Honey, we boat another boat!

Nineteen months. That is the amount of time since we sold Good Karma. Much has happened since we left that beautiful boat in Kemah TX late April 2017. Before I share our new adventure, let me bring you up to date.

We drove like maniacs to Fort Pierce FL loaded a trailer and the Suburban with our worldly goods and Jack the Cat and headed to Cleveland. 

We rented a beautiful apartment right on Lake Erie so we could at least see the water while we transitioned to land life.

Since we got rid of almost all of our furniture when we moved on the boat a few years earlier, we had to purchase new furniture to outfit our apartment. It was fun!

Every morning the water changed giving a new perspective on life and the shoreline. Kermit took a picture from the same spot every morning. Someday we will do something with that series!

Loft apartment living is just my speed. I had the best time in that apartment. Kermit was a good sport but never stopped thinking of it as a hotel. The other tenants were very quiet. Sometimes it seemed like we had the place to ourselves. It was honestly startling to meet a stranger in the gym, a strange feeling of encountering an interloper.

We enjoyed all we could of city life. We biked all over downtown, to West Market and to University Circle. We attended the symphony and wandered through the Botanical Gardens.

We hosted a crowd for the Labor Day airshow from our apartment building strategically located at the foot of Burke Lakefront Airport.

We took two big vacations. We rented an RV and toured Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Utah, Zion and Bryce. Then we took a week in the spring with Paul and Maeo Bates in the Abacos, Bahamas. It was a little weird to be there without a boat but we had a wonderful time!

It was a wonderful year. I did not miss the boat at all. We had great weekends aboard friends’ boats which did the trick for me. But not for Kermit.

There should have been a pool to guess how long it would take Kermit to start shopping for a new boat. If you wondered, he started shopping around July. Three months, that is all it took before Kermit started exploring boat options. Early on Kermit rejected many makes and models that many folks find perfectly lovely. He wanted to be able to pick up a little speed so trawlers were out, although not too much speed so fast cruisers were out too. He settled on Cruisers (of course), Carvers, Vikings and Hatteras. He wanted a boat we could make a dock queen in Florida.

Kermit thought, and I agreed, that we put a boat in Florida for the winter then pull it for hurricane season. We would have a smaller, very inexpensive boat for Lake Erie so we could enjoy our boating friends in the summer but not have to make the trip back and forth between Florida and Lake Erie. At some point we will probably give up Ohio but I am not ready to do that yet. This theory should be less expensive because that trip back and forth is quite the investment. Plus we all know that bad things tend to happen when you run the boat for long periods. And the things that happen are always expensive so this theory should reduce our costs. Ok it is a theory.

We agreed on a budget. Both boats and associated purchase expenses needed to come in for the value of the boat we sold. I know it is crazy. But we all know that is why you read this blog!!

Kermit went off to find the boats of our dreams. Kermit scoured the boat ads, engaged people on boat forums and read everything he could get his hands on about options and advantages. Honestly, it was like his job. We started visiting boats that fall, first close to home and then further afield.

Carvers were the first to fall by the wayside. We arranged to look at two 53’ Hatteras motor yachts in October, both in Wisconsin. The first was awful the second was unbelievable. I actually had to sit down because I was hyperventilating. I kept repeating, “This is never going to happen.”

In February we visited several Viking 44 Cockpit Motor Yachts in Florida. Kermit was so excited about one he brought a checkbook to make a deposit on the spot. All three boats left something to be desired All ended up being quite different from the pictures. Vikings were off the list.

Word of advice to boat sellers, at least clean the boat before someone comes to see it. An external polish up covers a multitude of sins.

On the way back we visited with Michael and Judy Hechtkopf from One September who were wintering in Naples. As we drove across Florida after seeing that last boat we were quiet in our thoughts. Finally at almost the same time we both said, “Boy I miss Good Karma. It was the perfect boat.” And it was.

We quickly checked and boats like Good Karma, a 2001 4450 Cruiser Aft Cabin Motor Yacht, had actually gone UP in value from when we sold ours less than one year ago. So a direct replacement was not in the budget. Quiet again, we spoke at the same time and mentioned that perfect boat we saw in Wisconsin. Remember the 53’ Hatteras that took my breath away? Maybe that could be an option?

