First Loves.

[bluesquids]

I'm interested in what kind of boats people started out with before they upgraded. What do you all miss and regret getting rid of and what was a total P.O.S.

[float 'n stalk]

my first boat was a 2000 Silverhawk center console. I don't miss a thing about it, or rather a thing about the engines, or rather just the port engine. Year 2000 Optimax 150's. I only took it out 6 times, and everytime it blew a powerhead..... 6 in one year. Absolutely unbelievable. The guy I owned it with, bought out my share of the boat and then re-powered it..... I guess I got off easy, but still lost my down payment on the damn thing. And big-ups to Mercury for their class action lawsuit settlement on the engine which qualified me for $750 rebate on the purchase of a new engine. :rolleyes: As if they were ever going to get a penny of my money again!!

[Swimsuit]

jeff(keez) & i are looking at buying a 20' '79 wellcraft with a 150 hp evinrude. & by looking at buying it, i mean today. he's on the water on it now. i got back from the field to late. i guess we'll let you know how it works out.

[Redneck7]

21' Renken with a Volvo Penta out of a random guy's backyard down the street. Sucked, was happy to be rid of it.

19' Bayliner with a Merc I/O from a repo yard. Beat the crap out of it and then some and it just asked for more...alas, it was just a 19' Bayliner, so it couldn't run out to the stream or anything, but I had fun with it.

23' Fish Nautique, loved it the few times I ran it at the end of this summer, parked it and went to college. I got home from college on a break (about a month ago) and found that the entire hull had filled with water (to include covering the engine, tranny, etc). I'm now in an insurance 'battle' over what the heck happens next, but if I get to keep it and fix it, I'll bet I'll like it even more with a new engine.

Had/have numerous john boats and duck boats...nothing much to comment on there...if it floats, or at least sinks slow enough for me to bail the water and still hunt or fish out of, it's a winner.

Hopefully one day I can move up to 28-32 express and then LATER in life I still have dreams of a big ass boat the burns more money in fuel per trip than I currently make in a year. I only want it though if I can somehow manage not to become a cocky ass once I own it. Haven't seen living proof that that's possible, but I'm still looking.

[Kahuna]

14ft Sears hunter 3hp Sears "green" air cooled kicker.
1974 16 Cobia Runabout 65 Merc only blew up once. Its still running.
23 Mako with 135 big head johnson. Got .5mpg running downhill.
16ft Carlson Glastron 140 Evinrude. 64MPH with 23" prop. High ring pistons. Only blew up once. Had it till it gave up a stringer in a 2g turn.
26 Dusky. Perkins diesel. Never should have sold it. Ran all day on 25 gallons at 20knts. Never broke in 9 years. No carpet, no plastic, no bullsht. Bought it for 16k ran it nine years and sold it for 12. Still running like new on its third owner.

20 Luhrs. We will see.

[kill shot]

13ft Tortola dingy with a 15hp Yamaha enduro. Got me to some great places, the guy who has it now regularly gets wahoo, blackfin and recently a 68lb kingfish in it.
I now have a 28ft CC Cape Horn, great boat.

[Tiny]

13 ft gheenoe highside 15 hp yamaha, 30mph with two people and gear, caught a sailfish and some dolphin in the gulf stream...still in the family

17 twin vee, 50 merc, motor ran poorly, boat ran great for it's size. sold

23 indoard dusky, rebulit from the stringers up, awesome drift boat, not the fastest or the driest, but no boat better for rough weather. sold

22 grady seafarer 225 yamaha, nice boat, very well set up.

[BLACKFIN]

Power: Boston Whaler 13 footer.
Sail: Kite

Probably spent a couple thousand hours in each of those first boats in Newport Beach.

[KEYSKILLER]

25 kencraft buxton (pilot house)

loved it.. low on $$$...miss her eveytime i see a parker

[bluesquids]

Kencraft...Like this?.............nice boat.
http://newimages.yachtworld.com/1/5/8/2/9/1582956_1.jpg?1161068400000
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1582956/0
Thanks everyone for the input.

[ITSABOUTTIME]

18' Bonito 140 mercruiser I/O awful , 78 wellcraft v20 center console evinrude great all around boat. 76 wellcraft airslot with bracket and 250 merc. another good one. 2000 26.5 sportcat twin 150 opt great ride but poorly built sank at my dock. Currently 20' flatback proline evinrude 115di on a jackplate (great flats boat not so good offshore) and a Boston Whaler 280 outrage solid offshore family boat but doesn't handle gulf 3-4 chop so well.

