Well today SHADY LADY, a Cumberland River cruiser, came out early this morning and looked good. The reason for hauling was two fold, one, the shaft packing on the port engine was totally gone, and two, the hub on the starboard side was loose at the key. It was a beautiful almost perfect day to do this, not anything more than a bird chirping in the trees, and occasional cloud in the sky, and the sounds of a pair of 327Q motors coming from a vintage Chris Craft. Yes, it was a pleasure to be there!
We met at the marina at 9:00 AM and she was out of the water shortly thereafter with little fanfare. Our (Commodore Yacht Club) has a new truck with a very low gear and it will haul boats without even putting your foot on the gas. This is a great improvement over the truck we had previously, which had to be revved up, in order to snatch the load out of the water. For this reason, I rented my own yard truck last season when I hauled TRADITION. They saw how easy my rental did the job, and now they have one that does the job even better. It’s great to be at a marina (this is a private club) where the allow you to haul your own boat and work on it yourself. This is the true essence of boat ownership, and it is a vanishing thing these days.
Here is a photo of Bill French at the wheel, taken early this morning. Bill is a retired truck driver and he owns FRENCH LADY, a fast Gibson house boat. There’s nobody you would rather have giving you a hand with a dual axle 10-wheel truck like this, than Mr. French. Bill is about as avid a boater as there ever was, out day and night in one boat or another, one of the all-time great guys and a great resource to have at any yacht club. A few years ago, Bill and I personally installed 12 large hybrid Sunset Maple trees, and numerous Japanese Maple accent trees in berms, in front of each of the docks at our club. Bill ran the front end loader, I did the coordination, buying, and placement. We also added new concrete sidewalks at that time.
See more photos in the following posts.
Regards, Paul