B.O.A.T.T.

I sold my boat 5 years ago after a $3k repair. I miss it more than I don’t.

For most of my adult life, I thought buying new was dumb. I finally got to the point where I felt it made sense. I spend money on it every regular maintenance time. So glad I finally did it.

Gotta pay to play

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Thankful for Youtube

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As long as I know where the problem lies, YouTube can usually help me fix it myself. Saved me thousands over the years.

I'm going to need a new engine and a new trailer one day

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need a new engine and a new trailer one day

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I’m about there myself. Looking to replace torsion axle in the next month and repower in 2025. I’ve been going back and forth on new or used/rebuilt outboard.

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Gone are the days when it stood for "break out another thousand". Now it's "break out another three thousand".

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I hear this from people all the time, has not been my experience at all. I have owned at least one boat since I was 10 years old. I am 59 and own 3 now. I have owned jon boats, bass boats, offshore boats, house boats, pontoon boats, you name a type of boat and I have probably owned one. Had an offshore boat dry stacked in south Florida for years and an inshore and an offshore boat in wet slips in the Caribbean for 4 years. These boats were used, they weren't leaf catchers. I can remember having a problem with a 9.9 hp tiller once about 30 years ago I could not fix myself and my current 60hp tiller duck boat engine had a diode go bad that I tried to pay Mercury to repair but it was going to take 6 months so I did it myself. Outside of that I have never had a boat issue I remember I could not fix myself and seldom if ever have had any issues at all with a boat. I would bet that I have not spent more than $5k on maintenance in 49 years of owning multiple boats. I can understand it costing a bunch if you pay someone else to do it but why pay someone else to do it? Even modern 4 strokes are simple machines which require very little in the way of maintenance. Oil changes and impellers is about it. Electronics on boats are basically disposable, if they go bad there is usually little that can be done and what can be done is cheap. Trolling motors are about the same. Hulls themselves can be ignored for years on end without much trouble. Trailer maintenance is almost nothing outside of buying tires. I just don't get it.

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Thankful for Youtube.

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Has helped me with house, boat & truck

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recarpet one of my boats

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Have you looked into hydroturf? My boats hydroturfed and I love it. It gets a little hot if you’re barefoot in the middle of the summer, but I started keeping a water bottle in the boat to splash water on the turf to cool it off. Cleaning it is as easy as spraying it off, and it doesn’t get all moldy.

I live on a decent sized 500 plus acre lake that doesn't allow boat docks, piers, or boat ramps. The only option to get a boat in the lake is a crappy shallow public boat ramp or as a homeowner, you can slide a jon boat or small pontoon boat, kayak or paddle boat into the water from the bank

So I just bought an old but pretty nice 1448 Jon boat with a 25HP motor and foot controlled trolling motor. It has fairly heavy gauge aluminum floors added and front casting deck, all covered in SeaDek (HydroTurf). I have the following work that I am doing myself.

1) Paint the hull with Gator Glide base primer and paint.
2) Replace the grommet and drain plug in the live well.
3) Install adjustable/removable 600lb capacity SeaMax 14" wheels on the back of the transom. My boat completely empty with the outboard and trolling motors, batteries and everything else removed is roughly 300lbs. It's a somewhat heavier gauge aluminum. So I think I need fold up/fold down wheels on the back as a boat dolly to help move the boat.

For the boat trailer, I need to install new running boards plus I want integrated tow straps on the back of the trailer, plus I need to install Guide Ons.

Also I bought a tree winch mount, and I am looking for either a hand crank boat trailer winch, or a 12volt winch with remote. I'll probably start with a hand crank trailer winch attached to my tree mount. However if I need to manually lift the front of the boat while it is being winched, I will get a wireless remote on a 12Volt battery winch.

I want to do all of the above work myself to save money plus I'll enjoy doing it.

So my goal is to launch my boat at the public boat ramp, drive it to our bank and I should be able to winch it up our bank and then roll it back into the water. I'm still "MacGivering" it. It's fun just figuring out and designing how to get a relatively heavy jon boat on and off the somewhat rocky shoreline without damaging the hull.