, I was at a car show with my buddy who was in the market for a Cobra replica. We saw a turn key car at the show that was beautiful. Took the 2+ hour ride up to the guy's shop a few weeks later (which was affiliated with the local Ford dealer...remember that later) to see a couple other cars and talk details. After a couple hours, my buddy put down a deposit. The car was going to be as close to original as he could get - 427 side oiler, Halibrands, etc.
A couple months goes by, and the guy is telling my buddy about all the bonus stuff that's getting thrown in the deal, like 5 point harnesses, and some other crap, becuase the car is going to be in magazines. His story was that all these vendors were giving product for free to get their stuff in the photo shoot.
Every couple of weeks, there's a new story about the progress of the car - it's painted, the motor's in, etc. Final details were taking forever though. Finally, I convice my buddy we have to take the drive up to this guy's shop....unannounced. (why he didn't go earlier is a good question...guess he was a little more trusing then I would have been.)
We get to the shop and immediately see that the guy had been outright lying for months. The only pieces of the car at the shop were the unpainted body and some misc. odds and ends. The guy ran into financial trouble and was just lying so he didn't have to refund my friend's $15K deposit. I'm sure he was trying to come up with more money to complete the car, but it certainly wasn't going well.
When my friend's lawyer started trying to get his deposit back, the only thing that helped was this guy's affiliation with the Ford dealership. He had no money to pay back, but the dealer did....and they did cover it.
Sound at all like a boating industry story? :eek:

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Congrats on the Cobra, 427's are sweet engines, be careful with that beast :drink:

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Sweet car!!!
Only problem w/ cars over boats is that unless you track the car, there is no legal place to unleash the car w/o putting innocent by standers at risk.

With the boat, you just go out into the open ocean and let her rip.

but boating is getting rediculously expensive.
new boat prices just seem silly.

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Gerard.

You will be back.......... It' in your blood bro.

If you need a quick fix head to South Florida.

We will bang a few waves with you in the Atlantic.

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Gerard, I can really understand your feelings because I am feeling the same way too. I have not been hosed really bad in a while in the marine industry and luckly have an excellent Fountain dealer in Tampa to take care of my service needs. However I did the Labor Day weekend OPBA Poker Run and bought into the video and photo package. I got my 2 pictures and the boat is so off center it's funny! I called the offices of the Florida Poker Run's and a girl answered and I explained my problem. She could have cared less and basically acted like oh well that is your problem because that is how the picture came out. I explained to her that any good post processing person would have croped and center the photo before printing it out. Luckly I paid with my American Express and will dispute the charges....so the Porker Run experience has been tarnished! :mad:

I just bouhgt a Porsche and am going to Sebring for track days and a local airport for autocross. It's a blast. Last weekend they had the AC Shelby Cobra Club out to track their cars at Sebring.

I am lightly trying to sell my boat because the fun is no longer there and expense is about too much.

Re: I am "officially out" of boating
 

Nice Cobra. I still do t he car thing along with the boat thing. I try to do both in moderation, and not make too many expensive trips and keep them both close to home. As I have found out ion both the car world and boat world, there are plenty of people that have no business being in business working a cars or boats. Best advice is to to be equipped to handle most of the work yourself to keep expenses down.

Good luck and best wishes.