multimediasmith
Member
Firstly and most important is that nobody was injured everyone but me was able to drive away.
My brothers and I were supposed to go on the upper Tennessee adventure with Colby and his group. They were leaving Oct 2 from Chattanooga to Guntersville and then back through Chattanooga to Knoxville and beyond. We were going to pick up with them in Chattanooga after the Southern leg around Oct 10th.
As we all know, there was an Epic Hurricane which uncharacteristically destroyed an area in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. My brothers and I were having Katrina/Ida PTSD watching the post storm coverage and decided to bail on that trip. As a consolation prize, we were going to Lake Ouachita in Arkansas... peak fall color time. We planned to caravan in two vehicles, but they changed their route at the last minute and were checking in with me along the way... I allowed myself to be distracted and take total responsibility for the crash.
At any rate what followed was a nightmare scenario with the wrecker yard not letting me take anything from the boat or truck until he was sure he was being paid. I sold the Sequoia to CoPart salvage and Fed Exed the title but they did not pick it up from the wrecker after I had paid him in full. As a result, he began to charge storage as I had warned them and the scenario built for weeks. In the meantime, the boat was in a field for a month of limbo as when I went back to Arkansas to meet with the adjuster the plan was to have him take it to a local fiberglass repair. Since he could not get the boat lifted to inspect the bottom, it languished there until it was moved to the main salvage yard in Arkansas. My brother and I went there to retrieve our camping gear and personal items and inspect the damage since it was now elevated onto tires. There was a lot of exposed balsa coring and since it was to sit outside for another 4-6 weeks, I decided that it would have been too far gone to resurrect. In addition to the balsa core issue, there was also evidence of tremendous forces having acted on the hull. The bow ring was severely bent from ripping the crank strap from the trailer and the hold down straps had pulled the eye points from the rear of the trailer. The fire extinguisher had broken out of its holder and the seat of the head had broken off, the motor had taken most of the weight from the skid and I felt that I would never be able to trust the transom with my family offshore.
So began the hunt for a proper replacement. After three years, I realized that Liz was not going to spend the summers on the boat with me, so we really didn't need the RV aspects as much. Immediately I thought a CD-22 would be the ideal choice for mostly single handing and solo travels. Then I discovered the Marinaut... Ben Toland (designer of the 22) had developed a fresh take on the CD-22... it totally spoke to me. I was fortunate enough to snag a mint condition single owner garage kept recently repowered iteration.
The custom work that the PO had ordered replaced the galley with seating fitting our use more closely.
So this story really didn't have any resolution until last week when I drove to Florida in the new diesel tow vehicle to bring it back to the empty boatshed.
This week I took it out twice to Lake Ponchartrain and I can say that it definitely pounds less in chop... it's really nice and fits our use more closely.
The draft is less than the 25 but closer to the 22 at 9" with the motor up.
It's about a third less weight making it easier to launch and retrieve single handed and the new truck gets 18mpg towing as opposed to only 8mpg with the old rig. So overall it turned out more than OK.
I plan to bring the little Marinaut to our future gatherings, so I hope y'all will welcome it into the family (since it was the original designer's interpretation).
Anyway, I made two Photo albums to help tell the story... they are:
End of ENDEAVOR:
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_ ... _album.php
My New MARINAUT:
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_ ... _album.php
It's said that all's well that ends well, but it's all about how one recovers...
Hope to see y'all soon.
Best
Dale
My brothers and I were supposed to go on the upper Tennessee adventure with Colby and his group. They were leaving Oct 2 from Chattanooga to Guntersville and then back through Chattanooga to Knoxville and beyond. We were going to pick up with them in Chattanooga after the Southern leg around Oct 10th.
As we all know, there was an Epic Hurricane which uncharacteristically destroyed an area in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. My brothers and I were having Katrina/Ida PTSD watching the post storm coverage and decided to bail on that trip. As a consolation prize, we were going to Lake Ouachita in Arkansas... peak fall color time. We planned to caravan in two vehicles, but they changed their route at the last minute and were checking in with me along the way... I allowed myself to be distracted and take total responsibility for the crash.
At any rate what followed was a nightmare scenario with the wrecker yard not letting me take anything from the boat or truck until he was sure he was being paid. I sold the Sequoia to CoPart salvage and Fed Exed the title but they did not pick it up from the wrecker after I had paid him in full. As a result, he began to charge storage as I had warned them and the scenario built for weeks. In the meantime, the boat was in a field for a month of limbo as when I went back to Arkansas to meet with the adjuster the plan was to have him take it to a local fiberglass repair. Since he could not get the boat lifted to inspect the bottom, it languished there until it was moved to the main salvage yard in Arkansas. My brother and I went there to retrieve our camping gear and personal items and inspect the damage since it was now elevated onto tires. There was a lot of exposed balsa coring and since it was to sit outside for another 4-6 weeks, I decided that it would have been too far gone to resurrect. In addition to the balsa core issue, there was also evidence of tremendous forces having acted on the hull. The bow ring was severely bent from ripping the crank strap from the trailer and the hold down straps had pulled the eye points from the rear of the trailer. The fire extinguisher had broken out of its holder and the seat of the head had broken off, the motor had taken most of the weight from the skid and I felt that I would never be able to trust the transom with my family offshore.
So began the hunt for a proper replacement. After three years, I realized that Liz was not going to spend the summers on the boat with me, so we really didn't need the RV aspects as much. Immediately I thought a CD-22 would be the ideal choice for mostly single handing and solo travels. Then I discovered the Marinaut... Ben Toland (designer of the 22) had developed a fresh take on the CD-22... it totally spoke to me. I was fortunate enough to snag a mint condition single owner garage kept recently repowered iteration.
The custom work that the PO had ordered replaced the galley with seating fitting our use more closely.
So this story really didn't have any resolution until last week when I drove to Florida in the new diesel tow vehicle to bring it back to the empty boatshed.
This week I took it out twice to Lake Ponchartrain and I can say that it definitely pounds less in chop... it's really nice and fits our use more closely.
The draft is less than the 25 but closer to the 22 at 9" with the motor up.
It's about a third less weight making it easier to launch and retrieve single handed and the new truck gets 18mpg towing as opposed to only 8mpg with the old rig. So overall it turned out more than OK.
I plan to bring the little Marinaut to our future gatherings, so I hope y'all will welcome it into the family (since it was the original designer's interpretation).
Anyway, I made two Photo albums to help tell the story... they are:
End of ENDEAVOR:
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_ ... _album.php
My New MARINAUT:
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_ ... _album.php
It's said that all's well that ends well, but it's all about how one recovers...
Hope to see y'all soon.
Best
Dale
