I think I'm going to quarantine this blog.

Meh, I thought I could lock the thread, but apparently I can't.

I'll return after things settle down.

My apologies if I have been discussing this too much. Hope things go well and this will be my last post until you say your blog is un-quarantined! Gl!

Now I'm off to read loonee balloonees to my daughter (not a joke). She's been on a big kick the last week lol.

I asked her if she had anything to say to "Mr. Boat" and she said "Thank you Mr. Boat! Are we going to video chat with him?"

You guys take care, looking forward to good news when you're back to writing.

So, um. My wife is no longer allowed into the assisted living facility she works at. The reason is that she is not an employee of the facility.

She's essentially out of a job.

So, you guys should be really happy. Drink some champagne on us I guess. We won't be buying any anytime soon.

While I'm sufficiently pissed off.

The assisted living facility she worked in is two ten story buildings. They have reduced the people coming in to almost nothing. It is basically cleaning staff, food staff, and a couple of nurses that respond to emergencies.

No family members are allowed in. Those pictures you see of people standing outside windows. That ain't happening in a 10 story building.

The people living there are not allowed out of their rooms. It is solitary confinement.

My wife is the most loving and caring person I've ever met. Until now, she served as doctor, nurse and family to the people she saw.

No medical staff had been in there for quite some time. The doctor doesn't even go in there. During this time my wife has formed a relationship with the doctor there and has helped diagnose many patients. One lady complained to her that her hip hurt. My wife face timed with the doctor and the lady was sent to get x-rays. Both hips were fractured. No telling how long this was going on.

The saddest story is a lady who is dying of cancer. Her son recently died in a motorcycle accident so it is doubly sad. She asked my wife to shave her head because her hair was falling out. That touched me to no end. It won't happen now. Her hair will just fall out and she will simply die alone.

Covid or no covid, the people in these facilities are dying alone. Every one of them. The answer to this crisis is simply to isolate the aged. There are no mitigating strategies. Just kick everyone out.

It is very sad.

My wife can't change the world but she sure has changed the worlds of some of her patients. I have no doubt about that.

This is why it angers me so much that you people villainize her. She should be thanked, not chastised.

I was wondering how you were doing the other day. Sorry to hear the bad news. I didn't really follow the original conversation on this very closely, and I'm not sure I understand exactly how things were setup as far as her relationship with the facility, but it sounds like what's happening isn't really for the best, and it's mostly a matter of a bureaucracy ill-equipped to handle a somewhat unique case? That is, it seems like maybe her situation doesn't fit neatly into a rule that otherwise is probably OK most of the time.

That doesn't make it suck less, of course. And I agree, it sucks in particular for people living there. I wish I had something better to say about it. Also when you asked me before I gave a pretty general opinion, not knowing your specifics. I hope it didn't seem like villainizing anyone, because I wasn't intending to do so.

Not really sure to whom you're referring with terms like "villianize".

I'm sorry to hear that mrs. boat lost her job. It sounds like a terribly tragic situation at the facility. She was doing her best to try to help those people out.

Since you signed off after this post, is this the "villainize" post you're referring to? If so, you definitely took it wrong or read it wrong. I was questioning the necessity of you continuing to work in the bait shop because your wife's job was so important and the consequences would be so severe if she caught the virus and took it to work. Anyway, if I contributed to your feeling of being persecuted, sorry.

Ugh, that really sucks and is very sad. It's hard to imagine the spot those types of facilities are in.

It's easy to wish there was more testing so care facilities would have more to work with but it's not the reality.

I don't have time to comb back through the thread but I don't remember anyone trying to villainize Mrs. Boat. I know I was pretty harsh but tried hard to keep it about minimizing risk for yourselves and others, especially since it seemed the state you're in wasn't doing as much as it could.

I guess I need to be a bit less defensive when it comes to my wife. I know you guys didn't mean anything.

I probably won't do a ton of posting here until the pandemic thing settles down, but we decided to buy a bigger boat and since that seems super relevant, eh, I thought I would talk about it. Also, I want to document the timeline on this.

So, we own a really nice boat. However, we rarely fish in the bay anymore. Almost all of our trips are offshore. Our boat is not an offshore boat. Even in fairly smooth seas we get beat up pretty bad and the pounding can't be all that good for our boat.

