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.