We Bought The Cheapest YACHT We Could Find...

three years ago we built our Dream truck camper to travel the United States two years and one baby later and it was time to start our next adventure boat life we sold our truck camper and set out shopping for something we could enjoy as a family but as usual I think we ended up with more than we bargained for slight problem the boat won't start okay Courtney tried cranking yet try again [Music] I found something check it out usually according to sort of laughs at me and rolls her eyes when I show her things that I found but when I mentioned a houseboat tour after we sold the camper she seemed pretty excited so I think we're gonna have to go check this thing out guys I have a feeling that today is going to be an adventure I don't know that I want to let Riley know exactly how excited I am because then we might enable each other a little too much here we go if it looks half as good in person as it does in the pictures this is going to be awesome alrighty here we go all right we're here [Music] I'm crossing the road Ahoy I see the boat do you guys see it down there oh my goodness look at that thing it floats definitely a good first sign [Laughter] Courtney oh it's sweet don't worry I will test the what is this called the plank you're walking the plank I'm walking the plank uh Skipper's first I'm going in do you know if there's any Critters in there hello this door's a little short welcome to my house do you think maybe the listing photos are from when he bought it I think maybe so it's definitely not as nice as it looks in the pictures this is where the captain goes that's the Den I'm kind of scared kind of feels like I'm going in a haunted house smells like camper it does it smells just like our old camper oh but check out this sweet sign do you think this comes with the boat that thing's awesome it's a picture of you where's the edge there's the edge okay don't fall in the hole and then here is the oh front bedroom two little I think they're called births on a boat which is pretty cool that a boat that's this small to have two bedrooms and one of the bedrooms be able to sleep two people I think I don't want to get excited about any of this it's a houseboat but none of the house even matters if the boat is compromised so I'd like to crawl around look underneath and see what we're even dealing with before we get too excited about the house part all right into the belly of the Beast so underneath us there are basically beams that run horizontal to the boat that support the floor and where those beams meet the hole on both sides are rotten off entirely so the floor isn't actually attached to the to the sides of the hole it's only sort of attached to the center of the hole not a good sign I'm excited I like want to keep looking but also I already found pretty definitive reasons not to buy it let's see a little better back here the one of those beams that goes across somebody tried to re-fiberglass into the hole and that looks fairly recent and it is completely not attached which means there's a lot of movement somewhere so let me try to repair it but it clearly didn't work look at the view that you could have at your dining window every day oh that's water damage that's probably why those walls are spray painted back there good eye should we go up on the roof I think we should go on the roof we continue our tour towards the back of the boat now is this where your barbecue goes uh right there right here is the ladder attached it feels pretty sturdy wow that's pretty cool we could eat our dinner up here every night all summer I'm just driving my boat Hong Kong I mean the whole thing feels does what I don't know spongy this feels more sturdy over here I tell you what it is way better than any 1980 RV we've ever looked at but the RVs didn't have to float and presumably the RVs cost a lot less do you want me to throw you a life-saving buoy where does the Argo go right there on the back all right what's behind daughter number one an orange engine two Chevy 350 engines with v drives so another thing I like about this it has real inboard engines not little Outboards all of this actually looks like relatively new steering uh RAM there the steering stuff all looks okay anyways oil looks clean honestly it looks pretty good in here let's go to the front around this way we haven't been this way yet don't worry the propane tank is secure I think that's where the propane is supposed to be in a different kind of cylinder oh there's a door on this side too yeah it's kind of cool I think that what you do up here is you ah Lounge in the Sun and this little hatch here goes into the lower bedroom all right Captain do you want to tell us about your boat this is a 1980 Cruiser home Corsair cruise at home built a total of about 400 boats this was the largest model at 40 feet long and this one's quite rare in that it has that front bunk so this boat is a fiberglass over wood boats so hand-laid fiberglass over some wood stringers and beams and stuff and that's the part that makes me most leery about it because if the wood is rotten there's really no fixing it for us we're not going to take the time to cut this boat apart and repair wood beams underneath all of this I'm kind