Offshore boats have different hulls. Generally they are defined by the deadrise which, in oversimplified terms, is the angle of the bottom of the boat. Most offshore boats have a deadrise of at least 20 degrees. Most are around 24 degrees. I believe ours is 15, which leads to a really "flat" ride.

The other factor we have to deal with is thunderstorms. We get them all the time and they can really kick up the waves. Four footers or more in a matter of minutes. Our boat simply isn't super safe in stuff like that.

We have been thinking about this for a long time and we finally decided to upgrade. However, we are on a budget and offshore boats are not cheap.

There are a handful of brands that are considered the cream of the crop. Yellowfin, Contender, Regulator, to name a few. Yellowfins are outrageously priced. A decent one in the size we are looking for (around 27') are well north of $250,000.

Contenders are generally thought of in the hardcore offshore world as the boat to own. But they are pretty pricey as well. I've been having problems finding one, and especially one in our price range.

We also considered a newer, less desirable, brand. We own a Sea Hunt and we decided to go look at a newer Sea Hunt offshore boat, hopefully one that we could trade ours for.

The boat was nice and the ride was considerably better than ours. But it was just way too expensive. We passed on that one.

to be continued.....

So, after months of looking, I found a used Contender for sale that I thought we might be able to afford.

The owner also owns a boat restoration company. He posted an "as is" price and a price which included upgrades.

The boat is a 1999 model. That seems old but the hulls on these particular boats are bulletproof. I'll never have any issues with the bones of the boat. However, the lifespan of some of the other things on the boat is fairly limited. Primarily, the gas tanks. This boat is notorious for having tank issues and they almost always need to be replaced after 15-20 years.

Replacing gas tanks is no small job. They have to remove the entire center console and basically cut the floor of the boat out. Most of the time people get the boat rewired as well since the hull is now open and wiring doesn't last forever either.

So, this guy offered to do the work for an additional price. I made him an offer to do all of this and add a few more things while he had the boat torn apart. He agreed to the price.

The big catch - the boat is in North Carolina.

He really wanted us to see it in person and ride in it before he sold it. Which we also wanted to do.

to be continued

The more I looked around, the better this deal seemed. I went on his website and on his facebook page and looked at some of his other projects and it appeared that he did really good work and his prices were definitely reasonable.

So, my wife and I decided to drive up and see it. 11 hours. Ugh.

He had the boat at his house. We climbed up on it and were both thinking "what did we get into". The boat was an absolute mess. Mostly dirty and cosmetic issues.

I forgot to mention, this was his personal boat. He was using it to fish out of up until we went up there. He buys and sells boats through his company as well, but this was the one he actually used.

He explained that he spends so much time at his restoration business he never has time to fix his own boat. That might sound bad but I know a ton of guys like this. They do great work, unless it is on their own stuff.

We spent about an hour walking around the boat and talking about the work he would do. He was extremely knowledgeable about boats. Not only boats in general, but specifically Contender boats. He threw a ton of information at us that you would never find out unless you had deep knowledge of the company.

To be continued.

The longer we spent with this guy, the better we felt about him. At no time did we feel like he was trying to pull one over on us.

Next up - a sea trial. He lives about 5 minutes from a boat ramp. We launched the boat amid hundreds of other boats out on the water. Man, there were a lot of people out and about on their boats. And, there were some ridiculous yachts moored there.

We slowly went through a long no wake zone and got to the place where the bay let out to the ocean. We neared the end of the jetties and the ocean started really rolling. Easily four foot seas. He gunned it and we were going 40 miles an hour through that. Scared the hell out of my wife and I. We would never go fast through that sort of seas. But, the boat took it like a champ. It was incredible to witness.

He turned the boat and hit the seas from all different directions. There was never a time when the boat did anything that felt unsafe.

I told him that we would never be in seas like that. We just don't go fishing when it is like that. He said it is always like that up there.

When we got back in the bay, he ran it pretty hard. I think we hit 52mph but we could have gone faster. Such a ridiculous smooth ride too. Our boat would be bouncing all over the place.

We got back and talked to him some more. He seems to not always be focusing and I had tried to get him to write up a list of the things he promised to do but until then I hadn't seen anything in writing. Anyway, he invited us in and sat down at the computer and typed up a very detailed invoice fairly quickly. It was exactly what we had discussed earlier, with some additional fixes that we noticed when we walked around the boat.

