What is the most interesting thing the PO left on your boat?

Well, what is it?

The owner of my boat left a ton of stuff some of it useful and some of it not. Actually, 2 owners ago...as the owner before me never cleaned out half of the lockers. I found the normal stuff, 600' of rope, extra anchor, extra impeller, belts, screw and bolt assortment, manuals, ect. I also found a stack of the PO's humm, shall we say entertainment material. 50 or so dvds of it. it was the most organized stuff on the boat. now, i am owner of a boat and a very 'homogenous' collection of, humm, entrainment.

On the boat I bought before this one the owner left everything except his 1/2 gallon of Tanqueray gin.

On this boat there was an extra anchor and about 150'of 1/2" line, a few fenders and dock lines. Not much, and nothing real interesting like the entertainment material mentioned above.

There were tons of sealed quarts of diesel oil and transmission fluid under the galley cabinet. I also found a small sentimental gift (old fishing lure) with a message from the deceased father of the owner... it had a nice message from father to son. I made sure to ship it to the owner.

The PO had a huge water bladder stuffed inside the v-berth storage compartment as ballast. I removed it and installed a freshwater tank and pump.

A Danforth anchor mounted on the sundeck. A very large angled piece of pipe with a square socket in one end. Took a while to figure out it was an emergency tiller. No maintenance log, but manuals for the Furuno radar set and depth sounder. Did have the complete survey from the previous owner's purchase of the vessel.

The PO & his wife conveyed pots, pans, utensils, plates (paper & plastic), cups, water glasses, dish rack, placemats, toaster, field glasses, hundreds of spare parts from engine filters to impellers, toilet repair kits, alphabetized manuals of all ship’s systems in a file box, and, full diesel tanks. There were lots of other, useful items left aboard, way too numerous to itemize here, but all the stuff was either neatly packed in trays or boxes, or, were found in their original boxes, like the beautiful brass magnifying glass in its’ original box. Oh, and I’d be remiss to fail to mention, his slip mates at the marina said the PO and his wife worked every weekend, cleaning and polishing, getting the boat ready for sale. The surveyor, after his 8 hour inspection said it was the newest looking 25 year old he’d seen yet.

GPS coordinates for good prawning grounds and halibut holes!

I bought a boat with one quart of oil, three expired flares, one of those cheap double drawer plastic things under the sink and a couple of sink stoppers. Nothing at all basically, And it never occurred to me that a boat wouldn't come with "stuff" -- if I'd have known then what I know now I'd have stripped our boat before sale and sold off the spares. Not totally, but with our 40'er went 600' of anchor line in a spool in the cockpit bilge, a spare Balmar alternator (brand new) plus goodness knows -- everything. I do regret not keeping the ships' wheel (brass) as I could have replaced it with something else. I did keep a bookcase my dad built for chartkits and are log books. And I wish I'd kept the weather station and 8-day clock. I miss the chimes.

Still, like many others the new owner got a boat with the spare parts he bought. Live and learn, eh? Oh yes, and there was even a spare shaft, because who knows when you'll need a spare, plus two extra props. We always swore the boat should have been named Redundant. But gosh, she was pretty.

This was home: (Daddy built her in the 50's (long and narrow of course, and over the nearly 50 years we owned her there were substantial alterations as is natural when you own a home for that many decades)



Enough nostalgia from me.

The PO left everything down to a huge stock of liquor, all dish-ware and utensils, appliances big and small, spare parts, special tools, full propane tanks, furniture in and out, wall art, spare parts. The boat was complete and ready to hit the islands with just a few more provisions. In fact, observing how the boat was outfitted has been a lesson in how to stock the boat for months at anchor in the Islands.

He left everything in perfect condition. Custom sheets; spare prop; dishes; glasses; silverware; grill; tv; all lines; 2 anchors; complete set of manuals and records; flares; pfd's; etc. etc. etc. he then took the boat over to the fuel dock with me and put in 300 gallons of fuel then paid for it, saluted me, handed me the keys and left.
John
2003 MS 390

johnma said:

He left everything in perfect condition. Custom sheets; spare prop; dishes; glasses; silverware; grill; tv; all lines; 2 anchors; complete set of manuals and records; flares; pfd's; etc. etc. etc. he then took the boat over to the fuel dock with me and put in 300 gallons of fuel then paid for it, saluted me, handed me the keys and left.
John
2003 MS 390

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Awesome!

johnma said:

He left everything in perfect condition. Custom sheets; spare prop; dishes; glasses; silverware; grill; tv; all lines; 2 anchors; complete set of manuals and records; flares; pfd's; etc. etc. etc. he then took the boat over to the fuel dock with me and put in 300 gallons of fuel then paid for it, saluted me, handed me the keys and left.
John
2003 MS 390

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and all i got was a locker full of unusable porn.

