nice transformation on your boat.

The boat is ready. Well, check that. "Was" ready.

Actually, the boat is ready. The trailer, however......

The transport company I hired won't tow it because the tires are over 10 years old.

I really didn't want to replace them since it will cost about $900. Once my wife heard everything she really wanted them replaced.

I talked to the boat guy about several options. He was on the side of not replacing them. I asked about possibly getting a shipper that wouldn't require this but he told me that I got a ridiculously good price on the transport and should offset the cost of tires quite a bit.

He also said the trailer is rated 18,000 lbs and the boat is about 7,500.

I eventually opted to get new tires. I figured they would eventually have to be replaced anyway so whatever.

Hopefully this gets done today and they can pick it up tomorrow.

My wife and I have been quarantining for a week now. It sucks.

She found out several things today.

The patient she was in contact with definitely has covid as confirmed by subsequent testing.

Two caregivers in the room at the same time my wife was in the room have tested positive, although asymptomatic.

My wife got a rapid test today and tested negative.

She is a lot more careful than most of her coworkers about proper masking, gloves and hand sanitizing. Hopefully it paid off here.

If the portfolio has significant gains since the date of death, you may want to consider distributing the portfolio assets in-kind rather than liquidating the assets and distributing that cash. This is because an estate generally pays income taxes on capital gains and pays at the top rate of 20% at a much lower threshold than a person filing a joint return. The 20% rate starts for an estate on the first dollar over $13,150 while a person filing jointly doesn't start paying 20% until capital gains exceed $496,000. If the capital gains are less that $80,000 the tax rate is 0 for a person filing a joint return.

Obviously you should seek advice from a professional and not rely on someone replying in your blog for tax advice.

Thanks. I don't think it is significant enough for me to mess with it. A huge chunk is in bonds and mom had a bunch of exxon and chevron stock so I really doubt there is a ton of gains.

The boat is on its way!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweet! Weekend on the water coming up?

tires are rated for a life of 5 years. few observe that. but someone assuming liability would.
glad its on the way. some outfits trailer the boat and the trailer.

chevron has been going up. likely wont be a factor to you.

The boat has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks great but there's still lots of work to do. It's not clean at all. My wife will find it unacceptable until she does her thing.

Wow, < 1 day to get from NC beaches to Tampa? Nice!

Give it a scrub-a-dub, then go out and get some fresh fish for Thanksgiving dinner.

Standard.

omw

i use bar keepers friend. all the dollar stores have it and walmart. it is basically oxaclic acid.
it takes off the mildew and stains real well. use a whole can or two all over then spray wet it down very lightly. sit for ten minutes and scrub lightly with a long handle brush. it all comes off after you give it a hose down. forget about those boat cleaners. there is no new miracle cleaner that works just for boats.
i just did my c.c. cobia. 99 percent of the baked on stuff came of immediately. some that has been there for years will take more work.
motor started up on first turn on the muffs after sitting for 6 months.
boats=work=fun=fish

So......

I got on the boat (not in the water) and did a complete run-through. I have to admit it sucked the wind out my sails a bit.

I couldn't get the motors to trim. Well, kind of. Long story but I ended up texting the guy and he walked me through the finickyness. They will be fine but I'll add getting them better than fine to my list. Which is very long.

The boat isn't by any means clean. We will spend a day on that.

Lots of little things. Lots and lots of little things. Bad latches, hinges that need replacing, etc. One of the simrad units isn't coming on. I know it worked because one of the pics he sent showed it working. Probably a loose wire or something.

That trailer definitely needs work. The angle brackets that hold the bunks are really rusted. I can't believe they didn't fail on the way.. They will have to be replaced asap.

It is going to be a project for sure. I mean, it is 20 years old and we knew this.

However, the thing is an absolute beast. It is huge. Once we got past all of the little things we realized how nice this will be.

old will never be new. got to live with the old boats quirks. that is why you saved money by buying old. you cant get it to be new.
so you have to come to terms and fix what you cant live with. or after your done fixing you will be fixing a whole new batch of things until you spend more than the cost of a new one.
old boats are nice. we just have to live with what they give us.

trailers and salt water dont mix. they all fall apart. i just let them do their thing. fix only what may keep them from breaking down. you will spend more in gas in 6 months than the cost of a replacement trailer.

