I won an ebay auction on a 20ft RIB (Rigid hull Inflatable Boat) Friday night that was located in Clinton, Connecticut!! I won the auction with three seconds to spare (ebay Item No. 260344628896). The boat is a surplus US Coast Guard 15 Man Fast Response Rescue Boat. The hull is Kevlar!
Within ten minutes of the auction ending I was on the phone with the seller making arrangement. Yup!! You guessed it. ROAD TRIP!!
So Staci walks in from dinner with the girls to a question. “Hun would you rather dive to your folks tonight or early tomorrow? Because dad and I are headed to ....Connecticut.... first thing in the morning?” So within a half hour we were in the car and headed to ....Owosso.... arriving at 1am. I tell you I have got the greatest wife!! Putting up with my crap while being pregnant! She should have rung my neck!!
So by 8am Saturday, Dad and I were headed to ....Connecticut..... How did we get there? ..Flint.. to ..Port Huron.., to ..Hamilton.. Ont., to ..Niagra.. ..NY.., through ..Syracuse.., by ..Albany.., turning Right at ....Springfield.. ..Mass..... And stopping at the ..Atlantic Ocean... We made it to the guys house at 10:30 Saturday night. Before we left Owosso it had started snowing pretty good but by Lapeer we had gotten ahead of the storm and stayed ahead of it all of the way. The boat looked good for what we could see of it in bad lighting. We got a room in an inn and woke up early to look around and see the ocean before meeting the guy at 10am. We ate at a nice local coffee shop, saw the ocean and found a Wal-Mart to purchase some straps for the trailer. When we woke up it was snowing pretty good and continued through the morning. We showed up early to his house and worked on the trailer a little. In the daylight the boat is much better than we expected. You see the Coast Guard pays big bucks for these things new! And this one is six feet longer than the one I have now. When this guy listed it at $999 alarms went off in my head. There has to be some reason for the low price? Well, when he bought this boat he bought a package of three boats. You should see the one he kept for himself, WOW! And it was time to thin out the inventory. He said that he had over 100 people watching the auction and was answering between 20 and 30 emails a day. He was glad to hear that I already own this style of boat (RIB) and was happy to hear of my plans for it.
Dad and I were on the road by 11am on Sunday headed West via ....Harford CT...., through ..New York.., ..New Jersey.. (never dreamed they had mountains in NJ), in ....Pennsylvania.... we got into a BAD snow storm in the Pocono’s. Cars flipped on their side and us driving 25 mph hauling a 1200lb boat behind us in a snow storm! We squeaked through just as they were shutting down the highway. Made it through ..Youngstown.., ..Cleveland.., ..Toledo.. and stopped for the night in Luna Pier, ....Michigan.....
Prior to us bidding on the boat I had to do some searching for an engine. Just so happen I found a 150hp Evinrude on Craigslist located in ....LaSalle.., ..Michigan..... Yes, just down the road from Luna Pier. We were at the businesses door for their opening at 9am. The motor was shockingly in GREAT shape! It is a 1981 model with very, very low hours. This guy owns a marine salvage yard but does not deal in outboards. His buddy lived on about a forty acre lake and bought a boat with this motor brand new. After owning it a few months, he found that with a boat with that much power was going to get someone killed on that small of a lake so had this guy find him another smaller motor. This 150hp was taken off and stored until this summer when the original owner moved to ....South Carolina.... and left it for his friend to sell. The seller had listed it for a lot more $$$$ and got a few calls at the end of the summer. He had a lot of tire kickers but no taker and just wants to get it out of his shop. Well $850 got it out of his shop. He even put a six month warranty on it! So we will see in a couple of months how she runs.
We got back to ....Owosso.... about 12:30 on Monday and I swapped out dad for Staci and started home. We got home and found a foot of snow in the driveway! I parked across the road and got out the snow blower.
I came in from snow blowing and collapsed. What a whirlwind weekend!
Did you say that cost you $999? If so you've got one hell of a bargain
As to what goes where - well, I guess the steering wheel is obvious! rectangular hole to the right looks like it used to house a switch panel. Hole below the wheel was probably the radio.
You may have to block-up or re-size them depending upon what gauges and equipment you'll be fitting.
White Noise
Eastern Thunder
Northern Exposure 5
