7th Journal Entry - 12.27.10 - By Vicky

NOT THAT ANYONE IS GOING TO READ THIS, BUT HERE GOES… Happy New Year. I started this yesterday, so now it is actually the 28th, not the 27th. I told you I have ADHD. Distractible is an understatement in my case. It is either raining or going to rain at all three of our favorite places: home in San Antonio, our ranch north of Brackettville and our boat in Port Aransas.

OK, there is never any peace in this house. As I am writing this, my husband is finally reading my last journal entry for the first time. Geez…even he is not that interested. Maybe I am talking to myself after all. In my line of work, people get put on medication when they start doing that. As a result of his review, Rich corrected me that we have actually been MOVING on the water in the boat four times, not three. The test drive, the time we broke down in Corpus Christi Bay, a short test of the newly installed alternator and one short trip into the Gulf.

OK, this is even a longer delay as it is now New Years Day. At least the leading statement in the journal entry is more fitting at this point. We actually went to “visit” our floating condo on the coast for a couple of nights. We have a fair amount of fun in Port Aransas even if our only means of transportation is by land. Sadly, no beating on the starter with a sledge hammer would get the beast to start. There was a bit of the debate between me and the guys about whether we went to have fun or to accomplish something with regard to the boat. We were at least able to do the measurements to find a trailer to pull the boat out so that we can to finally bring it home to do what will likely be a long restoration project. OK, I know we have been talking about doing that for some time, but it will get done. Really. No, I am serious. It will. We tend to explain our procrastinations as attempts to make certain that we take our time so that things are done in the best way possible. I am only convinced of that part of the time.

We now have a cabin on the ranch. I admit that it is any empty shell and that it is still so chilly on a cold night that the boat is still a more comfortable place to sleep. The boat now lists heavily to the port side due to the fact that our starboard tank sprung a leak and all of the fuel had to be transferred to the port side tank. Even with a tendency to roll to the other side of the cuddy cabin it is a more comfortable place to sleep in the winter than the cabin at the ranch. Our 14 year old is happy not to have to worry about being eaten by the mountain lions at night. And no, we will never let him live that one down.

On the ranch side of things, we bought our son his first recurve bow for Christmas. After only a short period of time of using it today, he is already an awesome shot. I greatly prefer seeing him use the bow to watching him play his new gaming system. It seems more realistic to me than the “realistic” video games. It also appears more useful to me than perfecting the art of gaming. The only way I can envision killing something you can eat with a game system is to bludgeon it with the console. I am sure this is just my old outdated way of looking at things. I can hardly wait to see him using it on the ranch. Maybe his success hunting with it will lead to the delight of eating more delicious fried “wabbit”.

We are aware that this has been a rather “dead” site for a while, but we are hopeful that someone with an interest in either boats or hunting will post something up on this thing.

Vicky Litton

6th Journal Entry - 11.29.10 - By Vicky

I cannot believe that it has been more than a year since we posted a journal entry to this site. Goes to show what happens when you are distractible. We sometimes refer to ourselves as ADHD monkeys. It is an anthropological reference to those who run ahead without regard to the outcome. In other words, the exuberant, but perhaps not so wise monkey that gets way ahead of the pack and possibly annihilated, valiantly saving the rest of the troop.

We bought a ranch earlier this year and became completely side tracked from the boat to the point that we contemplated selling it. We have not been able to bring ourselves to put it on the market as yet, so here we are in something of a crappy limbo. And I do mean CRAPPY. You see, neither the boat nor the cabin we put on our new ranch have a functional toilet.

In the short period of time that we have been enthusiastically hunting on our ranch, Rich has managed to get us banned from a popular Texas hunting forum. Yes, that is success for the average ADHD monkey, but I believe that we were ahead of the pack.

At any rate, we have a great appreciation for all things outdoors, whether on sea or on land. At least the cabin cannot sink, though it could potentially flood as we purchased land on a rather storm prone area on the edge of the Texas Edwards Plateau. We managed to get two of our vehicles pummeled by hail in a storm there only a short period of time after we bought the property.

But I am jumping WAY ahead. I forgot to tell you how much fun we had the first night we stayed at the ranch. We were really adventurous. OK, we did not plan well. All right if you insist I will tell you that we were just plain dumb. The three of us weathered 28 degree temperatures with wind gusts into the 40’s surrounded by a 5200 pound Trailblazer that felt like a sardine can.

Sleeping in the 27 foot Uniflite is relatively luxurious by comparison. In the boat we can plug in the heater when we are at dock. Which is ALWAYS, since we have only had the boat running well enough to take it out three times. The first time was the test drive before we bought the boat. The second time we took the boat out we were stranded in the Corpus Christ Bay and had to be towed back in. The third time we considered ourselves lucky to make it back in, as by the end of the trip we running under very little power.

