JeepDVL45
Active member
So I finally have a tin boat. It isn't quite what I wanted, but it was a good deal, a good cause and a descent story. So for anyone bored at work/school (like I am right now) pull up a chair, grab some popcorn and enjoy.
So, Friday night I had to work, and didn't get home until about 2:30AM, it was a rough night (I bartend) and wasn't close to being worth the money I made and I was sick, but hey...that’s life.
I get back to my parents house, drag myself upstairs to what used to be my room and immediately fall asleep. I overslept Saturday morning, had to rush around to the bank (didn't make it before it closed ), grocery store, Advanced Auto parts etc. It was shaping up to be one of those days, and it had just started. I finished my errands, and then did some work on my Jeep that had needed to get done. Jumped in my car and headed out to see my g/f before I went back to school (she wasn't too pleased that I was about 4 hours later then I should have been because I overslept). I pull into the driveway at her apartment and grab my cell phone out of my cup holder (doors off a jeep and stuff in your pockets don’t mix…learned that one the hard way when I first got it). There is a missed call and a voice mail (the entire drive is a 'dead zone'....don't let Version fill your head with all that coverage crap!). It was from her dad (kinda weird)
"Hey Nick, its Dave, I found a boat, its no cream puff, but it floats, has no leaks and comes with a trailer, let me know if you want it ASAP"
That was it...the entire message, no details no nothing.
I walk upstairs to see Meg, and she was like, "My dad called." I told her that he called me too, and that I was about to call him back. She then informed me that he bought me a boat! “He said he couldn't pass up the deal.”
Apparently, he was at a gun club meeting and found out that the president of the club’s daughter had passed away so they were holding a fund raiser to help pay for a headstone for her grave. (Meg's dad is a funeral director, so he us EXTREMEMLY generous when it comes to this kind of stuff.) The president had his old 12’ AeroCraft (I think that’s the name, the decal has rubbed off almost completely, and I’ve only seen the boat once, but I’ll get into that) that has been sitting in his side yard for the past couple years, so he decided to auction it off. No one at the meeting bid on it, and Dave showed up late, so he asked the Pres. about it. He was just going to bring the boat and trailer to the scrap yard to get it out of the house (apparently his wife didn’t like it sitting next to her flower garden). So Dave decided to buy it for me. I have no idea what he paid because he won’t let me give him the money for it. He just said “I was going to donate money anyway, but now we don’t have to mess with that @#*% canoe, and you and Meg can enter the fishing tournament next month, you just need a battery for my trolling motor and to register the boat and trailer”
I picked up a ball hitch for my Jeep, and went out to get the boat. It’s not bad. It needs new plywood for the transom and there is a medium sized dent in the hull (no cracks though), but when I picked it up it had just rained (A LOT) and it was almost full to the gunnels and held ALL the water! The trailer needs to be wired and the bunks need new carpet, but other then that, its in really good shape. Right now it’s at Dave’s where he is re-wiring the trailer putting new carpet on the bunks and replacing the transom for me.
Yea, it’s not a 1448 like I wanted, but it’s a start and it will get me through the season until I can afford what I want (and it weighs less then the 15’ fiberglass canoe that I’ve been using so I can drop it in ANYWHERE I want). Besides I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
So all in all…..pretty sweet deal, and it turned out to be a good day for me after all.
I can’t wait for this weekend to get it on the water and start fixing it up!
So, Friday night I had to work, and didn't get home until about 2:30AM, it was a rough night (I bartend) and wasn't close to being worth the money I made and I was sick, but hey...that’s life.
I get back to my parents house, drag myself upstairs to what used to be my room and immediately fall asleep. I overslept Saturday morning, had to rush around to the bank (didn't make it before it closed ), grocery store, Advanced Auto parts etc. It was shaping up to be one of those days, and it had just started. I finished my errands, and then did some work on my Jeep that had needed to get done. Jumped in my car and headed out to see my g/f before I went back to school (she wasn't too pleased that I was about 4 hours later then I should have been because I overslept). I pull into the driveway at her apartment and grab my cell phone out of my cup holder (doors off a jeep and stuff in your pockets don’t mix…learned that one the hard way when I first got it). There is a missed call and a voice mail (the entire drive is a 'dead zone'....don't let Version fill your head with all that coverage crap!). It was from her dad (kinda weird)
"Hey Nick, its Dave, I found a boat, its no cream puff, but it floats, has no leaks and comes with a trailer, let me know if you want it ASAP"
That was it...the entire message, no details no nothing.
I walk upstairs to see Meg, and she was like, "My dad called." I told her that he called me too, and that I was about to call him back. She then informed me that he bought me a boat! “He said he couldn't pass up the deal.”
Apparently, he was at a gun club meeting and found out that the president of the club’s daughter had passed away so they were holding a fund raiser to help pay for a headstone for her grave. (Meg's dad is a funeral director, so he us EXTREMEMLY generous when it comes to this kind of stuff.) The president had his old 12’ AeroCraft (I think that’s the name, the decal has rubbed off almost completely, and I’ve only seen the boat once, but I’ll get into that) that has been sitting in his side yard for the past couple years, so he decided to auction it off. No one at the meeting bid on it, and Dave showed up late, so he asked the Pres. about it. He was just going to bring the boat and trailer to the scrap yard to get it out of the house (apparently his wife didn’t like it sitting next to her flower garden). So Dave decided to buy it for me. I have no idea what he paid because he won’t let me give him the money for it. He just said “I was going to donate money anyway, but now we don’t have to mess with that @#*% canoe, and you and Meg can enter the fishing tournament next month, you just need a battery for my trolling motor and to register the boat and trailer”
I picked up a ball hitch for my Jeep, and went out to get the boat. It’s not bad. It needs new plywood for the transom and there is a medium sized dent in the hull (no cracks though), but when I picked it up it had just rained (A LOT) and it was almost full to the gunnels and held ALL the water! The trailer needs to be wired and the bunks need new carpet, but other then that, its in really good shape. Right now it’s at Dave’s where he is re-wiring the trailer putting new carpet on the bunks and replacing the transom for me.
Yea, it’s not a 1448 like I wanted, but it’s a start and it will get me through the season until I can afford what I want (and it weighs less then the 15’ fiberglass canoe that I’ve been using so I can drop it in ANYWHERE I want). Besides I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
So all in all…..pretty sweet deal, and it turned out to be a good day for me after all.
I can’t wait for this weekend to get it on the water and start fixing it up!
, we had on and off rain. It was one of those days that (when driving to go fishing) I could look out my drivers side window and it was blue skys and sunny, and look out the passenger side window and it was BLACK. As the road snaked through the hills there would be difinitive lines where the road was wet and it had/still was raining and where the road was dry and the skys were sunny. Needless to say it was raining where my boat was, but at least the part of the river I was fishing was blue skys! 