[KEYSKILLER]

thanks.... :( :(
thats the exact same boat i had

mine was a 1984 kencraft buxton, teak swim platform, transom door, trailer
bought it for 12k, had it for a year and sold it for 11500. i sold it to a guy from georgia, had it in the boat trader for a week.
351 windsor inboard
ex sea tow boat.
first day i bought it took it out 48miles into gulf (i lived in clearwater back then) squall came up and it went from 2ft to 10ft in about 5min, STEEP TOO.
i did'nt know how it would handle and that was not the way i wanted to find out. it did great, every wave broke over the bow, some even came over the cabin :eek: :eek: .

these are the only 2 pic i have of the boat. they were taken on regular film so i had to take a pic of them w/my digital to uplaod them. the bottom pic show the transom door

[KEYSKILLER]

another boat i had 1974 mako 23ft
250 yam

P.O.S.
beat the hell out of you in 6inch chop
no "v"

and look at the crack i put in the transom in BIG OL 1 FOOTERS.
next day fiberglass repair.....SOLD!!

[Castor]

My first boat was a 1964 17' lobster skiff that had been converted into a center console. It had an 8' (+) beam and looked like an old Stringari. It was yellow with a blue interior and came with a color Feruno fish finder. It had a 90 HP YAmaha motor on it.

I bought the boat for $4500, fished it for three years (going to the islands almost every weekend) and only had to rebuild the carbs one time ($300). I sold the boat for $3800.

This boat had tons of character but was rough riding, wet and constantly took on water. It had some structural problems due to a fiberglass over wood construction. It was a great boat but I will never buy another fiberglass over wood boat. To much hassle.

[Doc]

Ive had several boats in the past, power and sail but my first real dive boat was a 31 foot Morgan fisherman, commercial fishing/pilothouse style powered by a 375HP 3208 cat diesel. The boat was awesome, and I loved it, but it really only shined in rough seas and offshore. I found that in the two years I had it I only brought it to the grounds 6 times, even though I made about twenty trips there on other boats... most of the diving and boating I did on my own was within 40 miles, and often with less than four people aboard and the big boat was just "too much" for what I needed... the boat drew too much draft (four feet) and was too slow (21mph) and burned too much fuel (1.5mpg) for inshore and nearshore excursions, and It could not be trailored. I didnt just go for a crusie as often as I could because Ididnt want the expense of running it just take it for a spin...

I sold the boat a few weeks ago, and almost cried when I did. Very hard to part with such a great boat; I looked at various designs all over the state; had to be trailerable and 24 feet or less (code in Mad Beach to keep in driveway) and wanted the "biggest" boat I could that met those parameters; looked at some go-fasts, some 23 seacrafts, and some C-hawks, but finally settled on and just purchased a 24 foot bracketed privateer. This boat has a good cabin, solid roof, is an exceptionally sturdy and well built boat, and should get about 30% more speed on 40% less gas, easier to mantain, and can easily be trailered for travel or storm protection... but wont handle the loads or sea conditions the morgan could. I already flew down an purchased it, and Im going to the keys to pick it up next week to pick it up. I plan on extending the cabin walls to the end of the hard top, but leaving the pilothouse open in the back, maybe eventually change the yamaha f225 for some twin 115-140's; maybe some other small mods too.

[Doc]

Here are photos of the new and old wheels: You can see the similarities in my design preference of the open front pilothouse and cabin, the new boat is basically a smaller faster lighter trailerable version of the old one.

[junior]

That looks nice James. Congrats.

[Bill McIntyre]

My first boat was a 1968 Boston Whaler Nauset bought in Corpus Christi, TX, 16'-7" with an 85 hp Johnson, later traded for a 100hp Johnson. Loved the gas mileage and was too young to know any better about the bone crushing ride.

Later, living in North Carolina and taking the Whaler about 20 miles out and wishing I could go farther, traded for a Mako 22' center console so I could get out to the edge of the shelf, 40 to 50 miles. It had a very bad tendency to broach in a following sea and scared the shit out of me coming home in big swells, so after a couple of years I traded up to a SeaCraft 23' center console with twin Johnson 115s. I think that was in 1974.

That was the best riding hull I've owned. But after moving to California in 1975 I started wishing for a cabin to spend the night at the islands, so bought a new 1979 Skip Jack Fly Bridge (photos below)

I used that boat for 24 years before buying my present boat, a 22' SeaSport, three years ago.

[junior]

Having lived in a landlocked area of Virginia, I resorted to the veritable "land yacht" in high school:D

[Nsearch]

but finally settled on and just purchased a 24 foot bracketed privateer.

Doc, have you picked this boat up yet? I've always liked the Privateers.....would love to come see it.

Bryan

[inletsurf]

Wellcraft V-20.

sold it and never had the $$ to buy another boat again.

[Doc]

Hey Bryan stop by any time... Ive been pimpin' the new ride every day Ive been off work for the last two weeks... built a big open nidacore cabin under the hard roof, fixing all the gelcoat, built a big indeck fish box, redid the hull to cap joints, redoing the deck in durabak, raisning the engine... Ill be working on it most of the day on thur, fri, sat and sun. call me 727-743-7777.