Back to the ranch. There is more. Our 13 year old son looked at mountain lion tracks a few days later after our chilly initiation to camping there. A few weeks later he REFUSED to sleep in his tent any longer just because we heard one kill a hog nearby and then it followed his father out as he dragged a hog he had just killed back to camp later that evening. Some peoples’ kids.

I should not give David (who is now 14) a hard time. He no longer complains about the mountain lion, largely because he is tired of being kidded about the whole thing. He is also quite a hunter. I am not kidding. He is really good. He has shot several rabbits (yummy) out there. Though relatively naïve in terms of shooting a shotgun, he shot 4 dove on his first day of dove hunting. He also got his first turkey recently.

We went to look at a sailboat yesterday. Rich loves to sail so we are looking for another project. As if we needed any. We have a large barn, a small barn, a cabin, a house and a boat which all need a lot of work. It seems we love projects, we just don’t like to finish them. It gives us a lot of choices about what to do on the weekends. If any one knows where we can get a good deal on an old McGregor 26M fixer upper let us know.

Vicky Litton

5th Journal Entry - 10.17.09 - By Rich

Well finally an update. This is Rich, my wife Vicky has been doing the writing here so far for the most part. She is a good writer and can deliver info better than I can. I will do what I can to deliver the technical side of things. I will get back to our dilemma as it was left:

We took our first outing trusting that we had been accurately informed about the condition of the boat (bad idea). We had a serious voltage drain (1.5 amps), an alternator that was not putting out what it should, and batteries that had bad cells (probably bridged plates). The boat drained the batteries as we were cruising. The ignition began cutting out, and we shut her down hoping to find the problem. We let our son, David, do some fishing while I was inspecting wiring, and he caught a nice Gafftop. Well, in the end, the boat was dead in the water and we could smell smoke in the cabin. I called the Coast Guard. Before I get started on this exchange, rest assured that we trust and support the Coast Guard. But we found out that they have a different definition of emergency than we do. I spoke to an officer and he asked if I could see fire, I replied no, but we have smoke in the cabin and in the engine compartment. He said that is not an emergency. My first thought was the old adage “where there is smoke, there is fire”. He disagreed. After some discussion, I called Tow Boat US and we were towed most expertly back to our slip. These guys are good. I couldn’t have asked for better service. And the Boat Captain had skills that I can only dream of at the helm.

After many of the visits to the boat that my wife spoke of (wrong tools, wrong parts, etc), we finally got the electrical system repaired for now. I had the alternator rebuilt and set up for a newer type voltage regulator, ran new wiring for the alternator, and put in new batteries. I also put an ammeter on different circuits until I found the one with the 1.5 amp drain. I disconnected it and it did not affect anything that I could find. This boat probably has several hundred feet of wires that go to nothing. The good news is that it charges, holds a charge, and can be taken out now and actually start again after fishing or anchoring overnight. Unfortunately, the boat will only hit 2800 rpm at full throttle. That leads to the next issue and the next update.

4th Journal Entry - 8.21.09 - By Vicky

I will be honest with you. I am pretty busy and I do not keep up with our own website. I know I should get back to the topic at hand….but it is ALL about me, isn’t it??

I caught a peripheral glance at an entry to the site today on my husband’s computer, which sits next to mine, and the few words I registered were something to the effect “sounds like quite a project”. One of the reasons we have done even less with the journal and the boat recently is a different project. My 80 year old, hemiplegic “I know more than anyone in the world” father. Don’t get me wrong. I love the guy. And to his credit, he is one of the most brilliant people I know.

In less than 48 hours he has managed to create MAJOR (no, I am NOT overstating it, MAJOR) tension between himself, my husband and my 12 year old step-son. I will hereafter call him my son, because he is, even though he does not always like it.

OK, everyone else is complaining, but I am the one who drove 6 hours (OK…3 each day for two days, but work with me here) listening to him talk, essentially to himself. Not that I wasn’t listening. I find most of what he says to be interesting, but he does not really care what I think. He could be having the same intelligent conversation with my 7 pound Brussels Griffin.

As soon as we reached our glorious destination, things got a bit ugly. We were all tired. We unloaded the rented U-Haul trailer in three digit heat with the generous help of my husband’s older son. All we really wanted to do was to unload and decompress some of our pent up frustration. My dad, being the empathetic man he is wanted MORE, MORE, MORE. We had LESS, LESS, LESS to give.

Eventually even patient people reach their limits. OK, that is a little misleading. If you have been paying attention at all, you know I am not all that patient. I am kind, but patience is an aspiration, not an achievement. My dad was pointing and hollering (he is actually proud of this, he calls it the P&H) and we got to a place of no return.

