1986 Supra Sunsport Skier - Bringing home another Supra
Oops!...I did it again. Thanks to NGAVChris for not believing that I had enough boats already, he sent me a link from CL with a pretty sharp looking boat that just had a price reduction. It wasn't moving and that meant problems which doesn't faze me as it could always be a parts boat or something restorable with the right amount of money. So I called the seller and he agreed to meet. He said no one else had answered his ad.
I drove over to Chattanooga one morning early and we met at his house where the trailer was. The boat had always been dry docked and therefore the trailer never saw much use. This owner told me he had bought the boat in spring of 2020 for $5k and used it all summer to great success. Halfway through the summer of '21, the engine developed some problems and he was told it was not good. He doesn't know anything about it and did not trust the mechanic but was willing to move on from the boat. He actually became quickly attached to the boat but did not want to fix motor issues.
I inspected the trailer first and it was the original SMP trailer that came with surge brakes as an option back in the day. The wood and carpet were gone but the paint was in good shape with minor surface rust only on a few spots. Tires were crap but he had replaced one and it was new. Two looked decent enough to drive on and I had a spare with me. I checked to see what the bearings sounded like. Some noise but no movement or shaking.
My hopes were high that this would be worth the drive and then the seller walks into his garage and pulls out a folder with all the original invoices, manuals with Supra brochures to boot. Now, I'm interested and have to go down to the marina and see the boat. He called and they had it sitting on a
dolly. I was initially blown away by the gelcoat being in such good condition. Dirty but very few scratches and minor at that. I jumped inside and inspected the stringers. All the motor bolts pulled out with ease. The sellers face dropped and said, I don't imagine that is good. I said, if the engine could run, I would advise you to park it anyways. I continued to look around and the motor had everything new. Looked like new carb, new wires, plugs, water pump, belts and more. It had no oil in it and that bothered me but I spun motor and it turned over. I continued to look over the boat and was surprised that it had the original upholstery in it. Still looked and felt ok. Original gauges, steering wheel, throttle and more. Was in a state of disbelief as to how good of shape it was in even though I knew it needed stringers and possible motor. He asked me, what do I do with it then if you can't use. I said you haul it to the dump. He said, any other options and I answered you could restore but if you spent 5k for it, consider it double for restoration. He was still paying a monthly fee to have it kept indoors at this dry storage. I did not need another boat and wondered what I would tell the wife but I made an offer and it wasn't what he wanted yet he held out his hand rather quickly as I had to be the one to tell him his boat was terminally ill. He said, where were you 2 years ago with this knowledge when I bought it? Made me chuckle. The marina did not have a usable ramp and I wanted to inspect the bearings anyway so we came up with another plan for the following week.
The night before I saw this boat, I had a text from a gentleman that showed me his '84 Rider in September. I got there and walked away as he said don't try to low ball me and I really didn't like what I saw anyways. Well, few months later and he's desperate to get rid of it and I'm a sucker for parts knowing he had just sunk $2k in the tranny rebuild. The motor ran and sounded great. I was thinking if I just bought this '86 and it has a bad motor, well, now I have a motor and tranny as backup. I called him and we spoke and I said I can be there today. Couple of hours later after buying the '86, I'm bringing another boat home that the wife doesn't know about.
Mike, the seller, saying goodbye.
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1986 Supra Sunsport Skier
Went back the following week to grab this Sunsport. Since the marina did not have a ramp, they said they could lower into the water and could tow using a jetski for miles across to a ramp. I said, no thanks. That will take forever...little did I know what would transpire later.
I talked with forum member TitanTn (who no longer owns a Titan btw) and he said he could bring his 40 foot SeaRay down and tow back to Harrison Bay, home of the Southern Supra Reunion for many years. We made plans for early that morning and I was over in Chattanooga by 8am to work on the trailer first. When I met up with seller, he had called the marina and they said, the water was too low to put a boat in. We both questioned the water level as it was the same as the week before and they were launching then.
I made a call to TitanTN and told him to stand down and I would come up with new plan. My plan was to lift it up boat with lifting rings and straps underneath and place on trailer put next to it. The guy who runs the huge forklifts said he can't do it and he'd have to call his buddy. Meanwhile, he's launching boats in the water. I'm like hey, we were told you could not do that today due to water levels? He said, who told you that? I said, front office. He said, don't listen to them. Facepalm.
His buddy he called said he'd come over soon, maybe 30 minutes and by 30 minutes, he meant 4 hours later. He had to mow his mom's grass first I'm told. That's always important when a customer is waiting. Well, I wasn't really a customer but to say the least, I was frustrated waiting around with these monkeys.
When he got there, he says he won't lift it by rings as he's worried about age of boat and had a better plan. When he told me his plan, I said, this ought to be fun and broke out the GoPro.
This is a short video I made watching and worrying that they may screw this up. It has been condensed for time but they eventually did it and I made it home at 6:00 pm after only one tire blew out 1.8 miles from the house. I ran home and grabbed another spare as I had already used the one I had to leave Chattanooga. Quite the day to say the least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxR1sOuPtYU&t=201s
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1986 Supra Sunsport Skier
This brochure from 1985 could not have been better worded. George Fowler was brilliant.
"Usually to be considered a classic a boat must stand the test of time"
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1986 Supra Sunsport Skier
1986 Supra Sunsport Skier
Here are the last pics for awhile on this thread. This boat will be in storage until I can fund the rebuild. Currently, my Rider is under the knife.
Tire blew out 1.8 miles from home and it was the one I was worried about.
At least it wasn't on I-75 after watching all the videos I got from GoPro.
Here is the Rider I bought on the same day as the Sunsport for motor and tranny swap if need be. Trailer is decent too. Has some sellable parts however, this Supra will have to go to the dump soon enough.
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