The first boat I purchased was a 21’ Century and I trailered it to many of the fantastic lakes in New England as well as the coast of Maine, Long Island Sound, and Narragansett Bay. With a boat on a trailer in New England, you can almost always find somewhere to go where the weather will be nice for the weekend.
As I entered my mid 30’s, the desire for a more comfortable and easy experience lead me to my second boat, a 30’ Cruiser’s Inc. This was kept in a marina in Wickford, RI not far from where boating first got it’s hooks into me while weekending and vacationing with my parents on their boat, the Barracuda II. This is when I was given my first boat, an 8’ wooden skiff that we named the Barry-Cuda. Lame, I know, but I was 13 and thrilled. A year later I got my first motor and I was gone from dawn to dusk every day exploring the wonders of Wickford Cove.
I intended my third boat to be the last. I had watched so many of my boating buddies buy new boats every couple years always going up in size a few feet and always spending more and more money. I decided to get the biggest boat that two people could safely handle and I thought that would prevent any desire for me to buy bigger. It worked. I had that boat for 21 years.
In 1997 I bought a 1989 Trojan 12 Meter Motor yacht purchased the boat in 1997 with 500 hours on it. We chose this boat to do The Great Loop Trip. It was very roomy and comfortable for it’s size. After performing a major refit to suit our needs, we set out in 1999 and began the Great Loop. Half way through the trip an engine failed and had to be rebuilt. It turned out that the main engine bearings were defective and the previous owner did not act on the recall. Caterpillar would not honor the recall because the engines were 10 years old. I paid for a major overhaul on two engines with only about 1000 hours on them. 8 years later I sold my business and lived fulltime on the boat from 2008-2016. We travelled the intracoastal waterway from Maryland to Key West many 16 times, and spent 2 years in the Bahamas, mostly at anchor. I have never been tempted to buy a bigger boat. We are now at a point in life where we’d like to see the country and have bought a 2015 Winnebago Forza Class A diesel pusher motorhome. This was the first time in 38 years that I did not own a boat.
