Your Pride and Joy!
Dean Hilsman
For any one of a hundred different reasons, you’ve finally decided that it was time you had your own "Pride and Joy". Time to have that "Beauty" of your own that people walk by, admire and wish they had for their very own. You imagine yourself as the skipper of that wonderful freedom machine. The one who
keeps everything in bristol condition. The one who takes the helm on those wonderful sunny, summer days, enjoys the company of good friends, the beauty of nature, scenic cruises with the family and most anything else that a person can think of to do on a houseboat.
Of course, this leads us to the inevitable question that every person asks before they buy their first boat, "Which one is the right one for me? With so many makes, models and designs available, how do I make up my mind and get the right boat?" Granted, even though all this diversity seems to make it almost impossible to decide, I prefer to think of it as the perfect opportunity to get exactly the boat you want. Of course, question is how to get it all sorted out and make that final decision.
I suppose getting the perfect boat can be done one of two ways. You can go out and buy a boat, any boat that catches your eye. Then, after you find out what you like and don’t like, trade it for one you like better and just keep doing that until you end up with the perfect boat. This would be considered the high dollar way of perfecting your boat. Then again, there is the alternate way. Spend some time doing research, ask questions, and look at boats. This route will get you the right boat, provided you have the right criteria to narrow the field.
The first, and perhaps the most important consideration, is likely to be price. Don’t by a boat beyond your means that you can’t comfortably afford. This includes, but isn’t limited to just the purchase price. There are going to be other things to consider; such as: cost of fuel, slip fees, upkeep, maintenance, transportation to and from the boat, supplies, toys, etc. In the process of asking overall questions about the boats, get an idea of what these extra items will cost you and figure them into your boating expenses. Price of boat + operating expenses = the real cost of a boat. Once you’ve decided on a price, stick to it! Find a boat that fits your budget rather than trying to adjust your budget to fit your boat. If you can’t afford to enjoy your investment, it’s not going to be much fun. Now that you’ve got a price range in mind, you have one of the most important criteria. If you’ve done your research and your figuring, you’ve already narrowed the field quite a bit.
Now at this point, I’m going to go through the process we used to arrive at the boat we decided to purchase. Along with that, I’ll give you the criteria we used to arrive at our decision. You may have different needs and wants, but you still may be able to use what we did as a guide, or modify it to suit your needs.
To start with, we used the formula above to come to the conclusion that we could afford a boat in the 40,000 dollar price range. This pretty well eliminated a new boat, but there are lots of good used ones around, it’s just a matter of finding them. This sort of takes you back to asking more questions and doing more research, but we didn’t mind since we had four years to find just the right boat before my retirement date. As we did our "window shopping", it didn’t take long for my wife to make her lists of "must haves" and for me to do the same.
Her list went something like this: Air conditioning, decent size head, comfortable sleeping quarters for the two kids, a real bed for us, electric appliances, fly bridge, front and rear deck (for fishing or sitting, or ease of getting on and off), a place to sleep guests (2), decent sized galley, decent sized fridge, a fly bridge for spending time outdoors and plenty of storage for those other "have to have things".
My list went more like this: Air conditioning (yes, I like being spoiled on those hot days, too!), walk around deck (for handling lines, cleaning and fishing), a real bed to get a good nights rest in, roomy place for the kids to sleep, decent galley and fridge, a boat that wasn’t oversized for our needs for economy of operation, a singe engine rather than twins for the same reason, fly bridge for the view, accessible electrical equipment and plumbing for ease of repairs, low hours on the main engine and generator (and ease of access to each), a fiberglass hull reduce rust and corrosion, an I/O drive so it could be more easily serviced and tilted out of harms way if the need required, a reasonably sized engine for fuel economy and plenty of storage for my "have to haves".
As you can see, some things overlapped and some things didn’t; but what it boiled down to is that we had to find a boat with all the items on both lists for all of us to be happy with it. Since we had already looked at a lot of boats, and we had our price and "want" lists in hand; it was just a matter finding the boat we’d narrowed our choice to.
So what boat did we end up with? A 1991 Gibson Sport Series, 37 feet long and 14 feet wide. Here is how the boat fit our criteria.
 Pride and Joy Houseboat
By many houseboat standards, this would be considered a conservative boat.
Another draw back this boat might have for some one else, would be the limited maneuverability afforded by one main engine rather than two. I was able to off set this by having years of experience at boating in the past. If you don’t have any experience maneuvering, you might wish to take the time to have some one who does, show you. One engine or two, it still takes practice to handle boats that weigh in tons instead of pounds. Do whatever you need to do to get good at handling your boat; it will pay off in the long run.
One last suggestion concerns your "research". Take lots of time to look at the many fine houseboat sites on the internet (if you haven’t done so already). Many have forums where more of your specific questions answered and get advice from experienced boaters that may even have similar boats already.
However you choose to pursue your dream boat, the end result should be the same; lovely peaceful days outdoors, the smell of steaks cooking on the grill, peaceful quiet nights to sleep through, wonderful views of nature, and that feeling of getting away from it all. There will be lots of other things to add to this list, but I’ll let that part up to you.
Happy and SAFE boating to all.
Dean Hilsman Waterloo, Ia.
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