Some boat, somewhere…

3rd Journal Entry - 8.11.09 - By Vicky

Don’t you hate it when you are reading a book and you are starting to get just a little bit interested, you start the next chapter and you are in a different place and time? Well, guess what….you are about to have that experience again.

Fast forward to now. We went to the boat this weekend, planning our next big improvement. About $700 worth. Guess what?? Problems, problems, problems. If I want problems, I really can just stay at home and they volunteer their services about twice a minute. I go to the boat, also known as our floating condo, to relax. No such luck. About two hours into day two, I am demanding to be taken home. WHY, you ask? It is Murphy’s law. You know, the one that reads “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” For us true Irishmen, the addendum “at the worst possible moment” definitely applies. (Murphy is my maiden name, by the way. It figures.)

Those of you who try to go to work on your boat a few hours from home know exactly what I am talking about. You NEVER have what you need to get the job done, EVER. And guess what? If you try to leave it on the boat so it will be there when you need it, you need it at home about three days later.

The carburetor that was supposed to fit perfectly , didn’t. Back in 1971—if you were born before then, you may not relate to this—the choke boss on the manifold interfered with the linkage on the carburetor. My husband told me how to word that. Apparently the modern age of the electric choke created some space problems. I honestly just know, “No gas, no go.” When I finished my rather angry walk up the marina from the 600 dock ghetto where our boat resides, Rich managed to convince me that we could still have a pretty good time right there at dock. And we did.

The moral of the story?? If at first you don’t succeed, just have another beer and forget it.

2nd Journal Entry - 8.04.09 - By Vicky

Uniflite 27

  The advertisement on “Craig’s list” read: “Great for off shore fishing, 27 foot long, 10 foot wide beam, 318 Chrysler inboard motor. Can go out for several days, with air conditioning, refrigerator, radio, clean bathroom, lots of storage place, room to sleep. Boat has flybridge, dual gas tanks, dining table, benches, etc. Just had bottom cleaned and motor tuned. It’s ready to go fishing!!!! Boat is docked at the marina in Port Aransas, and can be shown in the evenings, or on weekends. Please contact me on my cell: 210-… Moving to Midwest, and don’t want to sell it, but I need to…”

  We didn’t know anything about Uniflite boats, but it looked and sounded great to us. We anxiously awaited a call from the owner so that we could make arrangements to see the boat. The asking price was $10,000 which did not appear too unreasonable in comparison to the price on the 23.5 poorly maintained boat we had already seen for $7,000. We were somewhat suspicious, but certainly not deterred, when Rich was talking to the owner about taking the boat out with the mechanic who had been maintaining it. He was concerned because we wanted to take the boat for a test drive to nearby Ingleside, a considerable, though not long, distance from the home marina.

  We settled for a shorter distance and the boat seemed to perform fine other than being rather slow. There were other issues. The “clean” bathroom was leaky and smelly. The “four” the boat was advertized to sleep were like no four people I had personally met. The V-berth was roomy enough for Rich and me, but our son, 11 at the time, took up the entirety of the room intended for the other two people. Perhaps the boat was built in Munchkinland?? Additionally, the air conditioner was a window unit that failed to appreciably cool the small cabin at dock and would do nothing on the water. The interior of the cabin was musty with mold visible on the ceiling and walls. The refrigerator resided wedged against the wall under the table and the bimini top was in a state of disrepair. Screws had been driven into the beautiful teak wood lining of the cabin. On them were suspended what must most certainly have been the ugliest curtains I had ever seen.

  Sounds like a great buy, right??? Despite all of the above we were intrigued with the old girl. The fact that she was a former naval vessel appealed to us. We love things old and her traditional lines were pleasing to the eye. Additionally, we had at that point done some research on Uniflite boats and we were rather impressed with their reputation for durability and comfort.

  We decided to make an offer and in usual Vicky and Rich style we had to reach a compromise on the price. She appeared mechanically sound and we looked forward to venturing out on our own if the price were right. Being a staunch believer in “truth in advertising”, I was a bit miffed and wanted to turn in an offer of $8000. Rich being more forgiving and quite reasonably concerned about alienating us from the seller suggested a price of $8500. We settled on $8250, a price Rich was quick to tell me the owner would still not be pleased with. Fortunately for us, he was out of town when the offer came in. His wife was the first to read the offer on the e-mail and was all too happy to strongly encourage her husband to accept it. When he called Rich to accept, he was quick to say that he was not at all happy, but would sell the boat for that price. So far it did not seem that any of the women associated with the boats we were interested in buying had much enthusiasm for being all that “outdoorsy”.