of a bargain hunter and so when I see a good deal I get excited usually there's a reason it's a good deal kind of a get what you pay for a situation here but I think the question we need to ask ourselves is how much project do we want to be getting ourselves into but man look at the view that you could have every day when you're eating breakfast yeah the huge windows are so cool a buddy that knows a lot more about houseboats than I do basically told me that if it has rot we should run away the door's right there you better stop running goodbye houseboat a few weeks has passed since we looked at that houseboat we ultimately decided to pass on it we decided it was just too much project for this time in our life because we had our baby and then we kind of decided that we weren't going to do boats at all this summer until we found another boat that we liked I sent the guy a message he just messaged back and it's right here in town and we're gonna go take a look this one is smaller significantly cheaper and shouldn't really be any project at all so let's go check it out there it is oh yeah yeah the lime time [Music] this thing's pretty cool so the inside down here is like a complete cabin that we could live in it's got a kitchen it's got a little bathroom it's got two beds so there's this whole front little birth area that converts from a dinette into a bed and then check out this little tiny bed oh but it's actually totally big enough for me this is actually probably bigger than the bed that was in our camper foreign [Music] convertible Dinette closet I didn't really know what to expect going to look at that boat but I think it was cooler in person it's also got a big block in it which means that it can go pretty fast in front a lot of gas I think realistically with coordinate's busy schedule to get the most out of that boat it would make way more sense for it to just be in the water all summer so we could just jet down to the lake and use it that comes to problem two finding somewhere to keep our boat in the water all summer because it is almost impossible to get slips around here I don't really know how this is all going to play out but if you know us there's a solution here somewhere so stay tuned welcome back to our boat shopping Saga it's been a few months now since we looked at the first boat and finally another boat popped up but this one there's something really unique about that has us excited the first one we looked at was huge the second one we looked at was small and I would say this one's somewhere between let's go check it out I can't believe that it's real but you guys we bought a boat they said the two best days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it so I guess that makes this the best day of my life let's go check it out here it is here is our new super air nautique Surf Boat who wants to go surfing no just kidding we that's not our boat all right babe you ready to learn how to snail this boat definitely intimidates me but it's gonna be a whole lot of fun to learn how to go sailing with you just kidding I think if we hopped on this boat right now that's funny we know nothing about sailing maybe someday but this is not our boat for now all right that's enough playing around are you guys ready to see our actual boat let's go say hello to our new old boat this is a 1978 Bayliner 28-foot cabin cruiser and I am already so in love with this thing we want to give you a full tour of this thing but it's a beautiful day so let's head out to the lake first things first we need to get this boat fired up so we can warm up whoa hold on there's some come on you it's not a good start oh thank you they're gonna think we did this oh my goodness there it goes okay choke is on and we'll just let it warm up until the choke turns off we are free so the system that we found that works is Riley drives from above and I hang out down here with the baby to keep an eye on him while we're moving oh gosh you guys this part makes me nervous this is a small Marina and maneuver maneuvering isn't exactly easy I have full faith in Riley but it's still it's really difficult this boat has a fly bridge which means we can drive it from on top or below the visibility is way better from up here so I'm going to attempt to pull out of the marina from up top you ready Courtney yeah you sure yeah in gear boat barely fits in the slip I think it's the biggest boat in these smaller slips at this Marina this lover here engages the transmission and so we have forward or reverse the middle is neutral here we go we're headed onto the lake we're gonna go find somewhere nice to park for the day it moves pretty quick when it's in gear so I do a lot of uh in and out all right you're doing a great job and we're off thanks Courtney that's because I'm wearing a captain's hat this hat right here means that you automatically know how to Captain a boat okay we are successfully out of the marina goodbye Marina [Music] that live in this Marina on a houseboat say hi Dave and Brad [Music] all right we're out of the marina so here we go [Music] we are cruising now all right we have hit our top speed of 22 miles an hour and I'm pretty sure that at this rate we only have enough fuel to drive for about an hour but it feels like