Eisboch wrote:
by a shady boat storage marina in Florida.

A year and a half ago I trailered a new Scout Sportsfish 202 from Ma to
Florida and decided to store it a rack storage facility near Jupiter Inlet.
It turns out I never used it in Florida, however I did check on it from time
to time and paid the marina to clean and detail it a couple of times.

The boat had 5 hours on the engine meter (Yamaha 200 four stroke) when I
took it to the storage place. I never took the boat out.

Last week, I had my nephew pick up the boat and clean it up to sell. He
just called me and told me:

a) The boat has a waterline mark on the hull from sitting in a slip on the
ICW.
b) The engine meter now has 23 hours on it.
c) There is some minor damage (2-inch deep scrape) on one of the sides -
something that
would result from a failed docking attempt.

I called the storage place an hour ago and happened to get the owner. I
asked him if he could explain why the engine now has 23 hours and has minor
damage.
He denies that the boat ever left the rack and hung up on me.

Fortunately, other than the minor scrape, the boat is fine otherwise and the
engine runs fine. But man, does this crap **** me off!

Eisboch (venting)


My first guess would be a weekend joyride by one of the people hired to
"detail" your boat, or maybe the forklift operator. Little Miss Putout
was probably very impressed with her date's "new boat", and a little
beer
(see scrape) probably lubed the situation rather nicely as the date
progressed. Let's hope the unauthorized user (thief) was more skilled
in close-quarter manuevering with Little Miss Putout than with your
Scout Sportfish.

Second and slightly less likely guess is that the forklift operator
accidentally pulled the wrong boat from the rack for another customer.
The customer was about to say something when it occured to him that he
had a brand new boat to use for the day, a full tank of fuel paid for
by somebody else, and that he/she had always wanted to try out a Scout,
anyway.

Another only remotely possible scenario is that they pulled the wrong
boat from the stack for your nephew- and your fresher, lower-hour,
unmarked, and
actually correct boat is still sitting in the rack.

Final thought: Any possibilty your nephew has been getting a little
unauthorized use, and now feels compelled to fess up as the condition
of the boat, the hours on the meter, etc, are likely to be subjects of
discussion with potential buyers? ((Probaby not----the storage yard
would seem culpable or there wouldn't be a need to lie about the boat
never being off the rack. If your nephew had been using the boat, the
yard would have simply said, "We have launched that boat four different
times for your nephew, Mr. X"))