  We went to the owner’s home and put “earnest money” down on the boat. We have a good income, but having long since found out money indeed does not grow on trees we live well within our means. I was honestly a bit embarrassed to step foot inside the house with my Walmart shorts and simple T-shirt. The home of the owner was NICE. The furniture was NICE. In point of fact he appeared to be NICE. His children walked through the next room and appeared to be very sweet. His wife was seen through a long bay of windows walking in a bathing suit in what I presume was their pool area. She looked away as I looked up and seemed quite uninterested in making our acquaintance. Must be my personality and charm. I get that a lot.

  Ten days after we put down the earnest money we had paid for the boat and we were thrilled to be taking her out for our first fishing adventure with our 11 year old son. Finally at the helm, we headed for one of Rich’s favorite spots from his sailing days, Shamrock Reef. Two thirds of the way there it became very clear that something was wrong. She was missing and sputtering and eventually our new pride and joy was barely moving. Holding our breaths, we shut her off. Needless to say, our girl’s response when we tried to start her was punctuated by a note of silent laughter. A turn of the key ended in nothing……

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First Contest!

Our first contest is being held! The contest consists of guessing my slip number at the marina. Use the marina map below. And if you are a bit of a sleuth, look around the marina website for ways to locate our boat (hint, it does not currently have the blue bimini top on it). There is a link on the main page to the marina. Closest one to the actual slip wins. In the event of a tie, the first one posted wins. I will end the contest and announce the winner on Friday, August the 7th at 9 pm central time. Just hit "post reply" and place your guess in the main body of a post. You do have to register in order to post, and I do want this to go to a Uniflite Owner. You must put your boat in the signature line as I did.
Good luck!!

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1st Journal Entry - 7.26.09 - By Vicky

  This is a story of the discovery of something that was not being sought. It is an accounting of how we came to own our 1971 Uniflite 27. Pardon me if the story rambles a bit at times, but the actual events have been a bit rambling.

   I passed a 23 foot boat with a “For Sale” sign on it day after day during the course of my daily 150 mile round trip drive to work. Did we need a boat? Surely not. In fact we had more than we could say “grace” over with a hand full of home improvements, work and parenting. Perhaps it was all of the sailing ship models my husband had scattered about the house from his sailing days, perhaps it was the fond memories I had of tooling around the lake in the family boat my father built by hand when I was a child, perhaps it was just wanderlust. I looked at the trailered boat on the side of the road day after day until one day I mentioned it to my husband, honestly expecting to be “poo-pooed”.

   Much to my surprise he was immediately smitten by the idea of having a boat as well, so he told me to write down the telephone number of the owner. I had already passed the boat as we were talking about it and turned around to get the number, honestly excited. We called the owner and found that he and a fishing buddy co-owned it and were selling it because of a change in life circumstance. His buddy was getting a divorce. We made arrangements to see the boat and drove the near 75 miles to the town of my employment a few days later. As we approached the field where the boat was parked, we saw a woman considerably younger than either us or the boat owners, who were also seen nearby, perched on the boat smoking a cigarette. She neatly flicked the cigarette over the side of the boat into the brown grass. Her pedicured feet and toe ring were visible in her designer sandaled feet as she proceeded to daintily walk down the swim ladder to the back of the boat to be lovingly lowered to the ground by the soon-to-be divorcee.

  A great deal was explained in those early moments, but we still wanted to see the boat. It was a rather run down mid 1990’s boat which was obviously in state of disrepair and neglect. It had been left to the elements and water was still running from the hull as we drove up. I wasn’t sure I would have wanted it for any price, but when the figure $7000 fell out of the owner’s mouth, I almost fell to the ground.

   We immediately realized that if we really wanted a boat, we could likely do better. I would like to claim that we spent weeks and weeks looking for the Uniflite 27, whose model we have still not clearly identified, but it simply would not be true. In fact, it took all of about 20 minutes of internet research, and there she was. I cannot clearly recall what I put in the search engine, but there she was in front of me on “Craig’s List”. I excitedly handed the laptop to Rich and was pleased that his interest was tweaked as well.

These are the original pictures of the boat as we first saw them on craigslist:

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Introduction-7.20.09 - By Richard

Welcome to Uniflite27Journal.com! This site will be our online journal as we repair and eventually rebuild our 1971 Uniflite 27. She has a single 318 Chrysler V8. We have been making repairs to the old girl for now in order to enjoy her over the summer. This fall we have plans to haul her out and truck her to our property west of San Antonio where we will begin a total rebuild. We plan on stripping her down to the bare hull, painting her, rewire, replumb, and rebuild the engine/trans. We will also use this space to share our experiences on the boat as well. Please feel free to click the contact button and leave feedback, ask questions, or just make comments. We will start off with some pics of the boat. Again, welcome and check back regularily. There will be updates as we enjoy and work on the boat.

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Site online! as of:

7.15.09!

