Jims5543
Active Member
Grab a beer and let me tell you a story.
Sitting at dinner about a year ago with another couple that we are good friends with. Both husbands are sports car types, having owned my older sports cars from older BMW's to old air Cooled Porsches, RX7's, RX8's the list goes on and on. ADHD in the car world for sure.
So the topic of boats comes up over dinner, my friend has owned a Challenger in the past and LOVED it, he called it a sports car on the water.. wait... what!??? Sports car on the water, I am now interested.
Having grown up on the South Shore of Long Island, moving to Florida as a teen, I am no stranger to boats. Except, my father, he has this unique ability to suck the fun out of anything and everything.
So when the 1980's Dodge Aries wood sided station wagon neared the boat docks with a $300 boat on a trailer behind it, the anxiety level of everyone in the car went through the useless chrome roof rack. Typically ill prepared, boat never gone through the day before an outing, countless memories of the boat broken down at the dock while dad tried to repair it there instead of in the driveway BEFORE we headed out. Temper tantrums, screaming at us because we were pissing him off and he was frustrated with his broken boat. Never any fun.....
Boat launches that were so sloppy it appeared the boat was a football and my family was all monkeys. Never mind trying to get the damn thing back on the trailer....
So there I was, a flashback and memory as to why, as an adult, I never bothered with a boat. No good memories here.
Then I rented a boat last summer after that dinner conversation, it was fun, there was no drama, it was relaxing and the alone time with the wife and kids proved to be priceless.
So I started shopping for a Sea Doo Challenger. My wife was 100% on board and did a LOT of the searching. It was daunting to say the least, I could never pull the trigger on any of the boat we found locally and had heard so many "stories" or I should say saw boats with stories. I was turned off.
Last night we are meeting for dinner with our friend again, conversation came back to boats, my friend told me he was going to look at a Challenger after dinner (we were eating early the kid had school today) and he was not sure he wanted it.
He bid on it on Ebay because it was close by and the auction price was still very low. He was sniped at the last minute for $50 more. He forgot about the boat. Then the seller emailed him, the sniper flaked and he was next in line if he wanted it.
He did not, he has too much going on and was actually relieved he lost the bidding. He asked me if I wanted it, after I lamented that I could not find a good deal or a boat worthy of purchase.
So he did a water test this morning, he called me and said it was in his driveway..... now it is in mine.
1999 Challenger 1800 twin Rotax mechanically perfect and the cleanest engine bay ever (according to my friend), needs some cosmetic TLC. Boat cover ordered already as well as a fiberglass / gel coat restoration kit.
Next on the list are spark plugs, fuel filters, a fluid change on the propulsion drives, wires and air filters (I need to look and see what is up there)
Some Sta-bil in the gas tank and fresh fuel are next. Hope to have her in the water in 2 weeks once I go through everything.
The driver and passenger seats are done, stained really bad, not sure what to do about them yet, going to try to clean them up or look into replacing them.
A couple of pic snapped on the way home from my buddies house.
Oh, and Hi, I am Jim and I a NewB here.
Sitting at dinner about a year ago with another couple that we are good friends with. Both husbands are sports car types, having owned my older sports cars from older BMW's to old air Cooled Porsches, RX7's, RX8's the list goes on and on. ADHD in the car world for sure.
So the topic of boats comes up over dinner, my friend has owned a Challenger in the past and LOVED it, he called it a sports car on the water.. wait... what!??? Sports car on the water, I am now interested.
Having grown up on the South Shore of Long Island, moving to Florida as a teen, I am no stranger to boats. Except, my father, he has this unique ability to suck the fun out of anything and everything.
So when the 1980's Dodge Aries wood sided station wagon neared the boat docks with a $300 boat on a trailer behind it, the anxiety level of everyone in the car went through the useless chrome roof rack. Typically ill prepared, boat never gone through the day before an outing, countless memories of the boat broken down at the dock while dad tried to repair it there instead of in the driveway BEFORE we headed out. Temper tantrums, screaming at us because we were pissing him off and he was frustrated with his broken boat. Never any fun.....
Boat launches that were so sloppy it appeared the boat was a football and my family was all monkeys. Never mind trying to get the damn thing back on the trailer....
So there I was, a flashback and memory as to why, as an adult, I never bothered with a boat. No good memories here.
Then I rented a boat last summer after that dinner conversation, it was fun, there was no drama, it was relaxing and the alone time with the wife and kids proved to be priceless.
So I started shopping for a Sea Doo Challenger. My wife was 100% on board and did a LOT of the searching. It was daunting to say the least, I could never pull the trigger on any of the boat we found locally and had heard so many "stories" or I should say saw boats with stories. I was turned off.
Last night we are meeting for dinner with our friend again, conversation came back to boats, my friend told me he was going to look at a Challenger after dinner (we were eating early the kid had school today) and he was not sure he wanted it.
He bid on it on Ebay because it was close by and the auction price was still very low. He was sniped at the last minute for $50 more. He forgot about the boat. Then the seller emailed him, the sniper flaked and he was next in line if he wanted it.
He did not, he has too much going on and was actually relieved he lost the bidding. He asked me if I wanted it, after I lamented that I could not find a good deal or a boat worthy of purchase.
So he did a water test this morning, he called me and said it was in his driveway..... now it is in mine.
1999 Challenger 1800 twin Rotax mechanically perfect and the cleanest engine bay ever (according to my friend), needs some cosmetic TLC. Boat cover ordered already as well as a fiberglass / gel coat restoration kit.
Next on the list are spark plugs, fuel filters, a fluid change on the propulsion drives, wires and air filters (I need to look and see what is up there)
Some Sta-bil in the gas tank and fresh fuel are next. Hope to have her in the water in 2 weeks once I go through everything.
The driver and passenger seats are done, stained really bad, not sure what to do about them yet, going to try to clean them up or look into replacing them.
A couple of pic snapped on the way home from my buddies house.
Oh, and Hi, I am Jim and I a NewB here.
