We drove 1,250 miles and back for a C-Dory 22.

Water Bill

I would like to introduce ourselves, we are Bill and Sue from Durango, Colorado. We have been following the C-Brats site for several years to gather information on the C-Dory line of boats. I would like to take time now to thank all the members that contribute to this site for all of your valuable input. You aided in our decision to purchase a C-Dory 22 immensely. Your comments, advice and stories were a huge help.

We purchased Blue Manatee from CaptMac on Sept. 28th after several weeks of back and forth emails and over 50 pictures. I want to thank CaptMac again for shooting all these photos to help make the sight-unseen buying process a lot less stressful. To his credit he was upfront, straight forward and honest about everything.

CaptMac agreed to trailer Blue Manatee from Amelia Island, Florida to Louisiana. Sue and I left Durango on Wednesday, Sept. 25th for LA and met up with CaptMac around noon on Friday, Sept. 28th in Lafayette, LA. We inspected the boat and CaptMac was true to his word and the boat was in like new condition. I found everything to be in as good or better condition than I had hoped. We had a two hour instruction on basic boat, motor and equipment operation while we waited on the money wire process. I had to be back to work on Monday, so we hooked the trailer up and headed for Durango around 3:00PM with the C-Dory in tow. We arrived back home at 12:30PM Sunday.

Sue and I have decided to change the name of our new C-Dory to C-Swell. We took our maiden voyage on C-Swell this last weekend on McPhee Reservoir near Dolores, CO. We had rain on Saturday and woke up Sunday morning to 20 degree temperatures. The Wallas stove/heater worked great. We now know C-Swell will handle herself in the rain and cold just fine. We are hoping for a Thanksgiving trip to Lake Powell with some warmer weather and maybe a few more trips to McPhee or Navajo Lake before then.

Thanks to DaNag and TyBoo for keeping the C-Brats site up and running and all the members for your valuable contributions.

Bill and Sue

johnf · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:12 am Post subject:

WOW Bill and Sue!!!

What a story! Looked up on google where you both met. A lot of driving but sounds worth the process finding both parties satisfied with the transaction.

We'll be looking forward to your pictures and future posts.

Welcome Aboard and Congrats!!!!

John

JamesTXSD · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:32 am Post subject:

Welcome aboard Bill and Sue,

Isn't this place great? So much good information and encouragement to be found here! And the fact that these boats can be trailered anywhere makes it easy to bring one home... and to head out on other adventures. Very Happy

Boating in the 20s? You two are tough! Nice to know that our boats can take care of us in a wide range of situations, huh? We'll look forward to hearing more about your good times onboard C-Swell.

Congratulations on the new boat!

Best wishes,
Jim B.

Byrdman · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:16 am Post subject:

Bill & Sue.... Welcome and keep those trailer tires rolling. That is simply one of the best things about these wonderful boats. I stopped keeping count of my road miles for C-Brat fun...and not to mention the air miles/car rentals. This is not a sickness....BUT A WAY OF LIFE!

The only cure....GO GET ON THE BOAT!!

Hopefully we can meet/travel some day.

Make the gatherings .... They are a blast and great folks everywhere.

Byrdman

dotnmarty · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:53 am Post subject:

Bill and Sue- Great story. This is one purchase you will never regret. Enjoy and welcome. Smile

jlsparks · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 4:51 am Post subject:

Bill and Sue, Great to hear storys like this as we also bought our's from a owner almost 1000 miles away. Same story as well with the e-mails etc and all went as planned. I left home at 8 am Thursday, drove down to Ohio from WI. got there at midnight. Spent the night at Max's home and returned the next day arriving at 1:30 am Sat morning. We have enjoyed this boat from the day we got it and look forward to our retirement years (soon to come) when we will have no time issues about returning to work. We plan on doing some of the C-Brat gatherings as well to meet some of these great people. You will truly enjoy this boat, best of luck.

Jim & Julie

hardee · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:50 am Post subject: Good Travels and Great Beginnings

Bill and Sue,
Welcome to the C-Brat family. It's a great bunch here, and it sounds like you are off to a wonderful start. We are, too, looking forward to the Non-work days ahead. If you get up to the PNW, look up Sequim. we have really nice neighbors from down in your area. (And I miss my trips to Albaquerquie through Dove Creek for the bean stop.) Though we found our boat only a few miles from home, we had to purchase from a 100 mile away owner, and didn't get to do "sea trial" but instead relied heavily on what we learned from this site. Looking forward to crossing wakes some day.
Harvey
SleepyC Moon