Looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Pictures and commentary on Flickr.

It has been quite some time since October 31 when I won my O'day 25 on eBay. Today I finally saw it in person.
After a short series of postponed meetings I was finally able to contact the boat's owner and arrange a meeting for noon today. My brother and I left the house at 9 in our van, burdened with a tarp, rope, buckets and a variety of other tools I thought would be needed to close the boat up properly for the remainder of the winter. We arrived at the boat's location about half an hour too soon, but once we knew how to find the place we decided to do a little exploring. So we drove around the roads in the area for a little while, and then returned to the boat at noon. Kenny, the fellow I was meeting, showed up about the same time we did, and got right to business showing me around the boat. The first thing I noticed when walking up to the boat were the areas the stanchions mounted. The lifeline stanchions had been removed, but the holes had some fiberglass epoxied on over the top, so no water was getting in. Still, it's something I'll have to fix. The next thing I noticed was that the hatch boards weren't boards! There were two pieces of smoked plexi-glass to fit in the hatchway instead. I suppose that would let some light in, but to be watertight they'll need modification or replacement. Ken showed me a couple other issues that needed to be addressed. The sink seacock was frozen open, the centerboard pin needs replacing, and the fitting should all be re-bedded. The whole boat needs a good cleaning, but the fittings and deck hardware all look to be in good shape. The bottom should be scraped clean and repainted, and there are a few sections of the topsides that need glass work. Real simple stuff like filling old holes from gauges and fairing in some previous repair work.
All in all I think I got myself a pretty good deal on a boat. I don't know if I would risk buying sight unseen again though.
The trailer is still a sticking point, but I now know how the boat got where it is (on top of a hill, 25 miles from the nearest lake). Apparently a marina in Hammondsport has a hydraulic boat hauling trailer that they used. I'll have to call them and get an estimate. Right now we're thinking about putting the boat in Seneca Lake in the spring and sailing it up the Erie Canal to somewhere a little more accessible for repairs to be done. If I have to I could probably keep the boat in the water somewhere until I can find a trailer. Hopefully that won't be a problem though.
Here's to adventure! I have a boat.