Another boat I had ...
 

On Saturday, January 11, 2014 6:43:36 PM UTC-6, Mr. Luddite wrote:

Nice boat. Handled nicely, rode nicely. Shuda kept it, dammit!



http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/Phoenix.jpg?t=1389486466

Very nice, Richard. But over time, it'd probably be clapped out by now..

But it looks great while it was young!

Another boat I had ...
 

On 1/11/2014 8:00 PM, Tim wrote:
On Saturday, January 11, 2014 6:43:36 PM UTC-6, Mr. Luddite wrote:

Nice boat. Handled nicely, rode nicely. Shuda kept it, dammit!



http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/Phoenix.jpg?t=1389486466

Very nice, Richard. But over time, it'd probably be clapped out by now..

But it looks great while it was young!


It wasn't exactly young then. I think it was a 1984 or 1985 and that
picture was probably taken in 2002 or 2003 shortly after I bought it..
Actually, the image I posted to Photobucket is a scan of a picture I have.

My brother ended up selling it about five years ago to another guy I
know. He's still using it every summer and it's still going strong.

When I bought it the engines only had a couple hundred hours on them. I
am sure the hours today are well north of 1000.

Another boat I had ...
 

On Sat, 11 Jan 2014 19:43:36 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

One of the boats I had that I've never posted much about was a Phoenix
SportsFish. I think it was a 28 footer, IIRC. This model Phoenix is
*very* similar to a Bert, mainly because they were designed by the same
people who developed the Bertram models.

This was a sweet, fast boat. Dual Merc 350's that were only a couple of
years old when I bought it and ran like tops. I actually bought it as
a surprise for my father-in-law hoping that he'd retire his old
Uniflite that was a floating time bomb electrically and made the whole
family nervous whenever he went out. But he didn't want the Phoenix
because unlike his Uniflite, the Phoenix did not have a lower helm station.

So, I used it for a while and then my younger son used it for two
seasons. When he went off to school I sold it to my brother who used it
for several years with virtually no problems or issues. I also had the
37' Egg Sportsfish at the time and my brother would have no problem
following me out 32 miles to our favorite cod fishing spot.

Nice boat. Handled nicely, rode nicely. Shuda kept it, dammit!

http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/Phoenix.jpg?t=1389486466

===

Looks just like a Bertram 31. We looked at a bunch of them back in
1999 but ended up getting a really nice Bertram 33 instead. It was a
great boat and I would have brought it with us to Florida in 2003 if
it had diesels instead of the Crusader 454s. It would have cost as
much to repower as the boat was worth and it still would not have been
suitable for long range cruising.

Another boat I had ...
 

"Mr. Luddite" wrote:
On 1/11/2014 8:00 PM, Tim wrote:
On Saturday, January 11, 2014 6:43:36 PM UTC-6, Mr. Luddite wrote:

Nice boat. Handled nicely, rode nicely. Shuda kept it, dammit!



http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/Phoenix.jpg?t=1389486466

Very nice, Richard. But over time, it'd probably be clapped out by now..

But it looks great while it was young!


It wasn't exactly young then. I think it was a 1984 or 1985 and that
picture was probably taken in 2002 or 2003 shortly after I bought it..
Actually, the image I posted to Photobucket is a scan of a picture I have.

My brother ended up selling it about five years ago to another guy I
know. He's still using it every summer and it's still going strong.

When I bought it the engines only had a couple hundred hours on them. I
am sure the hours today are well north of 1000.

What you need is a boat that will run on a couple horsepower. Put a
treadmill in and bring a couple of the wife's pets, and let them power the
boat. Get some use out of the manure manufacturers. ;)

Another boat I had ...
 

On 1/12/2014 12:23 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 11 Jan 2014 19:43:36 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

One of the boats I had that I've never posted much about was a Phoenix
SportsFish. I think it was a 28 footer, IIRC. This model Phoenix is
*very* similar to a Bert, mainly because they were designed by the same
people who developed the Bertram models.

This was a sweet, fast boat. Dual Merc 350's that were only a couple of
years old when I bought it and ran like tops. I actually bought it as
a surprise for my father-in-law hoping that he'd retire his old
Uniflite that was a floating time bomb electrically and made the whole
family nervous whenever he went out. But he didn't want the Phoenix
because unlike his Uniflite, the Phoenix did not have a lower helm station.

So, I used it for a while and then my younger son used it for two
seasons. When he went off to school I sold it to my brother who used it
for several years with virtually no problems or issues. I also had the
37' Egg Sportsfish at the time and my brother would have no problem
following me out 32 miles to our favorite cod fishing spot.

Nice boat. Handled nicely, rode nicely. Shuda kept it, dammit!

http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/Phoenix.jpg?t=1389486466

===

Looks just like a Bertram 31. We looked at a bunch of them back in
1999 but ended up getting a really nice Bertram 33 instead. It was a
great boat and I would have brought it with us to Florida in 2003 if
it had diesels instead of the Crusader 454s. It would have cost as
much to repower as the boat was worth and it still would not have been
suitable for long range cruising.



Yeah, if your boating is limited to local cruising and day trips, gas
power is fine up to a certain size I think. A boat like the Phoenix is
perfect for that. But, I agree, once you've had diesels, you really can
never look back.

I was trying to remember how many boats I've had as I went through
suffering from two-footitis over the years. I think the total that were
22' or larger is seven or eight. Then there were four or five open,
center console type outboards of 20' or under and a couple of small,
aluminum types. Oh .. and one 30' sailboat that I had briefly.

The first one that had twin engines with fixed props and rudders was an
old, 28' Uniflite sedan bridge. Twin Chrysler 318's. It was a reliable
tank of a boat. The first diesel powered boat was the Navigator
followed by the 37' Egg Harbor that I bought for use up north while the
Navigator was in Florida. Both of those boats were brand new, something
I'll never do again.

Favorite boats with lots of great memories are the Navigator and the 36'
Grand Banks. Two totally different types of boats and boating styles
but both were very enjoyable for their own unique reasons. Technically,
the Grand Banks was "Mrs.E's" boat ... I was just the on- call boat
captain and maintenance man. I never thought I'd enjoy the slow
cruising of the Grand Banks, but I found that I did. The last year that
we had it I used it quite a bit, making trips from the Cape up to
Scituate and back. It was a 3 hour trip (one way) in the Navigator and
about 2 hours in the Egg Harbor. In the GB it was more like 7 hours.
Unlike yours, it had the single 120 hp diesel and cruised at 7 knots,
but I discovered that there was something very calming and peaceful
about it underway. Maybe it was due to the 1.5 gal/hr fuel burn rate
that made it so relaxing. A trip from the Cape to Scituate consumed
about $40 in fuel. The same trip in the Egg, even though it only took
about two hours was closer to $200. The GB was also was a bit of a new
challenge to learn docking skills using the "back and fill" method.

Worst boat I owned was a Mainship sedan. It was also the last boat I
had. I bought it when both the Navigator and Grand Banks unexpectedly
sold within a week of each other and I found myself boatless which was
*not* the plan. I disliked it for a number of reasons and was happy to
sell it after only one boating season. The good news was that I bought
it cheap and sold it for $7k more ... although I had to replace an oil
pan on one engine that the surveyor "missed" in his survey. Here's what
it looked like. This picture was taken the day I picked it up in
Haverhill, MA and, after a nerve wracking trip down the Merrimack river,
was arriving in Scituate for a overnight stay before continuing down
to the Cape and Kingman Yacht Center:

http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/Mainship.jpg?t=1389520775