We talked about it with Michael and Judy from One September. Turns out two friends have that exact boat and were willing to share their experiences. We spent an hour or so with one couple, a retired Navy admiral (I know, right?) who pulled up the ad while were on the phone. They liked everything about their Hatteras. They found it easy enough to operate with two people. They assured us we should have no problem operating the boat. They said the price was excellent even perhaps a little low if it is in good condition. The listed price was outside of our price range so if we proceeded, Kermit would need to do a bit of fancy footwork to make this work.

We arranged to visit the 1983 53’ Hatteras in Sturgeon Bay in March. I am sure the listing agent was shocked to see us again. The boat was everything we remembered and more.

PRO TIP: We tried a new technique when touring this boat. We set a timer and sat in every room for 5 minutes just looking around. This technique allows enough time to really observe while considering how you could use each room.

The negotiations began. We ended up making an offer within our budget. The offer was accepted! Sea trial in May revealed a few problems with the turbos but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. The price went down a little more to accommodate the repairs and zappo whamo we now own a 53’ Hatteras soon to be rechristened Good Karma South.

Back to the Lake Erie boat. In the winter Kermit found a kind of a steal / wreck of a boat that would be the perfect Lake Erie weekend boat with a little work. He took a few of his buddies, Kevin Hoffman and Paul Bates, up to Vermont to check this boat out in person. When they approved, I trekked out. Not bad. It would do. We made a ridiculous offer that was accepted. Over the winter inspectors crawled all over it and discovered that not only did it look rough, it actually was rough. The inspectors advised against purchasing the boat so we backed out of it.

The search for a Lake Erie boat continued. On a whim Kermit found a 36’ Four Wins that looked interesting located in Michigan City MI. We drove out the Tuesday after Memorial Day for a look. It was very clean with a renovated interior. We made a ridiculous offer which was accepted. A little negotiations can go a long way!

The engine analysis came back fine but the sea trial revealed some problems. We had some work done on the engines. Or rather the owner had some work done on the engines to make them functional. You haven’t lived until you’ve done a remote sea trial. The broker took the boat out, ran it up to 4000 rpm then called on a video call to show us so we could listen to the engines. What could go wrong? We bought it.

Michigan City MI is at the very foot of Lake Michigan on the east side. Instead of traveling with the boat the length of Lake Michigan then around Mackinaw to the length of Lake Huron into Lake Erie back home, a trip the broker said could be done in 3 days (yeah right), we had the boat trucked to Sandusky. The hassle factor was enormous.

When the boat finally arrived around July 4^th, it was a filthy mess and the engines didn’t work right. We hired some friends to clean and wax the hull. That fellow said he suspected the boat had never been waxed and hadn’t been washed for years. It took much longer than we planned. We took our friends out for a ride, filled it with fuel and made it about half a mile before the port engine sputtered and died. We limped home, thus beginning the repair chapter of the summer.

Our friend and best-boat-mechanic-in-the-world, Jim Schmandle, said the problem would have been difficult if not impossible for the inspector to discover. It took them a few weeks to figure out that the distributor ruined the cam because they put the wrong distributor in. The engines are counter rotating. The previous mechanic thought he could turn the cam around and force it to fit. Unfortunately that caused the distributor to freeze up. That took out the cam which took out the gear that the cam attaches to. Make sense? Bottom line, it was an expensive and time consuming repair.

Jim had a brand new cam made. That took two weeks. Then Jim and his team installed it so that we were back in action by Labor Day. So much for the Lake Erie boat. We took it out three times on Labor Day weekend but now we will be putting it away for the winter.

Marissa said this boat should be called, “I told you so” because this is perhaps the dumbest thing we have ever done. Thank goodness the boat was a real steal. Even with repairs to fix the engines, the boat still comes in at half the price we could sell it for. Kermit says it doesn’t get a new name until it runs right. The new name, when it runs right, will be Good Karma North.

Now you are up to date on our boat situation! Stay tuned for next steps.