I mentioned that title in an earlier post. We sold the boat today. A guy in his 30s and his parents are the new owners of Cool Change (the 16' pontoon). This is their first boat... and should be a good one for learning; the boat is pretty simple and straight-forward.
We took the boat from our storage unit to the parking lot at Bass Pro Shop in Harlingen. I took the guy on a walk around, explaining everything, while Joan went over paperwork and the financial part with the parents. In all, we spent about an hour and a half, trying to give these new owners as much information as they could digest.
He committed to buying it yesterday, but nothing is a done deal until the money exchanges and all the paperwork is signed. Joan had copies of a Bill of Sale, titles for the boat, motor, and trailer, and all the boat information in a nice pouch for them. We gave them some life jackets, fenders, dock lines, throwable flotation cushions, paddle, boat hook, covers (boat, motor, helm), chocks for the trailer tires, and the hitch extension (to make launching easier). There isn't much they should need to get going.
We wished them all the best, told them to take a Safe Boating class, and bid them good-bye.
It wasn't a particularly "happy day" for me. I'm not sad to be a former boat owner again, but I hope the boat brings them a lot of pleasure. Our interests have changed. It is the fact that we are on a canal that made this place so attractive to us - it's a great place to have a boat. A friend asked if this means we will be moving away... no plan for that. It just means we won't have a boat (that needs regular looking after) at our dock.
No, I didn't take any "good-bye photos"... although Joan did take a photo of their vehicles with the boat.
5 comments:
Congrats on the sale - and the recapture of the associated free time. I tell people all the time that I loved flying and owning our Cessna 177 in Alaska, but every hour spent in the air came with about three hours of maintenance on the ground. Things like oil changes, washing/waxing, snow removal, prep for annuals, and whatever maintenance that I could legally perform. It seemed like my truck had the airplane tool boxes riding in the back more than not.
And Rufus sure is a good boy! Love the video.
Thanks, Earl. I kinda feel bad that I don't feel bad about selling the boat. Things change, and I am good with moving on. I get the airplane thing, as well - we owned 3 airplanes over the years... I remember what it cost me per hour to keep the Baron (twin engine) in the air. I could cost justify it as a business expense at the time. There are times I miss the convenience of getting somewhere quickly, but our pace is a bit slower these days. ;-)
Hard to argue with you when you are right: Rufus IS a good boy.
I always told people that our Cardinal cost $5K per year to own before operations, plus the hourly costs for fuel and oil. (No idea what that fixed cost would be today since the plane has been gone for 10+ years now). Tie-down fees (a hangar in Anchorage cost 3X more than the plane itself), insurance, annuals, charts, GPS database updates for IFR every eight weeks, etc -- it all added up. Not to mention that aviation is VERY unforgiving of sloppiness, so flying basically had to be my primary hobby. Do it right or don't do it at all. I too used the plane as much as possible for my business travel, writing off as many costs as was legal.
Well, another era, a stage in life, a nice adventure ends, makes room for something new!! Bob
That's it, Bob: I'm making room. Yeah, that's the ticket. ;-)
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