Unusable? But then I'm not sure I want clarification on that one.

When I sold my trawler, it was going from Chattanooga to Saugatuck, Michigan. When they came down for the inspection and survey, I told them that the price was the price. If they wouldn't pay it there was no deal. They took it, and were concerned about provisioning and locks. When they flew down to pick up the boat it was provisioned, full of fuel, and a large cooler on board packed with ice and drinks. They spent the night on board. I got on with them the next morning to run the first 100 or so miles, and do the first three locks. They got the hang of it, and my wife picked me up.

We stayed in touch for years as they cruised. Then the gentleman passed away. I am glad the boat went to such good hands.

Mine came with, among other things, a large tupperware container of assorted battery chargers, and another full of about two dozen bottles of various brands of boat wash products.

I found a "personal massager" left by the PO daughter that lived aboard for a while. Other than that nothing interesting, just standard boat stuff. Some spare filters and stuff that nobody would have a use for other than on the boat. Also a lot of nearly completed projects!

Moonstruck said:

When I sold my trawler, it was going from Chattanooga to Saugatuck, Michigan. When they came down for the inspection and survey, I told them that the price was the price. If they wouldn't pay it there was no deal. They took it, and were concerned about provisioning and locks. When they flew down to pick up the boat it was provisioned, full of fuel, and a large cooler on board packed with ice and drinks. They spent the night on board. I got on with them the next morning to run the first 100 or so miles, and do the first three locks. They got the hang of it, and my wife picked me up.

We stayed in touch for years as they cruised. Then the gentleman passed away. I am glad the boat went to such good hands.

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Nice! That's the stuff I like to hear... Except, of course, for second to last sentence in final paragraph.

This spring we purchased hull #1 of the Nordic Tug 42 model line. In among the various manuals was a photo album with photos of our boat being built, from the plug fabrication through the various moulds to completion. What was interesting was to see how much of the original vessel was still in place, and what had been upgraded.

Conrad said:

This spring we purchased hull #1 of the Nordic Tug 42 model line..

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The NT42 is among my top 5 boats. (I won't say where it is on the list.) I like all the NTs but after being aboard a 32 & a 37, when I boarded a 42, it blew me away! IMO, it's the perfect boat for the PNW.

Our Tolly came equipped with nearly everything needed for groups of days aboard. Also, many hand held and unique tools as well as parts kept me busy reviewing and categorizing for several assorted days. She came to us real clean too and in good general as well as great mechanical condition!

But... what ended up becoming my favorite “inherited” piece from PO (unbeknownst to me for about three years) was a rather plain looking 21” o.d. classic, wooden, spoke-end pilot's wheel; with small brass hub that had hung on salon wall. I’d taken it off board. The poor old wheel was set aside in our dock box... cold or hot and damp!

THEN!!! A fellow with same year, model and equipped Tolly as ours advertised he had an exact duplicate to our original AC and DC and genset electric control panel... including all the dials, gauges, main breakers and minor breakers. He would accept no cash... but would trade for something classic and “Marine Like”. Really wanting that duplicate perfect condition electrical control panel I scratched my head and offered all sorts of items... none interested him... till I shined that wheel and sent him a pict. He loved it and the trade went through via mailing some 700 miles between us.

Man I really dig (i.e. love) having that really perfect electric control panel duplicate to our already perf condition panel. Little did I know what great value to our boat that old pilot’s wheel that was to become!

I store the extra electric panel aboard – just in case!!!

Happy Boating Daze! - Art

Chopperguy said:

I found a "personal massager" left by the PO daughter that lived aboard for a while. Other than that nothing interesting, just standard boat stuff. Some spare filters and stuff that nobody would have a use for other than on the boat. Also a lot of nearly completed projects!