I got some pretty serious buyer's remorse with the boat. I'm slowly getting over it. There was just so many things not working.

Before I get to that......

We put it in the water but not before bad things happening. I didn't even think about it but the ball on my hitch was smaller than the trailer required. We went over a speed bump at the entrance to the condos and the trailer popped off. The boat rammed my truck and the tongue of the trailer got jammed underneath and wouldn't budge. All the while partially blocking the exit from the condos.

Fortunately after a bit of work and some help from friends we got it extracted and got it in the water. The damage was limited to a dented bumper on my truck.

The boat ran OK but one of the motors seemed to be having fuel issues. We put some more gas in the boat and didn't have any more problems so fingers crossed.

I "think" I got the simrad unit working. It might have been simply a brightness setting and the unit was working the entire time but the screen was dark. Fingers crossed on that one too.

The livewells did not work. The pumps came on but no water flowed. It took a while but finally got them going. I think it was some sort of vacuum in the system because all I did was uncap the pumps. Water flowed out so I know it had to be sucking water in. Put the caps back on and they worked fine.

As mentioned, the trailer is a disaster. I'll have to replace a lot of stuff but it will still be much cheaper than buying a new trailer.

I'm feeling a bit better about things as we get things fixed. The boat rides fantastic which is why we bought it. I just have to get used to the fact that it is an old boat and will likely be an ongoing project.

Soooo...............

We spent the morning cleaning the boat. Well, biggerwife did most of it. It looks so much better now.

Then we made a list of things we need to fix and add to it to get it the way we want it.

After that, we took it for a good test ride.

There were so many things not working but one by one we got them all fixed. It wasn't that they were broken but we just had to learn how to get them going correctly. As of now everything is working quite well.

The first little ride we did was weird. The boat handles so much differently from our other boat that I kinda thought there might have been some things wrong. But it just handles differently. The steering is much more responsive. The boat guy told us it was more than likely due to the props. The throttles are a lot different too because our other boat was flybywire. After driving it a while I'm getting used to it and I actually like the way it handles.

The thing is just a beast. We went over some serious boat wakes to test it out. Our old boat would bounce like crazy but this thing just glides over them. Super happy about our decision now.

Ahhhh.... boat ownership.

There appears to be a leak in the steering system. The boat is constantly trying to go left, which makes me constantly have to turn the wheel right. The steering wheel turns a lot before it "catches". Might be two issues - bad helm and a leak.

The motors aren't trimming at all.

Boat repair places are booked until after the first of the year. Fortunately, I gotta a guy. He has been a mechanic at several shops and now comes to you. A friend that keeps his boat near me uses him and he's quite good.

He came out and we went through the whole boat. He's going to fix the above issues and do some other stuff as well.

We pulled the boat out of the water, but not before an almost mishap. Tide was low and I sort of skirted a boat lane and bottomed out. This would normally be ok except I can't trim the motors. I could have been stuck for hours. Fortunately I was pretty close to deeper water.

Towing this boat is kinda scary. It is just so big. I look in the mirror and it looks like it wants to come into the truck. Fortunately the ramp is really close to my house. I go very slow.

The mechanic just left after working on the boat for 2 1/2 days.

All trim seals replaced. Helm replaced.

The engines had a ton of corrosion but compression checks were all good. I'm pretty sure the motors sat in the water for an extended period of time. The anodizers did what they were supposed to do. All of them were replaced.

This was all the stuff that needed to get done before I drove it again. He will come back and do a lot of other stuff later. Mostly just rewiring stuff and putting in some electronics.

This guy is extremely thorough. I talked to him different times during the day and watched what he did. I'm lucky I found him. I still haven't seen the bill. I offered him some up front money more than once and he declined.

I think the next thing I do is replace the axles on the trailer. I think they will hold up for a while but eventually they need to be done.

axles will be fine on most trailers. if all the lug bolts are rusted out it is easier and just as cheap to get new hubs. the u bolts and springs rust out and can break if bad those may need replacing. since you are on a lift you wont use the trailer often.

My wife just found out she will be getting the vaccine soon.

She definitely should be so that's great to hear!

Yeah, great news!

Thanks! Yeah that is great news.

She said quite a few people that work there have chosen not to get it.

She is a little scared because she had a really bad reaction to a flu shot years ago. But she knows how beneficial it is.