Short version: I need a boat picked up from a friend's friend's house in Kempner/Copperas Cove TX and taken locally to your place. Pay involved
Details: 19' Baja on a great trailer, total weight around 3500. 2" ball. The trailer will likely have bad (aged) tires, but should make a 10-20 mile trip without problems. Trailer has plates but is unregistered.
Long version: I sold this boat to my buddy who took it to TX with him. He ran it for a decade or so down there and then moved himself to Maine and left the boat with a friend in TX with the intention of going back to get it, but lost interest and gifted the boat back to me. The storage friend is likely moving soon (currently house shopping) and I'll lose his kind storage forthwith.
If there is anyone in the area who is willing to go snag it, I'd be super grateful. I can likely come get it either around the holidays or possibly swing through on the way to/from the challenge.
As I said above, the trailer was all good 10 years ago, but the tires are probably old and the registration has lapsed. It might be road-ready and dandy, but be prepared to swap a spare tire, pack a bearing, or whack a brake light into functionality. Whatever labor or parts you end up needing are on MY dime, and we can discuss a fee for your services. To be clear, if you don't have any failures towing it, you get a fee. If you have to pack a bearing or buy a tire, you get the fee PLUS labor and parts.
Whats the storage time-frame? How fast does it need to move. What is the size *trailer length and all that jazz* of the boat? Yes, I know 19', but thats getting to a, it wont fit size. It would be more than 10-20 miles for sure... ;)
I'm not sure on the timeframe. I reached out to the guy who is storing it but he hasn't gotten back to me. What I infer is that he is moving and currently shopping for houses. No idea what that means, but I'll get clarity when he gets back to me.
Boat is 19', so I would guess another 2' for the outdrive and maybe a 3' tongue? 24 feet?
Looks like three hours and 200 miles.
I'm in Temple and could store for a while.
Great. He texted me back without answering the questions I asked... so I'll just bloody call him.
He finally got back to me.
Sounds like he has no idea if the bearings are good, but he said the tires "seem great." Take that with a grain of salt. They're 10 years old.
Lownslow and Thinkkker, sending PMs
Send me the contact information and I can make arrangements to pick it up.
Lownslow is an amazing human and an even better GRMer. He drove a fair bit to help me get the bearings repacked, fired up a generator for light, introduced me to his dog, and great conversation.
So after 5 days, 2900 miles, and towing an unregistered trailer with shady bearings and used tires across 7 states, it's finally home.
It was great to meet you. I'm glad that you made it home safely.
Stampie said:
In reply to lownslow :
Nice enabling.
One of my better attributes.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Well done, Snowman!
I just want to comment that that "questionable" trailer and boat look pretty mint and seem better than most of the junk I see hauling lawn care equipment, lumber, cars and even some heavy equipment around my area.
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :
It's actually pretty rough inside. When I originally rebuilt it 20 years ago, I took a couple shortcuts. The carpet is powder from the TX sun, all of the wood is rotted, and the upholstery has turned into corn flakes. I'm going to (again) strip it to a bare hull and start over. Might even make some gunwale modifications to make a bit more space inside.
But, one of the reasons I bought this boat in the first place was because the hull core is solid fiberglass. It's not like a typical 'glass-over-plywood construction. I knew that it could never rot where it counts. It's also a pretty rare boat, I'm finding. It's an 83 Baja Sunsport from back when they made smaller boats, and there aren't many left. Not quite a Ferarri, but maybe a Maserati-level kind of thing.
The real bonuses are that under the cowl is a very low-hours 350 I built for it, and the trailer is super beef.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Ah, yeah! My boat is also "no wood" construction, but I think the foam inside is soaked through. I'm kind of formulating a plan to rectify that, so if you want to post up your build, I'll follow along and steal tips from somebody that's done it before.
Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Ah, yeah! My boat is also "no wood" construction, but I think the foam inside is soaked through. I'm kind of formulating a plan to rectify that, so if you want to post up your build, I'll follow along and steal tips from somebody that's done it before.
Will do!
I'm hesitant to put foam in mine. The foam that I took out with a shovel 20 years ago was like sticking a spoon into an apple. It was completely soaked. I re-assembled without foam (one of the shortcuts). I want to use structural foam for the floor sheathing, so I might need to use foam as a support if nothing else.
The goal is to revamp the whole thing so that there is zero wood in it. That means I'll have to come up with some solution for the motor stringers/mounts, but I want to make it so that it can't rot again. The downside, of course, is that if I use expanding foam and it ends up getting soaked, I either live with the extra weight, or break out the cutoff wheel and do it all again.