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Boy, sounds like a lot of people use their boats for all kinds of "recreational activities" besides boating. When we took possession of ours we collected about one plastic storage bin of useful spare parts, and then filled an entire dumpster with junk to the point where the lid wouldn't close on the dumpster. Blow up toys that wouldn't hold air, half used bathroom products, crusty pots and pans, empty small propane bottles, twelve corduroy salon curtain panels...and a whole lot more, right down to the PO's wife's underwear. But we got a good solid boat and an excellent deal so I'm not complaining.

Oh, and a diamond ring under one of the berths - we had high hopes, but it turned out to be glass from Walmart.

We were left with a few things. Spare anchor, propellor, clock, barometer, nice oil lamps, the electronics such as they were then and a full unopened bottle of Tia Maria.

Oh yeah, after 25 + yrs I still keep finding little red plastic fishing lure beads. I've been all over the boat with vac. cleaner but a few show up every once in a while. He must have left hundreds aboard.

Found two brand 1981 era massive bronze unused 26" four blade props under the master. The key for a locked drawer beside the bed was labeled "gun drawer". The PO long ago deceased was secret service. Not as valuable as the props but very cool was when my daughter found hidden in a crevice in a locker $550 in 1979-1981 bills.

Not on my boat but I am currently doing some upgrade work on a Northern Marine 80..I was rapping on the Makore raised panels in the salon and rapped a bit to aggressively and the panel popped inward revealing a hidden stash spot.

The Captain had no idea the spot was even there..It had him pretty freaked as he had cleared the yacht in and out of a LOT of countries and has been searched and nobody knew it was there. On the flip side I was finally able to prove the reason he had 2 commercial glass suction cups aboard..that is what it takes to realign and snap the panel into place.

I have built these in before and this was the most hidden on I had ever seen.
Hollywood

Geez! Now I feel bad that all I got (besides the standard lines, expired flares and PFDs) was an old, but unused, condom behind the nightstand drawer.

Yeah -I missed out as well. The boat was cleaned out of anything of value. Just a couple 20 year old PFD's and ratty old dock lines. I think the PO thought I was getting a good enough deal as it was.

I used to run a guest house with my wife. A lot of interesting things left behind there, especially in the bedside drawers. Adult toys, cameras (I had to check the images to see which guest it belonged to). I tried to return all items, if the guest was willing to pay postage.
Some denied that the items belonged to them, even though I had photographic evidence.

Nothing .. Absolutely nothing ...When we last looked at the boat prior to sale completion there were all sorts of luxuries such as .. mooring lines fenders shorepower lead , lightbulbs ! Upon collecting the boat on a Sunday evening only three fenders two rotten mooring lines .Even the searchlight bulb on the stern gone.. Sunday of course so no one at the marina/agent.....

hollywood8118 said:

I was finally able to prove the reason he had 2 commercial glass suction cups aboard..that is what it takes to realign and snap the panel into place.

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As well as to hold a diver, tender or work float close alongside the hull for cleaning or other over the side work and play.

I have always left all "marine related" items on board when selling my boats and it is essentially an unwritten gentleman's law around the Great Lakes. It is still best to itemize in the sale what is included or not. When I bought our current boat our purchase/sale contract specified everything on board was included except personal belongings. When we flew down to the boat a month after the sale closed it was virtually stripped of anything of value. There was no way of knowing if the PO took it or the looser on the neighbouring boat. We are certain it was the latter. We moved to a nearby marina, replaced it all and three months later we were robbed and lost it all again by someone who had a key. We now have an alarm/surveillance system from hell.

FlyWright said:

Geez! Now I feel bad that all I got (besides the standard lines, expired flares and PFDs) was an old, but unused, condom behind the nightstand drawer.

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Al. It's only right that you abide by sacred tradition and pass this item on with the vessel at sale. Assuming that it's undergone normal wear and tear like anything else on the boat, perhaps retaining it in it's original foil and depositing it in a sandwich bag?

Thanks to the original poster, by the way, for starting such an interesting thread.

healhustler said:

Al. It's only right that you abide by sacred tradition and pass this item on with the vessel at sale. Assuming that it's undergone normal wear and tear like anything else on the boat, perhaps retaining it in it's original foil and depositing it in a sandwich bag?

Thanks to the original poster, by the way, for starting such an interesting thread.

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It's long gone, Larry. If I had known it was such a cherished item, I would have sent it to you for safekeeping. Maybe next time...