We tried out our first pontoon boat and loved many of the features it had but didn’t love some of the comprises we made. Fishing Lake Roosevelt with both current and wind the electric trolling motor wasn’t powerful enough to get the mph we needed. Also it was pretty much just a fishing boat without enough comfortable seating to take the family out for a cruise or towing the grandkids in a tube. A few weeks ago I found a used boat for sale that fixed the comprises we made. It was located in Vancouver WA which is just across the Columbia river from Portland OR. We had planned on looking at it while on vacation in the area this week but my wife got sick and ended up on an antibiotic treatment that caused us to cancel the trip. As she started to feel better I contacted the boat dealer and scheduled a trip there leaving on Wednesday and meeting with the salesman on Thursday. We did our negotiating on the phone and made a deal subject to inspection. So off we went driving the motor home and towing our boat to Portland.
Dropped our boat off at the dealer as I couldn’t find an RV spot long enough for both the MH and the boat. While there we took a fast look at the boat they had (the salesman was on his day off) and then headed to the RV park and set up for the night. As we were pretty tired from the all day drive we hit the sack early. We both woke up at 4:00 am with the same thought. After looking at the dealers boat we were very disappointed with how dirty the interior was. The exterior of the boat was fine but the interior wasn’t. The boat was advertised as super clean and garage kept. So we had a conversation about this and started to second guess the deal. We had a 9:00 appointment with the salesman who called me about 7:30 asking for a 30 minute extension of the meet time. I told him how disappointed we were with the condition of the boat and asked if he could have it cleaned up by the time we got there. He agreed so we delayed our arrival to give them time to do the work.
When we arrived two were working on the boat and it was looking much better. As this was a consignment boat I believe it had sat on their lot getting rained on for several weeks causing the mess we found. So we decided to go thru with the deal subject to a test ride which was great. Both motors ran strong and the boat handled great. Done deal! With these delays we didn’t get started home until early afternoon and didn’t get home until 10:00 pm. Man were we exhausted yesterday.
Oh yeah the boat. Same year as our trade in, 2015. This is a South Bay brand which is more upscale than the Lowe we traded in. Really nice vinyl flooring and upholstery much thicker than the Lowe. Rear fishing station with live well, downriggers, rod holders and two fishing chairs. Front family cruising area with two couches and the mid section has the helm with another couch across from it. The exact layout we wanted. Bigger outboard at 115 hp (Lowe had a 90) plus the biggie, a 9.9 hp kicker trolling motor. This will get us the mph we need to fish Roosevelt. And the kicker has a speed control at the helm and is tied to the big motor and can be steered with the wheel. Nice well done setup. Not much use by the previous owner and the ECM report from the dealer shows only 69 hours on the 115. Hardly broke in. Boat hasn’t been licensed since 2021 so very limited use.
Yesterday all I did was put it into the shop as it was raining. I opened all the stow bins and removed all the stuff left by the previous owner. I wanted everything to dry out so my wife and I can attack it and finish the detailing the dealer started. I was too bushed to do anything else but here shortly I’m heading down to the shop to work on it. Not much for pictures yet but I took these. More to follow.
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