The Beginning - Our Boating Adventure Begins

My parents owned a small 17' Sea Sprite Continental Mark 1 bowrider when I was in high school.  We loved being out on the Connecticut river but towing and launching the boat each time we wanted to use it was too stressful for my parents.  They didn't want to get a slip and the hassle of launching it each time prevented them from using it very often so to my dismay they sold it.

Fast Forward 20 years -fall 2012.  I mentioned to my friend and neighbor Jeff - "We should get a river boat-  It would be awesome fun for our families!"  We live right next to the Connecticut River and only a few miles from multiple marinas. 
Jeff was on the case immediately and started emailing me different boat ads for the next several months.  At first we thought we wanted a larger bow rider that could fit our two families but they cost too much and only held 8-10 people.  That's when Jeff suggested a pontoon boat.



Immediately my mind flashed to my only pontoon boat experience.  The somewhat hazy memory involved partying on the Connecticut River on the fourth of July in the eighties.  My buddy's brother took us up the Connecticut river to watch the fireworks in Hartford on his pontoon boat.  Only three things stand out in my mind from that night:

1. Pontoon boats are like taking your deck and a bunch of friends out on the water!
2. He had a blender powered by an inverter on his pontoon which he used to make frozen margaritas. 
3. The ride home down the river in the pitch dark with dozens of drunken boaters was pretty crazy.
Boats don't have headlights and there are no street lights on the river


Needless to say - I was in on the pontoon!




By February Jeff had found a 2002 Sweetwater 24RE that had 14 person capacity! Fourteen people meant we could fit both our families plus a third!  Now we're talkin'!

Within a week Jeff and family were able to check out the boat in person.  They called us and said they really liked the boat and "were we interested?"  She was named Double Dee, had a 60HP Yamaha outboard with low hours and plenty of extras. The boat came with a grill, depth finder, marine radio among other things and a Custom Carnai Trailer.  She was dinged up in several places and a few seat cushions were split at the seams but overall seemed like a good deal when comparing other pontoon boats from the same year.  And did I mention she was massive!



The other intersting thing is the boat was owned by 15 year old singer/songwriter Christopher McGinnis.  http://www.christophermcginnis.com/
Chris was about to get his drivers license and needed a car more than he needed a pontoon boat.

We asked a local marina nearby to check out the engine for us and if it ran well we were going to be the proud owners of a pontoon boat!

Now we had to figure out how to get this beast of a boat from NY to CT. . .

We could pay someone to tow it up to Connecticut but it could cost $300 or more.  Then I researched trailer hitches for my 2003 Nissan Pathfinder and found out my truck could tow the 3000lb boat.  With a class III hitch installed it had a 5000lb towing capacity.  So I ordered the trailer hitch and brake light wiring kit from etrailer.com and we set the following weekend as the goal to go and pick it up.  Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into!!