Everyone who has ever purchased something used will have at one point or another asked themselves Why?
Not only why did I do this, but more importantly, why did the previous owner do this?
We will attempt to document as many why moments as we can through this journey.
This is totally for fun as I am sure anyone who has ever purchased a boat that we once owned, has scratched their heads on many occasions as well!
1) Why are their socks in every drawer, locker, cubby hole and compartment? Not a lot of socks, just 1 at a time all by itself. I have to assume that the previous owner has a lot of lonely socks because we have yet to find a matching pair!
2) Why would anyone pull old boat cushions out of a dumpster? In the cleaning picture below, of all the stuff we were throwing out, you can see several mismatched cushions. I must point out to you that we threw all of this stuff overboard in the pouring rain. So by the time we dragged it over to the dumpster, not only were they soaking wet, they were also covered in every possible boatyard chemical you can think of, not to mention whatever was in the dumpster.
3) Why would anyone need to screw 3 holes into a beautiful wood panel to mount a folding plastic drink holder above your bed when there are shelves all around you where you could put your drink. Who drinks IN bed anyway?
Look closely for the Grey Square, that’s the drink holder. And I just noticed as I posted this picture – IT”S CROOKED!!!
4) Why would anyone install a water maker in the bowels of the engine room? Personally, I view water as very important life giving resource. I am also picky about the taste of the water that I drink. So, if I were installing a water maker, I would put it in a separate spotlessly clean locker where I would have complete access to cleaning, maintaining it, changing filters in as close to a sterile environment as I can get, as opposed to climbing over a diesel engine and threading my way through a maze of wires to accomplish the same. And call me crazy but somehow I also have the feeling that no matter how careful you could be, your water would always have a strange diesel taste to it. I like diesel, but not the taste of it…
5) An interesting thing happened to me on the way to the mall…I received a phone call from the gentleman who purchased our last boat, the Vindo 50. Turns out he was selling her and wanted to know if the new owners could contact me if they had any questions. Well, remember above when I said that anyone who purchased a boat that we had previously owned would probably have spent a fair bit of time scratching their heads, now it is my turn I am sure. The new owners have already reached out to me so I am sure I will be able to add some why moments from their point of view as well! I am actually looking forward to it and I will do my best to add any of their questions to this page, and in the spirit of this page, boy I hope my self confidence is ready for this!! 🙂
6) I understand that some folks like to have electronic instruments mounted in the bulkhead so as to be visible from the helm. I get that. I don’t like it, but I do understand it. I must say though that in Akupara’s case I am a bit mystified. There are currently 2 holes in the aft facing bulkhead and only one had a instrument.
The other had been covered with what I would assume was painters tape. This made for an extremely attractive blue tape square. Of course over the years the blue taped square began to show it’s age and had deteriorated to the point of failure allowing me to see that the hole had never been properly sealed. As in, there is a space between the cabin side and the interior liner.
This of course means that any water that found it’s way behind the tape, obviously had free run of either soaking the glass, the core or running in between the cabin and liner. Somehow there is no visible damage anywhere.
Imagine my surprise when I removed the sole remaining instrument and found that the hole had been sealed properly. Well it had been sealed anyway, not sure about properly. So I have to ask myself. Why? Why would you take the time to properly seal the edge of a hole that has an instrument in it, and cover the 2nd hole with tape? What form of logic tells you that this is a good plan? The odds of water getting behind a tape barrier versus the odds of water getting behind an instrument that I might add has a gasket seem pretty straight forward to me? All I can think is hmmmmm.
7) Leaky decks. If it leaks fix it. If it leaks again, fix it again, if it leaks again, fix it again. At what point do you fix it properly? Re-bedding deck hardware is a routine maintenance job, not just a once in a lifetime chore, and adding caulking underneath a leak is not fixing it!