This is the story of an old, well older man, an older boat, and a younger guy with a mental disorder. It was December when I went over to Joe's house and asked, "Hey, Joe what are you going to do with that boat?". "Scrappin' it", he answered. But, to me, it was an opportunity to give life back to this "sweet"
18 foot aluminum boat. It could be like an old Cartoppers boat they used to launch off the beaches in Monmouth County. Or I could re-do the transom and throw on a small engine to putt around the bays. If it were up to my Sandford and Sons ass that thing would be parked in, what my wife calls, my tobacco road yard, where it would have sat for years. Luckily Joe talked some sense into me and luckily I found my new love just days later on Facebook Marketplace.
So thankfully that is what took me out out my delusional state and I relented to the idea that it's worth is far more in it's salvaged value than back on the water, like it would ever got there.
Joe was ready to let go of the bigger boat, but his love is the 1970 war-wagon that sat alongside the other. "Do you know how many striped bass I caught in this thing?" Off the back is a 1970 Evinrude
that just needs "a thing or two" to get it back into service. One day this year him and I will take this fishing vessel out to recreate history. I will be sure to wear my life jacket and have a charged cell phone in my pocket.
So yesterday was the day to say good-bye and get a couple shekels for it's value in the aluminum. We pulled in to the metal recycling yard and the crew made quick work of unloading it with a forklift. Joe watched through an open door as the boat left the trailer.
There are thousands of gently and beat up used boats that sit in boat shop yards, boat yards, and back yards that just wait for a rebirth or to meet their fate at the salvage yard or dump. At one point these boats were new, the owners younger, and ready to help create lasting memories and stories of the big one that got away.
