Looky what I found...

[McGillicuddy]

Well - Sandy, (et. al.),
Google earth is a cool tool, and I use it a lot (I wish they would have live updates as satellite passes allow). It did play a role in this sordid boat search. I figured If I could see my boat using it why not another model.

Like many of our fellow misfit SeaCraft enthusiasts, I've been scouring the listings in logical places looking for anything 15 inboard or 21 saying Seacraft, Starcraft, Searay, etc roughly once a week. For about 2 years, heh, heh... I found this boat in S.E. MI, in a rural community between Detroit and Toledo, OH. West end of Lake Erie. I think I found the listing in July. I sent at least a half dozen emails and never got replies. I had saved an MS Word copy of the Maybee MI CL ad and a month or so later I found it in my files. A combination of phone number, and aerial photography gave me evidence of what it was and I kept calling the guy until he finally answered in Sept. He didn't have a digital camera but said he lived in a rural area outside of Maybee, about 20 mins S of Detroit Metro Airport. I told him I was in San Diego so I wouldn't be able to just drive over but told him I'd call him back. I found the area on Google Earth and was pretty sure I had the right place. I've done a lot of research using satellite imagery and was pretty sure of what I was seeing. I got a hold of him again and asked if he had a cell phone that had a camera. He said it did but wasn't sure how to send the pics but said he'd get his kid to help send to my phone like a text. When finally he sent it I was at work and could hardly stay focused on the job.

I called him and asked if he'd hold it until I could get out to see it. He said if I was pretty sure I wanted it he would hold it for a bit. The following weekend I called and he said a local fellow had come by to haggle over the boat but he said it was spoken for. What and honorable man! A couple of days later I wired him the agreed price and the follwing day the title came by Express Mail.

A month after I got the key and title and the guy asked me to send him the key and he'd winterize it for me in case I couldn't move it until spring. Wow! What a cool guy. So I did. Offered to pay him storage and for the work, and he said he just wanted me to get the boat in the condition he advertised.

I finally got the boat delivered using uship.com and it arrived this past week. I fired it up and it ran just fine. I was going to splash it this past weekend but the best laid plans went astray and I started fixing things - the trim tabs weren't responding, so I tried to find the reservoir and upon removing the transom plate, I found a proverbial can of worms. Nothing major. Check out the half hitches supporting some of the transom wiring in the last picture. I thought that was pretty cool...