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Marine Weather Island Moorings Marina Sea Cure		Welcome to Uniflite27Journal.com! This site is an online journal chronicling the repairs/rebuild, and boating experiences with our Uniflite Boat.
		7th Journal Entry - 12.27.10 - By Vicky NOT THAT ANYONE IS GOING TO READ THIS, BUT HERE GOES… Happy New Year. I started this yesterday, so now it is actually the 28th, not the 27th. I told you I have ADHD. Distractible is an understatement in my case. It is either raining or going to rain at all three of our favorite places: home in San Antonio, our ranch north of Brackettville and our boat in Port Aransas. OK, there is never any peace in this house. As I am writing this, my husband is finally reading my last journal entry for the first time. Geez…even he is not that interested. Maybe I am talking to myself after all. In my line of work, people get put on medication when they start doing that. As a result of his review, Rich corrected me that we have actually been MOVING on the water in the boat four times, not three. The test drive, the time we broke down in Corpus Christi Bay, a short test of the newly installed alternator and one short trip into the Gulf. OK, this is even a longer delay as it is now New Years Day. At least the leading statement in the journal entry is more fitting at this point. We actually went to “visit” our floating condo on the coast for a couple of nights. We have a fair amount of fun in Port Aransas even if our only means of transportation is by land. Sadly, no beating on the starter with a sledge hammer would get the beast to start. There was a bit of the debate between me and the guys about whether we went to have fun or to accomplish something with regard to the boat. We were at least able to do the measurements to find a trailer to pull the boat out so that we can to finally bring it home to do what will likely be a long restoration project. OK, I know we have been talking about doing that for some time, but it will get done. Really. No, I am serious. It will. We tend to explain our procrastinations as attempts to make certain that we take our time so that things are done in the best way possible. I am only convinced of that part of the time. We now have a cabin on the ranch. I admit that it is any empty shell and that it is still so chilly on a cold night that the boat is still a more comfortable place to sleep. The boat now lists heavily to the port side due to the fact that our starboard tank sprung a leak and all of the fuel had to be transferred to the port side tank. Even with a tendency to roll to the other side of the cuddy cabin it is a more comfortable place to sleep in the winter than the cabin at the ranch. Our 14 year old is happy not to have to worry about being eaten by the mountain lions at night. And no, we will never let him live that one down. On the ranch side of things, we bought our son his first recurve bow for Christmas. After only a short period of time of using it today, he is already an awesome shot. I greatly prefer seeing him use the bow to watching him play his new gaming system. It seems more realistic to me than the “realistic” video games. It also appears more useful to me than perfecting the art of gaming. The only way I can envision killing something you can eat with a game system is to bludgeon it with the console. I am sure this is just my old outdated way of looking at things. I can hardly wait to see him using it on the ranch. Maybe his success hunting with it will lead to the delight of eating more delicious fried “wabbit”. We are aware that this has been a rather “dead” site for a while, but we are hopeful that someone with an interest in either boats or hunting will post something up on this thing. Vicky Litton 6th Journal Entry - 11.29.10 - By Vicky I cannot believe that it has been more than a year since we posted a journal entry to this site. Goes to show what happens when you are distractible. We sometimes refer to ourselves as ADHD monkeys. It is an anthropological reference to those who run ahead without regard to the outcome. In other words, the exuberant, but perhaps not so wise monkey that gets way ahead of the pack and possibly annihilated, valiantly saving the rest of the troop. We bought a ranch earlier this year and became completely side tracked from the boat to the point that we contemplated selling it. We have not been able to bring ourselves to put it on the market as yet, so here we are in something of a crappy limbo. And I do mean CRAPPY. You see, neither the boat nor the cabin we put on our new ranch have a functional toilet. In the short period of time that we have been enthusiastically hunting on our ranch, Rich has managed to get us banned from a popular Texas hunting forum. Yes, that is success for the average ADHD monkey, but I believe that we were ahead of the pack. At any rate, we have a great appreciation for all things outdoors, whether on sea or on land. At least the cabin cannot sink, though it could potentially flood as we purchased land on a rather storm prone area on the edge of the Texas Edwards Plateau. We managed to get two of our vehicles pummeled by hail in a storm there only a short period of time after we bought the property. But I am jumping WAY ahead. I forgot to tell you how much fun we had the first night we stayed at the ranch. We were really adventurous. OK, we did not plan well. All right if you insist I will tell you that we were just plain dumb. The three of us weathered 28 degree temperatures with wind gusts into the 40’s surrounded by a 5200 pound Trailblazer that felt like a sardine can. Sleeping in the 27 foot Uniflite is relatively luxurious by comparison. In the boat we can plug in the heater when we are at dock. Which is ALWAYS, since we have only had the boat running well enough to take it out three