we are absolutely flying on this boat I think as we sit so high up foreign a little terrifying shutting it off when we're out at Sea because what happens if it doesn't start again slight problem the boat won't start okay Courtney try cranking yet yep that's a problem for later for now let's show you around the boat so welcome to the fly bridge where we can Captain the boat my first mate can hang out with me we've got cup holders we've got a compass GPS screen Mayday radio that I don't know anything about and a depth finder we also have a nice Lounge area here in the back as well as a Bimini cover over the top moving on to the back of the boat this is probably my favorite area of the boat back here at the back of the boat the most important feature of the entire boat is the little Marine barbecue where else do you get to sit down while grilling we've got an inflatable stand-up paddle board we've even got misters along the back right here powered by this little pump that we just drop in the lake to keep us cool on those hot days plug it in and we have missed oh much cooler I'm really glad we didn't lose the stand-up paddle board paddle that's just hanging out on the back deck oops we have a spacious swim platform on the back complete with a ladder which we also forgot to Stow I think we need to make like a boat startup checklist that we check everything off of before we take off out of the marina there's also a shade Bimini for this area but it was pretty torn so we took it home to do some repairs on it what else do you guys want to see do you want to see the engines well in Gin there's one this boat is powered by a Chevy big block of 454 engine there's only one of them but it's got some pretty good get up and go back here we've got four six volt deep cycle batteries that power the house along with one 12 volt battery that is the starting battery for the engine those are both charged off the shore power and the alternator which we can switch right here so if I've got it in the middle the shore power or the alternator will charge both the starting and the house battery or I can select one or the other so for out like this just park listening to music running the lights we'll switch it over to house so that we can't accidentally drain the starting battery it is a stern drive engine so we've got a Volvo 280 outdrive on this thing another cool feature about this boat is that to work on this engine I can just get all the way down inside here and have a nice comfy spot another guy at the marina that I met suggested that I put a couch and a flat screen TV down here because he said I'm going to be spending a lot of time down here I hope he's wrong something that I think is cool about this boat is that we can walk along the outside here to get to the front area this looks like a perfect Lounge spot to me so I think we're going to need to add some like foam mats or something but also I don't really spend very much time lounging so up here on the front we've got this little hatch and an anchor I don't know anything about anchors I sounded like a broken record I don't know anything about boats at all well I guess you take that off first looks like there's a line in here and then I guess you just kind of say Anchors Away I don't think I'm gonna let it all the way out one of the really cool things about this lake is that it's absolutely massive and overnight camping is allowed so once that we get a little more comfortable with the boat and learn how to use this anchor we'll be able to just find a nice spot anchor up for the night and spend some time as a family out here on the lake last feature up front is we actually have this remote control Spotlight that lets us look around but it's from the 70s so it's pretty much like a candle Spotlight Riley's on baby Duty up in the fly bridge so let's check out the inside of the boat watch your head the biggest thing that sold me on this boat is in the front of the boat but we'll start in the back of the boat this has a kitchen that's pretty smart oh I would say a camper kitchen it has a two burner propane cooktop which we probably will never use because I don't know why we would cook inside when we can cook outside but it has it it also has a really good sized fridge as well as a ton of storage the previous owner left a bunch of dishware for us which is awesome and so this cabinet has cups and then I think this one has both it's got a water pump and a normal sink which has been really nice for doing dishes so we have fresh running water even when we're on a lake yeah so that's the kitchen on the boat now let's head to the dining Lounge area of the boat this boat is 28 feet long it's huge we've never owned a camper this big so it's pretty awesome for space inside something that's really cool about this because we get asked all the time how many kids are we going to have and I don't know but there's a way you take this and it becomes a bunk bed oh yeah and then you clip this up into the Clips in the ceiling and it becomes a bunk bed so one two I think you could fit four kids on this thing how do we put it away though that was actually pretty easy so I think that this boat sleeps we'll say one two three four I think you could sleep six people on this boat I don't