She's in...!

[Jeremyvmd]

Well after a long and busy winter she is splashed and ready to rock. Have a few other small projects I still want to get done this spring but all the major systems work. Me and the wife are probibly gonna spend out first night onboard tonight if everything goes well. Marina even got my dads boat in. He's owned it since new, it's a 92, and this will be the first time it's been bottom painted and marina kept. We even got adjoining slips, all I need now is for them to get me one one slip in the row for the cat! One minor concern I have is the stay wires on the outriggers are pressed against the new canvas top, so I think I might get some Teflon or carbon fiber tube and make rub protection for the top...
I was also able to find a local guy who could replace the plastic in the enclosure for super cheap so I can get a few more years out of it

[RobS]

Good stuff. You got quite a few things done this offseason...Enjoy!

A slip next to Dad, that is great.........I have a slip in my parent's backyard, they have 100ft of waterfront. It's the house I grew up in. I've literally had my own boat back there since age 9

The Chris Craft just fits in my slip with her 13ft beam.

[Jeremyvmd]

Man I wish I had her in my backyard but the river ain't deep enough;). So I have to settle for a marina...
Thanks for the kind words!
I took some pics of the cockpit lighting i put in. Someone had asked for me to post them...

[DesertAlbin736]

Let the boating begin! Don't tell me, let me guess, you're in Key Harbor marina just North of the Upper Barnegat Bay Wildllife Refuge?

Many found memories as a kid of fishing on Barnegat Bay with my dad on his 25 foot home built Garvey clam boat, powered by a 1937 Chrysler flathead 6 engine.

And the time in 2002 when I ran Barnegat inlet in a 15 ft Montgomery 15 pocket cruiser sailboat

[Jeremyvmd]

Yea the green roof gives it away. Lol.

[DesertAlbin736]

Yea the green roof gives it away. Lol.

That's right, Key Harbor is the only marina in Waretown that has that big block building with green roof. Took about five minutes of sleuthing on Google Earth street view to figure out where that was.

Here's the house on Lower Shore Road in Barnegat that I lived in as a kid before my little sister and I went to live with my mom & stepdad after my parents' divorce. My stepdad ran a Texaco gas station on the old Route 72 in Manahawkin before they built the new expanded bypass stretch of Rt 72 between Rt 9 and the LBI causeway. I attended Southern Regional HS up through my sophomore year in 1967 when my mom & stepdad decided to move us up to the Saratoga area of Upstate NY. 1967 marked the end of my time in New Jersey. Hard to believe that's almost 50 years ago now. My dad continued to live in the house on Lower Shore Road and raise his 2nd family & my two half-brothers and later retired from working at the Barnegat toll plaza on the Parkway. He passed away at age 76 in 2005. His 2nd wife stayed there until she passed in 2011, and now her sister continues to live there. Back in the day my dad ran a outboard motor repair business for a while as a side job out of that garage out building, which he built himself. He had several boats, the aforementioned Garvey as well as a 14 foot dory and a 9 foot sneakbox for duck hunting. My youngest half brother now works at the Pursuit Boats factory in Fort Pierce, FL. I'm a total Arizona desert rat now and have been for nearly 40 years, but Barnegat as it was in the late '50s & early '60s was a wonderful place for a kid to grow up in.

Lower Shore Rd.jpg

My stepdad's gas station on E. Bay Ave in Manahawkin, circa 1963. Note the sign near the road, "Diesel 26c per gallon". Gas was about 30c per gallon. Fill 'er up with 12 gallons for $4!

IMG_1083.JPG

The same building as it looks today, converted to a mini mart with pitched roof added, now sits vacant and abandoned:

Lee's Texaco.jpg

[Jeremyvmd]

Spent our first real night on her and did some cleaning and such today. Got the cabin organized and took her out for a shakedown. I feel like I'm not getting full power (I'll start another post about that) but all in all a lovely day on the water in some confused seas and she handled it great!