times. The first time was the test drive before we bought the boat. The second time we took the boat out we were stranded in the Corpus Christ Bay and had to be towed back in. The third time we considered ourselves lucky to make it back in, as by the end of the trip we running under very little power. Back to the ranch. There is more. Our 13 year old son looked at mountain lion tracks a few days later after our chilly initiation to camping there. A few weeks later he REFUSED to sleep in his tent any longer just because we heard one kill a hog nearby and then it followed his father out as he dragged a hog he had just killed back to camp later that evening. Some peoples’ kids. I should not give David (who is now 14) a hard time. He no longer complains about the mountain lion, largely because he is tired of being kidded about the whole thing. He is also quite a hunter. I am not kidding. He is really good. He has shot several rabbits (yummy) out there. Though relatively naïve in terms of shooting a shotgun, he shot 4 dove on his first day of dove hunting. He also got his first turkey recently. We went to look at a sailboat yesterday. Rich loves to sail so we are looking for another project. As if we needed any. We have a large barn, a small barn, a cabin, a house and a boat which all need a lot of work. It seems we love projects, we just don’t like to finish them. It gives us a lot of choices about what to do on the weekends. If any one knows where we can get a good deal on an old McGregor 26M fixer upper let us know. Vicky Litton 5th Journal Entry - 10.17.09 - By Rich Well finally an update. This is Rich, my wife Vicky has been doing the writing here so far for the most part. She is a good writer and can deliver info better than I can. I will do what I can to deliver the technical side of things. I will get back to our dilemma as it was left: We took our first outing trusting that we had been accurately informed about the condition of the boat (bad idea). We had a serious voltage drain (1.5 amps), an alternator that was not putting out what it should, and batteries that had bad cells (probably bridged plates). The boat drained the batteries as we were cruising. The ignition began cutting out, and we shut her down hoping to find the problem. We let our son, David, do some fishing while I was inspecting wiring, and he caught a nice Gafftop. Well, in the end, the boat was dead in the water and we could smell smoke in the cabin. I called the Coast Guard. Before I get started on this exchange, rest assured that we trust and support the Coast Guard. But we found out that they have a different definition of emergency than we do. I spoke to an officer and he asked if I could see fire, I replied no, but we have smoke in the cabin and in the engine compartment. He said that is not an emergency. My first thought was the old adage “where there is smoke, there is fire”. He disagreed. After some discussion, I called Tow Boat US and we were towed most expertly back to our slip. These guys are good. I couldn’t have asked for better service. And the Boat Captain had skills that I can only dream of at the helm. After many of the visits to the boat that my wife spoke of (wrong tools, wrong parts, etc), we finally got the electrical system repaired for now. I had the alternator rebuilt and set up for a newer type voltage regulator, ran new wiring for the alternator, and put in new batteries. I also put an ammeter on different circuits until I found the one with the 1.5 amp drain. I disconnected it and it did not affect anything that I could find. This boat probably has several hundred feet of wires that go to nothing. The good news is that it charges, holds a charge, and can be taken out now and actually start again after fishing or anchoring overnight. Unfortunately, the boat will only hit 2800 rpm at full throttle. That leads to the next issue and the next update. 4th Journal Entry - 8.21.09 - By Vicky I will be honest with you. I am pretty busy and I do not keep up with our own website. I know I should get back to the topic at hand….but it is ALL about me, isn’t it?? I caught a peripheral glance at an entry to the site today on my husband’s computer, which sits next to mine, and the few words I registered were something to the effect “sounds like quite a project”. One of the reasons we have done even less with the journal and the boat recently is a different project. My 80 year old, hemiplegic “I know more than anyone in the world” father. Don’t get me wrong. I love the guy. And to his credit, he is one of the most brilliant people I know. In less than 48 hours he has managed to create MAJOR (no, I am NOT overstating it, MAJOR) tension between himself, my husband and my 12 year old step-son. I will hereafter call him my son, because he is, even though he does not always like it. OK, everyone else is complaining, but I am the one who drove 6 hours (OK…3 each day for two days, but work with me here) listening to him talk, essentially to himself. Not that I wasn’t listening. I find most of what he says to be interesting, but he does not really care what I think. He could be having the same intelligent conversation with my 7 pound Brussels Griffin. As soon as we reached our glorious destination, things got a bit ugly. We were all tired. We unloaded the rented U-Haul trailer in three digit heat with the generous help of my husband’s older son. All we really wanted to do was to unload and decompress some of our pent up frustration. My dad, being the empathetic man he is wanted MORE, MORE, MORE. We had LESS, LESS, LESS to give. Eventually even patient people reach their limits. OK, that is a little misleading. If you have been paying attention at all, you know I am not all that patient. I am kind, but patience is an aspiration, not an achievement. My dad was pointing and hollering (he is actually