know that that would be comfortable but I think you could do it this is the dinette this is also huge and it's got this that flips up and then there's a bar that slides over to make the dining table bigger but if you want a little more space you can leave it flipped down but the thing that I was most excited about on this boat is this front bed this has basically turned into Oliver's little play area safe space to put him so we've got a little lounger he can take naps up here he can play up there when the boat's underway he's able to be up there safe out of the way and so that has been already so amazing down here this is our lifefest cabinet so we have to have a life vest for everyone on the boat we said we weren't going to make that many modifications to it we were going to just use it but this is the first one I made this is a 12 volt fan that really helps with airflow and so it's just plugged in down there someone else said I think the previous owner did that's actually really nice is all of the windows have these pull down blinds which make it a lot darker hair but it also helps when the sun is beating on a wall this is a radio that I hope we never have to use because I think that's how you call for help and that's the only reason you would use it and now I'll show you the thing about this boat that I think is my second favorite thing this is a full bathroom guys I never thought we'd own a boat with a bathroom but it's already come in so handy this boat is definitely a little quirky I think it's actually something I like about it and I think it's also the reason it was in our price range but it does everything we need it to do we can cook in it we can sleep in it we can use the bathroom we can shower everything works this is how you drive the boat from down below but the previous owner said he prefers to drive it up from the fly bridge and I totally agree the visibility is way better we've been told the horn doesn't work so the previous owner did provide an auxiliary horn that hopefully we don't need but we have it if we need it the lake that we live on has a ton of Mooring balls a national forest and you can actually go out and use them for quite a few days I'm a little intimidated by doing that but it also sounds incredibly fun so I'm kind of hoping we work up our confidence a little bit and we can actually sleep on the boat out on the water and do like a weekend long trip for now we've just been going back in the evenings but I'm really looking forward to that slight problem the boat won't start I thought I'd already fixed this with a loose battery cable that I found but now it still won't start and work pretty quickly drifting to shore it's not panic time yet but it's getting close what is going on okay Courtney try cranking it yep try again hold on try again try again try again uh oh I need something to top with for some reason the starter solenoid is sticking I don't know why the starter for some reason is just not starting and it looks brand new which has me suspicious what is going on with the starter 13 volts so we've got plenty of voltage on the starting battery according can you try starting it again started I didn't actually do anything to fix it it just magically started let's keep driving and we are moving away from the shore this is a terrifying problem that we are going to need to figure out because unlike a car you can't just pull over on the side of the road in your boat you're kind of stuck on the lake at the mercy of the wind and uh I could see that being a problem are there Lake tow truck drivers who do you call if you break down in your vote does or Dave [Music] [Music] every boat Voyage must come to an end at some point and this is going to be the hardest part which is docking this giant boat in our little tiny slip I think the goal is just to not crash into the expensive boats sacrifice our boat at the expense of the pressure here we go According to which slip is ours it's the one that doesn't have a boat in it I know which slip ours is [Music] should I hop off yeah hopping up okay I'm gonna shut the boat off okay shut her down I don't think that could have gone any better than it did and we're docked that actually went really well you did a great job thank you still can't really believe that this boat is ours you know one of the main reasons we relocated to this area is that we could enjoy the outdoors and this boat is going to let us have a lot of fun this summer with Oliver I think this boat might be a little bit of a can of worms it really was the cheapest boat with a bed and a bathroom that we could find on Marketplace and we don't really know what we're getting ourselves into but we'll make sure to take you along for the ride as we get our crash course in boat life thanks for watching guys and we'll see you next time thank you we opened the back hatch and we have a serious cool problem on our hands [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Ambition Strikes

Views: 351,870

Keywords: off-grid barndominium, husband and wife build, building our off grid home, yacht, boat, cheap boat, houseboat, house boat, budget, lake, old boat, bayliner, byliner, bay liner, cabin cruiser

Id: bvc-L_YY85g

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023