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Got rid of my 156ft vessel!

rango

New member
107
0
0
Location
Seffner FL
you got rid of the party barge?! the things i would do if i had a ship...

paint ball matches, huge freaking parties, paint ball matches....

but yes i agree we need a full story of how you came into possesion of said craft and what happened to her to make her unusable
 

BlueToes

Member
58
0
6
Location
Homer / Alaska
The ship is actually still usable, and not goin to scrap. goin to be used as floating breakwater for small dock in Sand Point area. Gen set fires up, hydros work, and deck crane will prolly get some use too. So, the long story...I'll try to condense a bit.. While workin at the machine shop, a friend of mine hangin out lookin for a few hrs to work when i could spare them was offered the vessel. His eyes got real big, he took about a week, then got scared and backed out. This is where i rushed in fast and foolishly. I guess my plan was to get a few of the gens runnin, and maybe the main tuned and fired off. This would have made it viable to re restored as a processing vessel. So i spent many thousands of dollars and practically lived on it for the first two years, spending long hrs after work every day gettin it fixed up. Even had a navy sub engineer look at the main. He got teary eyed. That was good for countless hrs of stories. In the end it all just petered out as i gathered no interested buyers. And the scrap vultures did stop by. But regulations and such made choppin it up on the beach not just hard or expensive, but basically illegal. Now it just gives me more time and room in my life for other mv's. Like the M37 in the weeds 20 miles from here my wife does'nt know about yet....Oh yeah, the leave it out of the harbor deal, tried that. Two guys in blue jumpsuits and them official like metal clipboards approached me at my workplace....twitch twitch....yes...I'm me... some law says any vessel over 150ft must me manned at all times and operational... just harsh really. Then again, it did drag anchor in big blow we had. So i was ordered to put her back in the harbor, much to the dissappointment of the harbor master. I even put 500 dollar led visable for three miles anchor light on board and some batts. Went out in skiff every few days and charged the batts and checked it over. No deal. I'll dig up a few more pics of it
 

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BlueToes

Member
58
0
6
Location
Homer / Alaska
Some more pics.
 

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BlueToes

Member
58
0
6
Location
Homer / Alaska
I saw a few more....
 

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BlueToes

Member
58
0
6
Location
Homer / Alaska
And still i see more...
 

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mktopside

Banned
467
6
0
Location
Gainesville, Va
That is too cool man!! I think you did exactly what all of us here would have done if presented with the same situation..... Who wouldn't want a ship? But, I also know what it's like to be in over my head and just want to cut my losses.

Glad it all worked out.
 

tonidial

Member
48
0
6
Location
marion, il
Thanks for the story... I too concur with the romantic notion of wanting to own and save her that many feel, but realize, like you did, it would take more than one man working night at day on her to keep up with the maint and regulatory headaches.
 

Sasquatch

Member
104
0
16
Location
Alaska
Hey Blue Toes,

Didn't realize you were in Homer, thought it might have been in one of those first pics, but didn't recognize the ship. I've driven by that boat a ton of times. Glad you finally unloaded it. Didn't realize that law existed up here. I'll send you a PM.
 

OD_Coyote

Active member
887
58
28
Location
North Bend, WA
Congrats on selling your ship. I used to have a money pit similar to that but on a smaller scale. She was a 70' wooden tug built in 1941. She was a sweet boat but very labor and money intensive and mooring was just a bit over $700 month. I sold her in 2007 for a 5th of what I had invested in her. She had a nice running 12 cylinder Cummins VT-1710 and she would do 13 knots on the GPS.
 

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poppop

Well-known member
2,316
39
48
Location
Brooklet, Ga
Reminds me of what my friend said about owning his own boat. It gave him 2 of the happest days of his life, the day he brought her home, and the day he saw her leave.
 
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