Sometimes you never know. I bought a kinda beat-up minifish hull yesterday just because I'm always on the look-out for them, and after she saw it my sailing niece thought she'd like to make a project of it, which is nice. That hull would be some work, and it will next season before it's fully dried out. But it's a better project for her than for me, and when it's done we'll both have minifish and a common activity, so -- hopefully it will work out ok.
So almost immediately following that handover to her, I took a quick look on-line and saw a listing for a Sunfish hull and trailer that had just come on Craigslist just a bit earlier, for $300 (ad since taken down). My first thought was that either this was a typo or the boat had issues that weren't apparent -- or worse, that the boat was hot. It turned out to be 'none of the above'. A rather interesting aspect was that this boat just happened to be located in another brother's immediate neighborhood, less than an hour from where I was reading the ad. I figured that if it was legit, this offering wouldn't last the day, and I'd better hop to. Besides, worst case I could get a family visit in.
The hull turned out to be better than I was imagining from the photo (below). It was a seldom-sailed Vanguard-era hull, really nice, and even though set on the trailer in the dreaded hull-side down position, the hull was firm and not indented at all by the supports. It was on the light side - probably heavier than my best boat that I save for travel regattas (last weighed at 122) but noticably lighter than my everyday club racer. It came on an aluminum Trailex trailer, a really nice 'plus' for the price.
The problem was that I didn't have a vehicle anywhere with me with a trailer hitch, just my little compact sedan with my always-ready Thule's. Again, I didn't want to leave anything to chance, so I zipped over and as soon as I got the bill of sale, the hull went onto the roof. When my brother finally got back into shore on his own boat, I asked him if he could do me the tremendous favor and make a deal with me - a free Trailex for him if he could just get over to the seller's house in a timely manner and cart it off. He said he could manage this, for me.
So I guess what I learned from this (again) is that patience pays with these things. If I were actively looking for or needing a boat, this never would have happened. Now I can hardly wait to try it out.
So almost immediately following that handover to her, I took a quick look on-line and saw a listing for a Sunfish hull and trailer that had just come on Craigslist just a bit earlier, for $300 (ad since taken down). My first thought was that either this was a typo or the boat had issues that weren't apparent -- or worse, that the boat was hot. It turned out to be 'none of the above'. A rather interesting aspect was that this boat just happened to be located in another brother's immediate neighborhood, less than an hour from where I was reading the ad. I figured that if it was legit, this offering wouldn't last the day, and I'd better hop to. Besides, worst case I could get a family visit in.
The hull turned out to be better than I was imagining from the photo (below). It was a seldom-sailed Vanguard-era hull, really nice, and even though set on the trailer in the dreaded hull-side down position, the hull was firm and not indented at all by the supports. It was on the light side - probably heavier than my best boat that I save for travel regattas (last weighed at 122) but noticably lighter than my everyday club racer. It came on an aluminum Trailex trailer, a really nice 'plus' for the price.
The problem was that I didn't have a vehicle anywhere with me with a trailer hitch, just my little compact sedan with my always-ready Thule's. Again, I didn't want to leave anything to chance, so I zipped over and as soon as I got the bill of sale, the hull went onto the roof. When my brother finally got back into shore on his own boat, I asked him if he could do me the tremendous favor and make a deal with me - a free Trailex for him if he could just get over to the seller's house in a timely manner and cart it off. He said he could manage this, for me.
So I guess what I learned from this (again) is that patience pays with these things. If I were actively looking for or needing a boat, this never would have happened. Now I can hardly wait to try it out.