By this time it was getting late and I still wasn't ready to commit but we talked about how to move forward. He asked for a deposit check, which I wrote.

to be continued.....

I need to step back a bit and talk about the loan process.

We have a loan on our boat and so I started with the bank that holds that note. The lady I talked to was semi-clueless. She asked me how long the boat was. I told her and she said that she could indeed finance my "marine vessel". She kept referring to it as a "marine vessel".

I filled out a bunch of stuff and she said I didn't qualify on my own so I asked about putting my wife on the loan. She said "yes, you can put the misses on it." Really? "The misses"? Who says that?

That was round one with this lady.

In the meantime, I applied at a whole bunch of other places. Although my credit is fine and our incomes are fine, we were denied every time. One place said they don't loan on boats less than $100,000. Another said they don't loan for boats more than $50,000. Most just won't loan on a boat over 20 years old.

Meanwhile, I get a call from the bank of the first lady I talked to. They told me that if I moved some of my investments to their bank they would loan me the money at a very good rate. I would have to deposit twice what the loan value is in their investment accounts. They set up a call to further discuss this.

The call was a huge sales pitch. However, they would never tell me what vehicles I could invest in. I currently have most of my stuff in Vanguard and that is as flexible as you can get. The bank folks although wouldn't discuss fees at all. I tried and tried but they hemmed and hawed and never told me. All in all it was a waste of my time and they put me back to the "marine vessel" lady to go with a strict boat loan.

After several more excruciating phone calls about "the misses" and my "marine vessel" she finally told me that they don't loan on boats that old but if I want to buy a newer boat, she would be there to help.

So, we decided to pay cash. Not something I really wanted to do, but from a strictly financial standpoint is makes sense since I can't get a higher rate of return for my investments (well I could but it would be really risky) than I would pay for a boat loan. My wife and I discussed the pros and cons and figured we would really be better off doing it this way.

So, after a ton of discussion and a lot of sleepless nights, we decided to go for it.

I have to say that I'm a little. No, a lot. Nervous about this. We don't know this guy at all but he does have a legitimate business and we have seen his work and it is really good. And, he is very fair with pricing. But our boat will be torn up for a time more than 600 miles away.

The bottom line is trusting this guy. There is no doubt that if he does what we agreed on the boat will be as good and safe as any boat out there. We won't regret the decision at all.

He will be taking pictures throughout the process and I will be posting them here.

Fingers crossed.

:joy:

Congratulations on the new boat (when it gets done). I sincerely hope it doesn't turn into the type of thing where you guys are always last on the priority list due to not being local to keep after boat guy.

He sounds decent enough from the way you've described the interaction, let's hope for the best.

Best of luck! Looking forward to some fishing pictures again.

Who's that in the water in the picture, his dog?

In terms of financing, you could consider an HELOC against the condo too, right?

How do you get the boat from NC to FL after it's done, sail it or transport?

Sounds awesome. Can't wait for the trip report of boating all the way around Florida. Ask him to throw the dog in as an extra!

We did consider a HELOC. I just want my home to be free and clear.

So, when this guy advertised the boat he said he would deliver anywhere. We talked again about it and he said he would drive it down himself.

I believe that is his dog, although I didn't see it when we were at his house.

always fun getting a new boat. if it has wood stringers have that surveyed and check for water logged foam. thats a *****.

make sure you hold back an appropriate amount of money till completion. no incentive no work gets done. or just the deposit until its complete, which is better and proper.
contenders are tops.

one thing to check on those 2006 yamaha 250 engines is the corrosion problem if it was addressed. it an expensive fix.
and you will like the radar it will come in handy for finding fish as well by spotting the birds with it.

he seems like he is fully qualified to do all the work from what i see.
that will be an awesome boat. after you buy yourself a gas station. ha ha.

hey, i got a question. if you can help me. do you think its better to have a boat cover on or off considering the mildew if leaving it outside there all summer without being able to check on it.

I think it's always better to have the cover on. Generally, the damage from having it off will be worse. The sun is a killer.

There's no guarantee there won't be mildew with it off. The boats around here that aren't taken care of all have mildew on the outside.