proud of this, he calls it the P&H) and we got to a place of no return. Some boat, somewhere… 3rd Journal Entry - 8.11.09 - By Vicky Don’t you hate it when you are reading a book and you are starting to get just a little bit interested, you start the next chapter and you are in a different place and time? Well, guess what….you are about to have that experience again. Fast forward to now. We went to the boat this weekend, planning our next big improvement. About $700 worth. Guess what?? Problems, problems, problems. If I want problems, I really can just stay at home and they volunteer their services about twice a minute. I go to the boat, also known as our floating condo, to relax. No such luck. About two hours into day two, I am demanding to be taken home. WHY, you ask? It is Murphy’s law. You know, the one that reads “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” For us true Irishmen, the addendum “at the worst possible moment” definitely applies. (Murphy is my maiden name, by the way. It figures.) Those of you who try to go to work on your boat a few hours from home know exactly what I am talking about. You NEVER have what you need to get the job done, EVER. And guess what? If you try to leave it on the boat so it will be there when you need it, you need it at home about three days later. The carburetor that was supposed to fit perfectly , didn’t. Back in 1971—if you were born before then, you may not relate to this—the choke boss on the manifold interfered with the linkage on the carburetor. My husband told me how to word that. Apparently the modern age of the electric choke created some space problems. I honestly just know, “No gas, no go.” When I finished my rather angry walk up the marina from the 600 dock ghetto where our boat resides, Rich managed to convince me that we could still have a pretty good time right there at dock. And we did. The moral of the story?? If at first you don’t succeed, just have another beer and forget it. 2nd Journal Entry - 8.04.09 - By Vicky Uniflite 27 The advertisement on “Craig’s list” read: “Great for off shore fishing, 27 foot long, 10 foot wide beam, 318 Chrysler inboard motor. Can go out for several days, with air conditioning, refrigerator, radio, clean bathroom, lots of storage place, room to sleep. Boat has flybridge, dual gas tanks, dining table, benches, etc. Just had bottom cleaned and motor tuned. It’s ready to go fishing!!!! Boat is docked at the marina in Port Aransas, and can be shown in the evenings, or on weekends. Please contact me on my cell: 210-… Moving to Midwest, and don’t want to sell it, but I need to…” We didn’t know anything about Uniflite boats, but it looked and sounded great to us. We anxiously awaited a call from the owner so that we could make arrangements to see the boat. The asking price was $10,000 which did not appear too unreasonable in comparison to the price on the 23.5 poorly maintained boat we had already seen for $7,000. We were somewhat suspicious, but certainly not deterred, when Rich was talking to the owner about taking the boat out with the mechanic who had been maintaining it. He was concerned because we wanted to take the boat for a test drive to nearby Ingleside, a considerable, though not long, distance from the home marina. We settled for a shorter distance and the boat seemed to perform fine other than being rather slow. There were other issues. The “clean” bathroom was leaky and smelly. The “four” the boat was advertized to sleep were like no four people I had personally met. The V-berth was roomy enough for Rich and me, but our son, 11 at the time, took up the entirety of the room intended for the other two people. Perhaps the boat was built in Munchkinland?? Additionally, the air conditioner was a window unit that failed to appreciably cool the small cabin at dock and would do nothing on the water. The interior of the cabin was musty with mold visible on the ceiling and walls. The refrigerator resided wedged against the wall under the table and the bimini top was in a state of disrepair. Screws had been driven into the beautiful teak wood lining of the cabin. On them were suspended what must most certainly have been the ugliest curtains I had ever seen. Sounds like a great buy, right??? Despite all of the above we were intrigued with the old girl. The fact that she was a former naval vessel appealed to us. We love things old and her traditional lines were pleasing to the eye. Additionally, we had at that point done some research on Uniflite boats and we were rather impressed with their reputation for durability and comfort. We decided to make an offer and in usual Vicky and Rich style we had to reach a compromise on the price. She appeared mechanically sound and we looked forward to venturing out on our own if the price were right. Being a staunch believer in “truth in advertising”, I was a bit miffed and wanted to turn in an offer of $8000. Rich being more forgiving and quite reasonably concerned about alienating us from the seller suggested a price of $8500. We settled on $8250, a price Rich was quick to tell me the owner would still not be pleased with. Fortunately for us, he was out of town when the offer came in. His wife was the first to read the offer on the e-mail and was all too happy to strongly encourage her husband to accept it. When he called Rich to accept, he was quick to say that he was not at all happy, but would sell the boat for that price. So far it did not seem that any of the women associated with the boats we were interested in buying had much enthusiasm for being all that “outdoorsy”. We went to the owner’s home and put “earnest money” down on the boat. We have a good income, but having long since found out money indeed does not grow on trees we live well within our means. I was honestly a bit embarrassed to step foot inside the house with my Walmart