oldcapt

Micrologic Explorer $250

$250

Want to buy a pair of Penn International 30s, preferably with rods, in good shape Contact ourakka@aol.com

SOLD ALL 3 Sitex EZ-7 with Antenna Coupler, Power Cord, Bracket and original Operator Manual Northstar 800 With Antenna Coupler, Power Cord, Bracket Micrologic with Antenna Coupler, Power Cord, Bracket and original Operator Manual All worked when removed from boats Will sell all 3 for $400 I am looking for a pair of Penn International 30s w/rods to trade or will buy outright Contact ourakka@aol.com

Mr D, what size are the tires on your new horse trailer and what size is the trailer? Does it have living quarters? We have a Featherlite 2 horse trailer and I need to start looking for tires soon. I too am a believer in going up in load range. We pull horses w/a small 24' motorhome (camping all over Florida) and keep beefy tires (expensive) on that too. Having a flat with the boat is bad enough, having one with horses in the trailer could be tough. I watch the air and check bearing temp regularly and been lucky so far. Did have a bearing failure a couple months ago on 75 while bringing a just bought heavy 25 Pursuit home on a loaner trailer. Heading north on 75 to Venice I knew I was in trouble when one of the trailer tires/wheel passed me on the right and bounced into the bushes. This is another story.

In late 60s had a fellow in Tampa, name of Ernie Correl or something like that build up a dozen Harnells for me. By 1986 when I quit chartering, I had 50. NEVER broke one. Had grouper rods with nice flex, long kingfish rods and a couple heavy ones. We averaged 250 trips per year, most of them 60 - 120 miles offshore in the gulf and really hammered those rods. Eventually found a nice old fellow (Jim Windsor) who rebuilt them every 2 years to new condition for me. Started selling them off a few at a time and now have only 2 left. Have some very Non PC photos of our daily catches from that period, and almost all were caught on those rods. I think I paid less than $50 each for the early ones, which was pretty steep then. Also had a couple dozen 9' Lamiglas rods Betts made up in the early 70s that were great kingfish rods. Gradually shortened them to a length that was perfect for slinging baits out. We would be shot today if we brought in anything like the number of fish caught in the 60s and 70s. No Loran C, and no GPS until later on in the 70s. The Harnells were our guns.

Im retired and have downsized my boats. Started looking a year and a half ago for a nice little 25' Pursuit that was listed everywhere at around 40K . Found several that folks were trying to sell and started keeping track of a couple. The prices were steadily reduced. Made some offers, and finally bought one at 1/3 the original asking price. Times are tough, but this is the best time to buy a boat I have seen since 1973. Note that I also sold a very original mint Mako 231 for about 1/2 what I would have 2 years ago. I priced the Mako in line with current market conditions and the first fellow who came bought it, at my asking price. I may have left a grand on the table but actually think we both got lucky. I know of one boat salesman on Florida's west coast I would even consider sending anyone to. He has been at it since the early 70s. Good salesmen in any field are a rare breed indeed and the smart ones are generally the highest paid in their industry.

Parker21, I had a very early Robalo 20 (not the 19) built at the Sanford factory and had a larger (original offered was 60) 100 ga tank installed. Largest engine available then was a 135, as I recall, which is what we installed, along with a bracket and "come home" kicker. Still often ran with extra 6 gallon tanks tied down. Had one of the first T Tops built with the outriggers on top, was the first T Top I ever saw at that time. Used it in the Gulf and often stupidly ran wayyy too far offshore with it to fish. The south end (Chicken Neck) of the Middle Grounds was a favorite area, as an example. Buried the bow many times coming home with both the large bow hatches filled with Grouper and Snaps. Boat was very good at self bailing so did keep the deck clean. We were in a kinda "recession/depression then, and my previous job went away. We needed money, had a pretty cool boat, and catching fish was EZ then, even with the very unreliable Buck Rogers type Loran A, it was no problem loading the boat with catches that qualify as PC incorrect today. Then, we sold the fish and paid the bills. Long story short, the 20 was a well built and nice to look at, for its era. It had a shallow deadrise resulting in having to slow down in a chop. It was also a bit wet. The foaming technology was fairly iffy then and I later saw several 20s with bulges on the insides where the foam expanded too much as it cured and may have soaked up some water as well. Moved on to numerous other boats, commercial and pleasure ( 23 SeaCraft, 31 Ocean Master, 231 Mako and several larger custom diesels and others) both new built and restored. You might consider looking hard at other, newer boats that benefit from newer materials, technology (especially better hull designs) UNLESS you have deep pockets, lotsa spare time and mucho boatbuilding knowledge. You will have $5-10 K in an old 20 sooo fast and still have a kinda bumpy, wet, pretty boat. You can get a pretty little boat that turns heads and rides well pretty darn cheap these days, that requires little work or $. You may not get the "personal ego gratification" of having done it all yourself, but take your family or a kid out instead on a ready to run boat with all that time. Boy, Im getting old. Im the guy that has rebuilt quite a few "pretty" boats, and have the receipts to prove it. Good luck to you Jim. Jim

Pull an oil sample on both and have a reputable lab (most larger CAT dealers have their own top drawer oil/fluids lab in house) run the tests for you. It was pretty cheap when I retired 2 years ago and will give you more quality info on whats going on than most anything else. CAT called it SOS and they offered kits with little 4 oz. plastic jars, hand pumps and plastic tubing. They have lots of good printed material describing the process and it is probably on line at CATs website. Im sure other companies have oil labs too, but CATs is pretty impressive. Most folks, with an engine they operate commercially has this program in place as SOP at every oil change. Good boat brokers welcome it, bad ones don't. I wouldn't buy a boat, car, truck or most anything with an engine without doing this test. Just my 2 cents worth. Almost forgot, Rednecks are good as I am one too.