Lamb’s Yacht Center
“You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need
to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens.” ―Mandy Hale
Happy 60th birthday babe! A
man can never have too many tools, guitars or boats. Stan's answer to how many
he needs is always..."Just One More"!
Last fall we fell in love
with the idea of having another boat. One we would leave in Texas to use as a
vacation home. A place for family to gather, take short cruises and hang out.
We've been talking about and looking at boats online and in person for almost a
year. We came close to buying a 53' Hatteras last December, but the timing
wasn't right and it just didn't happen. This spring we looked at several other boats, a 50' Maine Trader, a Sea Master 48 and the 48' Hatteras. Stan studied and
searched the Internet daily for the right boat. Last spring after we finished our trip up the St. John's River Stan looked at a 48' Hatteras docked at the end of our
pier. We didn't think much about it until we got home this summer. The more
we thought about it the more we realized it was the boat we were looking
for...three staterooms, plenty of living space and a large aft deck for entertaining
family and friends.
Buying a large old used boat
can be somewhat of a roller coaster ride. Definitely not like buying a car...it's
more like buying a house. Finding just the right boat can take awhile, but
that's only the beginning. Once you find that perfect boat...you start getting
excited, but there are still so many things that have to fall into place before
it can be yours. One day everything seems perfect and the next day something unexpected
comes up. Engines have to be checked out, electrical systems and plumbing have
to be looked at, not to mention the condition of the hull, the paint, the
windows, the electronics and a zillion other things that could make the boat a
bad choice. We spent two days poking around the boat checking everything out,
and then debating if we really wanted or needed the extra responsibility of
owning another boat. The answer was YES, so we made an offer on the boat and
our roller coaster ride of emotions began. Waiting to hear if the offer was
accepted was a little hard...especially since we really wanted the boat. Once
the offer was accepted we began lining up experts to do a full survey of the
boat. One surveyor that would concentrate on the Detroit engines and another
would check everything else. We could tell the boat looked great, but it is 33
years old. Our biggest concern was the engines and how much work they might
need. The first checks on them showed there might be an issue…so then we had to
rethink our offer. We even gave some thought to passing on the boat all
together. In the end we adjusted our offer and had the survey and sea trail
yesterday.
The sea trail is my favorite
part of the process…that’s when you take the boat out on the water and see how
everything works while underway. The survey, haul out and sea trail didn’t show
anything new or alarming, in fact it showed that the engines seem fine for now,
although they may need to be overhauled in the future. So…today we are waiting
on the written report and the oil samples to be returned and hopefully by
Wednesday we can start the process of signing all the papers and making her
ours…I guess we need to come up with a name pretty soon!
A look at the bottom of the Hatteras
A beautiful day for a sea trail
A little video of the haul out
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