Tuesday, July 25, 2006

BOAT FOR SALE

I am selling my boat, the B.T. Express. It has a book value of about $56,000. It has been closed up since I took it out of the water in October 2002 for what was supposed to be winter storage. I had it all prepared to be put it back in the water on June 3, 2003, but I called that off because my wife Barbara was diagnosed with brain cancer the Tuesday before.

The cancer took quite a toll on Barbara. She lost the use of the left side of her body and being left handed, that was quite a blow to her. After the surgery, she had to go into rehab for a month and it was during this time we both knew we would never use the boat as a family again. But Barbara refused to give up the thought of not boating again, so she wouldn't let me sell it. She always held out hope that some day she would get back on the boat even if it was just for a ride. She never recovered enough for even a ride and died about 2 1/2 years later with the boat still in the marina in dry dock.

I made the decision long before she died that I would sell the boat, but have been putting it off. The owner of the marina has been very understandable and has not charged me anything for storing it for me. I owe them a lot for that.

Now about nine months later the time has come to get my ass in gear and sell the boat. Lori helped me get the things I wanted to keep off of it a couple of weeks ago which was the first step. Then a couple of days ago I got a call from someone really interested in buying the boat. I got one call about a week ago, but the boat does need some work to get it ready so the guy never called back.

Three years of being covered up with shrink wrap is not the best way to store a boat. There are some wood panels that have rotted and delaminated and need to be replaced, but they are easily fixed. One window leaks which I will fix tomorrow. Other than that, it just needs a good cleaning. I have been on the boat the last two days trying to clean off three years of grim, mold and mildew. The boat really is in remarkable shape for being ignored all this time.

The people that are interested in the boat have a smaller 30 foot boat in the marina. They have two small children and are very interested in buying the boat. They saw the outside and liked what they see. I will be meeting them tomorrow evening to show them the inside.

I was on the boat yesterday and today cleaning and will also be there tomorrow. I cleaned everything on the inside except the bathroom. Tomorrow I will clean that, the inside if the refrigerator and vacuum. Then I will tackle the outside.

I'm not worried about how clean I get the outside because they have already seen that, but I do want to clean it up. The caller ID for his original phone call was for an auto body shop so he has resources to take care of detailing the outside. It's just compound and waxing so to him I'm sure that's no big deal.

One nice selling point is that the 300 gallon fuel tanks are full. At about $4.00 a gallon for gas, that is a big advantage for me.

Wish me luck that they like the boat and I sell it tomorrow.

10 comments:

Libby said...

oh, tony, this has to be hard to take care of, but the new family will make new memories on it! and those are 2 lucky kids!

barman said...

Sorry to see you selling the boat but it is probably time to allow someone else some fun and adventures with that nice boat. You are sure the person you are possibly selling the boat to is not called William Ibru, right?

Hey good luck with the boat Tony.

Beth said...

See....you shoulda told me first. I would've bought it. You'd take about 30 bucks for it, right? Because umm...that's probably about all I could afford, but I'd take really great care of it! As long as gas doesn't go up anymore.

Yeah - sell it to the people tomorrow and I'll just stay over here in my corner and drool.

gab said...

I wish you luck in selling it tomorrow. If I had the money Id tell you no wait I want it. Hubby and I want one to take out the grandkids in we went in a smaller one that when one grand forgot and stood up in I thought I was done for. I cant swim(I can float and tread water)But even with a life jacket I would have paniced!. Im taking swimming lessons so that when we do get a boat I wont be half as scared. I already made the oldest grands take swimming leassons! and no one gets on with out a life jacket or vest!

aughra said...

Good luck. I wish you luck riding smaller things closer to home!!!

lime said...

best of luck with the sale. it sounds like a big job to get ready and the end of a chapter. i'm glad it gave you and bartbara such joy while you could use it. hopefully it will soon give someone else the pleasure and you a full pocket.

Monogram Queen said...

I wish you all the luck in the world selling the boat Tony and that's AWESOME that the 300 gallon tanks are full :)

MG said...

I hope this went well....

Felic said...

good luck!

Wenchy said...

Thinking of you.