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Old 05-12-2016, 06:03 PM   #79
Werner
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City: Pacific Northwest (BC)
Vessel Name: Heaven Sent
Vessel Model: MMC Defever 41
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 18
As hawgwash has noted, we do live in a remote area of Nova Scotia. No marinas with boats like on the west coast out here. This village is a fishing village on the largest tides on earth - fishing boats here that float high at the wharf at high tide and as 30 vertical feet of water leave, settle to sit on the bottom. Some pretty fancy rope work! As you can imagine, these fisherman have been doing this for generations. We get to chat with them, but walking the docks here aren't giving me much I can use out west or a pleasure boat. I did go look at a 34 ft Mainship over on PEI just to see what these boats you are talking about look like - but it sure wasn't anything like I see advertised out there on the west coast.

You folks have all been very helpful. I have started to understand a lot more about the boating fraternity out there. I guess when I started and saw boats like the CML C&C at a price we could afford - we wont be doing any financing as we are retired and if we cant pay cash we don't go - the dreams started. I didn't realize what these boats actually cost new, way out of my league for sure. So a 30 year old or older boat is what we would get it would seem. At first I had no reservations about that. There was a old boat out there called Otter Bay I almost jumped at for around 60,000. But then I started investigating the old surveyors blogs, and then this forum and realized maybe I should slow down. Things like old steel fuel tanks started racing around in the head - not a good thing to think of, 30 year old mild steel tanks holding hundreds of gallons of fuel in a highly corrosive environment. Then I started reading about the use of aluminum in newer fuel tanks but having worked in the aircraft structural repair industry for 18 years and seen what salt water does to aluminum I was still not so sure how smart a 30 year old boat is. BUt then again, there are a lot of very old boats still floating out there so what do I know. Nuthin.

Since we cant make it out west until October due to our retirement which gave a green light to every old friend from Denmark who have now decided to visit us this summer - so wont get a chance to travel around to look at boats much either I think. So I will give it a rest for while. It would be bad manners to the Danes to just buy a additional ticket for the flight across the rest of Canada if they want to visit. Once we get closer to October I will take a look at what is still out there. Then if Hawgwash is still feeling so generous I might see if we can join him on some informal boat surveys. So, again thanks a lot for all the great advice everyone. Enjoy your days out on the water. As we paddle the big tides of the Fundy in our sea-kayaks we will hopefully keep those west coast dreams alive!
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