The Gamble

About 15 years ago, Marie and I went to a boat show in Jacksonville, Florida with some friends.  We were instantly bitten by the cruising bug and decided then and there that we wanted to sail off into the sunset.  The problem was, we barely had the money to support our family and my infant law practice, much less pay a quarter of a million dollars for a boat.

For awhile, we attended boat shows whenever possible to determine what we would want in a boat "if we could afford one."  We decided that for our lifestyle, a trawler was the way to go.  We weren't in a hurry to get anywhere.  We just wanted to be able to go anywhere and stay there as long as we liked, with as much room as possible.

But there was still that money problem.  Through the years my income increased, but like most people, so did my expenses.  We were never able to save up the money for a boat.  But the dream persisted and we frequently talked about the day we would go cruising!

Whenever I would think about it, I would search the internet for trawlers for sale.  But to trick my mind into thinking it could some day be a reality, I would limit my searches to $25,000 or less, a ridiculously low price for a trawler.  This somehow made me think it would be possible.  I would almost always find boats in that price range, but they were old..... I mean really old, and usually in really bad shape.  I would laugh and show Marie the latest "great deal" I had found.  She would just look at me like I was crazy, but she never told me I was wasting my time.  So I kept looking.

Then one day in May of 2013, I found a listing for a trawler located in Savannah, Georgia.  This was only hours from where we lived and it actually looked pretty good in the pictures.  It was a 1977 39 foot Hudson Coaster, a DeFever designed trawler.  And best of all, it had just been reduced to $9,000.

We were days away from a vacation to New Mexico to visit Marie's mother and I was concerned that if it was a good deal, it would not be there when we got back.  So Marie suggested we go to Atlanta to catch our flight, via Savannah.  Ok - a quick look at a map shows that it is not exactly on the way from our home in Albany, but we were dreaming.  I contacted the broker (Jeff Johnston is an honest, knowledgeable, and outstanding broker and I recommend him to anyone in the Savannah area) and set up a visit for the day before our flight departed.

We arrived at the boat, named "Elixir" and spent several hours checking her out.  Jeff told us that her previous owner passed away in December and his wife wanted to get out of the slip fees and insurance payments.  Because of the poorly maintained condition, they had originally listed her at $25,000 for a quick sale, but when the first potential buyer came to check her out, they could not get the engine to turn over.  A mechanic looked over the engine and declared it to be seized!  When they sent divers over the side to clean the bottom, they were unable to turn the propeller, thus confirming the seized engine.  With a seized engine, "Elixir" was reduced to $9,000 for a "fire" sale.

                                              Ron looking at "Elixir" with the broker

After checking out the boat from top to bottom, we pointed out all the cleaning that would have to be done, the broken windows and leaks that would have to be repaired and the water damaged walls that would have to be replaced.  We offered $4,000 without the requirement of a survey.  We hoped that we could unseize the engine, or at the worst, rebuild it for less than $10,000.  This would make our investment at $14,000 - very cheap for a boat.  Our thought was that even if the engine could not be repaired, another engine could be installed for around $20,000, bringing the total investment to $24,000, which is still cheap for this type of trawler.

We flew off to New Mexico and waited.  Days passed without word and we began to become discouraged.  Then I received the email that the seller had accepted our offer!  On June 1, 2013, we became the proud new owners of "Elixir"!

We flew back to Atlanta and drove straight to Savannah to close the deal.  After two weekends of throwing away all the junk that had been stored on the boat, I finally called a mechanic to come out to look at the engine.  The first one I called ended up being the one that had declared it seized.  He refused to come out and told me to buy a new engine.  

A second mechanic came to the boat, but after an hour of working on the engine, also declared it seized. It was then that I finally piped up.  It had been nagging me that both the prop and the engine would not turn.  So I asked the mechanic to make sure the transmission was in neutral.  When he checked it, he discovered he could not change the gear.  He pulled the transmission off of the engine and tried to turn the transmission but couldn’t. So he suggested we try the engine again.  I practically held my breath while he put the wrench on the crankshaft and pulled….but it didn’t turn.  I was disappointed.

The mechanic had noticed some rust build-up around the flywheel and so he pulled the flywheel off.  At first it would not budge, but finally it broke free and he pulled it off.  Without the flywheel, he again placed the wrench on the crankshaft, but this time the engine spun freely!  The engine was not seized!

We went ahead and sent off the fuel injectors for cleaning and I cleaned the rust off the flywheel.  After several weeks, the injectors came back and we re-installed them as well as the flywheel.  We then turned the key, pressed the start button and she fired right up!  The sound of the engine running was music to my ears!

I will have to replace the transmission before we can get underway.  It is already on order and cost less than $1,500 (a rebuilt).  So for less than $5,500, Marie and I now own the trawler we wanted for so long.  Our gamble paid off and our dream became a reality!