shorts and simple T-shirt. The home of the owner was NICE. The furniture was NICE. In point of fact he appeared to be NICE. His children walked through the next room and appeared to be very sweet. His wife was seen through a long bay of windows walking in a bathing suit in what I presume was their pool area. She looked away as I looked up and seemed quite uninterested in making our acquaintance. Must be my personality and charm. I get that a lot. Ten days after we put down the earnest money we had paid for the boat and we were thrilled to be taking her out for our first fishing adventure with our 11 year old son. Finally at the helm, we headed for one of Rich’s favorite spots from his sailing days, Shamrock Reef. Two thirds of the way there it became very clear that something was wrong. She was missing and sputtering and eventually our new pride and joy was barely moving. Holding our breaths, we shut her off. Needless to say, our girl’s response when we tried to start her was punctuated by a note of silent laughter. A turn of the key ended in nothing…… Comment First Contest! Our first contest is being held! The contest consists of guessing my slip number at the marina. Use the marina map below. And if you are a bit of a sleuth, look around the marina website for ways to locate our boat (hint, it does not currently have the blue bimini top on it). There is a link on the main page to the marina. Closest one to the actual slip wins. In the event of a tie, the first one posted wins. I will end the contest and announce the winner on Friday, August the 7th at 9 pm central time. Just hit "post reply" and place your guess in the main body of a post. You do have to register in order to post, and I do want this to go to a Uniflite Owner. You must put your boat in the signature line as I did. Good luck!! Contest Thread Sign Up here! or Login here! 1st Journal Entry - 7.26.09 - By Vicky This is a story of the discovery of something that was not being sought. It is an accounting of how we came to own our 1971 Uniflite 27. Pardon me if the story rambles a bit at times, but the actual events have been a bit rambling. I passed a 23 foot boat with a “For Sale” sign on it day after day during the course of my daily 150 mile round trip drive to work. Did we need a boat? Surely not. In fact we had more than we could say “grace” over with a hand full of home improvements, work and parenting. Perhaps it was all of the sailing ship models my husband had scattered about the house from his sailing days, perhaps it was the fond memories I had of tooling around the lake in the family boat my father built by hand when I was a child, perhaps it was just wanderlust. I looked at the trailered boat on the side of the road day after day until one day I mentioned it to my husband, honestly expecting to be “poo-pooed”. Much to my surprise he was immediately smitten by the idea of having a boat as well, so he told me to write down the telephone number of the owner. I had already passed the boat as we were talking about it and turned around to get the number, honestly excited. We called the owner and found that he and a fishing buddy co-owned it and were selling it because of a change in life circumstance. His buddy was getting a divorce. We made arrangements to see the boat and drove the near 75 miles to the town of my employment a few days later. As we approached the field where the boat was parked, we saw a woman considerably younger than either us or the boat owners, who were also seen nearby, perched on the boat smoking a cigarette. She neatly flicked the cigarette over the side of the boat into the brown grass. Her pedicured feet and toe ring were visible in her designer sandaled feet as she proceeded to daintily walk down the swim ladder to the back of the boat to be lovingly lowered to the ground by the soon-to-be divorcee. A great deal was explained in those early moments, but we still wanted to see the boat. It was a rather run down mid 1990’s boat which was obviously in state of disrepair and neglect. It had been left to the elements and water was still running from the hull as we drove up. I wasn’t sure I would have wanted it for any price, but when the figure $7000 fell out of the owner’s mouth, I almost fell to the ground. We immediately realized that if we really wanted a boat, we could likely do better. I would like to claim that we spent weeks and weeks looking for the Uniflite 27, whose model we have still not clearly identified, but it simply would not be true. In fact, it took all of about 20 minutes of internet research, and there she was. I cannot clearly recall what I put in the search engine, but there she was in front of me on “Craig’s List”. I excitedly handed the laptop to Rich and was pleased that his interest was tweaked as well. These are the original pictures of the boat as we first saw them on craigslist: Comment Forums Online! as of: 7.26.09 // Sign Up Here Introduction-7.20.09 - By Richard Welcome to Uniflite27Journal.com! This site will be our online journal as we repair and eventually rebuild our 1971 Uniflite 27. She has a single 318 Chrysler V8. We have been making repairs to the old girl for now in order to enjoy her over the summer. This fall we have plans to haul her out and truck her to our property west of San Antonio where we will begin a total rebuild. We plan on stripping her down to the bare hull, painting her, rewire, replumb, and rebuild the engine/trans. We will also use this space to share our experiences on the boat as well. Please feel free to click the contact button and leave feedback, ask questions, or just make comments. We will start off with some pics of the boat. Again, welcome and check back regularily. There will be updates as we enjoy and work on the boat. Comment Site online! as of: 7.15.09!


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