The saga continues...

Remember I mentioned it was a new boat? Bought from a dealer in Columbia late last year. Turns out - my boat is famous... It was the LAST boat sold by the dealer before he lost his "dealer" status for my particular boat. Can't take it back to him for warranty work - he's not a dealer anymore! No problem - I'll "pick again" - find another dealer. Good news - there ARE more dealers. Bad news... The nearest one is in Concord, NC - 100+ miles away. (Random Thought: Gas was $3.89 today. I wonder what it was cost to drive dad's truck with the huge V8 to Concord pulling the twin axle trailer loaded with the boat?) Will and I ran up to the lake today and pulled the boat home. Emptied out all of the "stuff" in the boat. We're heading out at 7am tomorrow. Preliminary phone calls with the dealer indicate it could take 6 weeks - once they find out who's going to pay for it. Yep - apparently, in the boat company's mind - that's in question. (Ramdon Thought #2: It's NOT in question my mind!) I've got a theory on the boat and what happened, but that's a story for a later post...

It's a NEW BOAT!

You’ve heard, more than you probably cared to, about my boat problems last year. (Did I mention it was a NEW BOAT?) Nothing but problems – missed the last part of the season (which is the only part of the season I actually OWNED a boat) while it was being “repaired” – dealer got “dropped” from the Tahoe dealer program… Fun Fun Fun!

Paid to buy the boat. Paid to insure the boat. Paid to buy “stuff” for the boat. Paid for food to eat on the boat (and actually ate some food on the boat .) Paid to store the boat. Paid to winterize the boat. Paid to de-winterize the boat. Paid to put gas in the boat. (It was $3.90/gallon on Sunday, if anybody cares…) Finally – got to use the boat (5 times!) – including this past Sunday afternoon. Put the boat back in dry storage (as the marina always does) at the end of the day on Sunday. I *personally* trailered the boat and removed the key Sunday afternoon – dropped the key in the “secret place” so the boat guys could get to it and put it back in the water for us Monday. Watched them trailer the boat to the storage spot in the yard.

Monday – waiting on our friends Kenny and Laura to arrive to go to the lake. The marina (the mechanic, Eric) calls and leaves a message…. “Mr. Warnock… We had something happen to your boat last night. Please call us.” My stomach dropped. (You’ve seen my stomach – that’s a BIG drop…) Could someone have *scratched* my NEW BOAT?

I called Eric at noon. Good news from Eric – the boat wasn’t scratched. However, Eric did share the following….

Around 3am Monday morning, one of the neighbors near the marina called and reported “loud noises and heavy smoke” from the storage yard. Apparently, the blue boat “started by itself.” No key in the ignition. Nothing. “A short” they presume. (Did I mention it’s a NEW BOAT?) Not sure how long it ran without water (being a water-cooled engine, apparently the “water” thing is kind of important…) The dockmaster climbed aboard and pulled the coil wire – engine stopped. Starter was still going. Pulled the wire from the battery – it finally stopped whining. (Did I mention this is a NEW BOAT?)

Today’s Tuesday. I’ve been on the phone with Tahoe, a dealer in Charlotte, the marina, the insurance company and Mercruiser. “Never heard of that”, one said. “What?”, replied another. “Started by itself?” inquired a third. “You’ll have to talk to my boss – that’s above my pay grade”, replied the last one.

I’ve received a LOT of sympathy at work today, too. I’ve heard, at least 10 times…”You know, the two happiest days of being a boat owner are the day you buy your boat and the day you sell your boat.” Another quipped “…you know, a boat is just a hole in the water that you pour money into. “ Sunday was a great day at the lake – one of my “happy days” so to speak (except for Kelly’s slight “boating injury”, but that’s another story…. She’s fine.)

I’m still waiting on another “happy day”...