kpetry
Member
- Jul 19, 2008
- 362
- Boat Info
- 2002 Sea Ray 340DA
- Engines
- Twin 8.1 Horizons, inboard
Or: What I did this weekend
Some of you may have read my earlier post asking for some recommendations for dinner spots on the upper Chesapeake. All of that was in preparation for a nice leisurely trip out from Indiana to Baltimore planned for Thursday, some time seeing a few sights on the Eastern shore, and then our sea trial on Sat am.
It didn't work out that way.
We got a call from the owner's mechanic Wens evening (new year's eve) saying they came across a problem with the de-winterization, in preparation for our Sat. festivities. He thought that it was minor, and all it needed was carb teardowns and rebuilds due to suspected dirt in the carbs. The problem was that there was no parts source open at that time, and the earliest possible time they could get parts (gaskets) would be Friday, if we were lucky. So, all of our plans went on hold Wens evening, all through Thursday, and then Friday about noon he called and said he was able to get the parts, but to wait until he called again to make sure they didn't hit any snags. At 4:15 pm he called and said "saddle up, she's ready to go", and we were on our way in about 30 minutes, with an 11 hour drive ahead of us.
I called our surveyor, and was able to move the sea trial from 10:00 am Sat to 2:00 pm. We drove till 1:00 am Sat, and made it to Cumberland Md, got a few hours sleep, and then continued on the next day. After a nice crabcake lunch in Baltimore, we met the owner, the mechanic and the surveyor at Chesapeake Yachting Center on the Middle River north of Baltimore.
As we were walking to the boat, this guy walks up out of the blue and says "You guys wouldn't be from the Club Sea Ray forum would you?" My wife about fell over! He introduced himself as Sea Harley, and we had a short but really nice chat. He had read my posts asking for surveyor and restaurant recommendations, and knew by those posts that we might be in the area at CYC - his home marina. He was just acting on a hunch when he approached us, but he was right! Afterwards my wife says "boating people are so nice"! Thanks to Sea Harley for making the effort to make us feel welcome! :thumbsup:
The boat showed as nice as we expected (our surveyor did everything he could do on dry land the week before, so we had his report, indicating that this was a very nice boat). It was a private owner sale, no broker, and we had locked down the price prior to the survey, then renegotiated some minor points after we got the survey back. The owner was an absolute pleasure to deal with, and took a lot of extra time to show us several pointers on the boat after we said "we'll take her".
After concluding the sale, we headed south to Annapolis where we celebrated with stuffed lobster at The Chart House. Afterwards we walked ego alley, with a surprising number of boats decked out with Christmas lights, and browsed the equally surprising large number of shops still open on a January Saturday night in downtown Naptown. It was very different with the Christmas lights still up downtown, but also the same as we visited many of the shops we have come to love on previous (warmer!) visits.
Then, Sunday morning we got up and headed back West for 11 more hours in the car. We got home safely about 7:00pm
All in all, it was a long, tiring, whirlwind weekend, but very rewarding, as I was able to acheive a lifelong dream - Sea Ray ownership!
I would like to thank Ken Henry, our surveyor (recommended by johnsross3) for a very thorough job. I would recommend him highly to anyone needing a surveyor. I would like to thank our new mechanic, Tony, of CMS marine services for working his new year's eve, as well as Friday during a normal seasonal shutdown so we could make the sea trial happen. I would like to thank the previous owner, Brian, for being an honest and straightforward guy over the past 3 weeks of negotiations. As I said, he was a pleasure to deal with! I would also like to thank fwebster for his advice on purchase contracts, as well as his always levelheaded advice and posts on this forum. Thanks also to BOE marine and CSR for a wonderful forum where I have learned so much! :smt038
It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't easy, but we got a very nice boat, at a very good price, and I'm now looking forward to lusting through marine catalogs and looking forward to our first fun filled summer on our own Sea Ray!
Some of you may have read my earlier post asking for some recommendations for dinner spots on the upper Chesapeake. All of that was in preparation for a nice leisurely trip out from Indiana to Baltimore planned for Thursday, some time seeing a few sights on the Eastern shore, and then our sea trial on Sat am.
It didn't work out that way.
We got a call from the owner's mechanic Wens evening (new year's eve) saying they came across a problem with the de-winterization, in preparation for our Sat. festivities. He thought that it was minor, and all it needed was carb teardowns and rebuilds due to suspected dirt in the carbs. The problem was that there was no parts source open at that time, and the earliest possible time they could get parts (gaskets) would be Friday, if we were lucky. So, all of our plans went on hold Wens evening, all through Thursday, and then Friday about noon he called and said he was able to get the parts, but to wait until he called again to make sure they didn't hit any snags. At 4:15 pm he called and said "saddle up, she's ready to go", and we were on our way in about 30 minutes, with an 11 hour drive ahead of us.
I called our surveyor, and was able to move the sea trial from 10:00 am Sat to 2:00 pm. We drove till 1:00 am Sat, and made it to Cumberland Md, got a few hours sleep, and then continued on the next day. After a nice crabcake lunch in Baltimore, we met the owner, the mechanic and the surveyor at Chesapeake Yachting Center on the Middle River north of Baltimore.
As we were walking to the boat, this guy walks up out of the blue and says "You guys wouldn't be from the Club Sea Ray forum would you?" My wife about fell over! He introduced himself as Sea Harley, and we had a short but really nice chat. He had read my posts asking for surveyor and restaurant recommendations, and knew by those posts that we might be in the area at CYC - his home marina. He was just acting on a hunch when he approached us, but he was right! Afterwards my wife says "boating people are so nice"! Thanks to Sea Harley for making the effort to make us feel welcome! :thumbsup:
The boat showed as nice as we expected (our surveyor did everything he could do on dry land the week before, so we had his report, indicating that this was a very nice boat). It was a private owner sale, no broker, and we had locked down the price prior to the survey, then renegotiated some minor points after we got the survey back. The owner was an absolute pleasure to deal with, and took a lot of extra time to show us several pointers on the boat after we said "we'll take her".
After concluding the sale, we headed south to Annapolis where we celebrated with stuffed lobster at The Chart House. Afterwards we walked ego alley, with a surprising number of boats decked out with Christmas lights, and browsed the equally surprising large number of shops still open on a January Saturday night in downtown Naptown. It was very different with the Christmas lights still up downtown, but also the same as we visited many of the shops we have come to love on previous (warmer!) visits.
Then, Sunday morning we got up and headed back West for 11 more hours in the car. We got home safely about 7:00pm
All in all, it was a long, tiring, whirlwind weekend, but very rewarding, as I was able to acheive a lifelong dream - Sea Ray ownership!
I would like to thank Ken Henry, our surveyor (recommended by johnsross3) for a very thorough job. I would recommend him highly to anyone needing a surveyor. I would like to thank our new mechanic, Tony, of CMS marine services for working his new year's eve, as well as Friday during a normal seasonal shutdown so we could make the sea trial happen. I would like to thank the previous owner, Brian, for being an honest and straightforward guy over the past 3 weeks of negotiations. As I said, he was a pleasure to deal with! I would also like to thank fwebster for his advice on purchase contracts, as well as his always levelheaded advice and posts on this forum. Thanks also to BOE marine and CSR for a wonderful forum where I have learned so much! :smt038
It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't easy, but we got a very nice boat, at a very good price, and I'm now looking forward to lusting through marine catalogs and looking forward to our first fun filled summer on our own Sea Ray!
