Finding Your Dream (Used) Boat
Is Just the Beginning By Drew Maglio
U
pon selling Walden, a 1987 Ericson 38-200 sailing sloop, and moving from South Florida to Annapolis, MD, it was time for a new boat. Both Walden and our previous boat, a 30-foot Sea Ray, had sucked much of the joy out of boating due to the litany of repairs, maintenance, and necessary modernizations that I had to perform on them. Although, I will say that these two troublesome boats provided ample and fruitful fodder for numerous articles, so I suppose there is a silver lining. Nonetheless, after enjoying a few months’ reprieve that was exacerbated by Covid-19 lockdowns, it was time to jump back in during the lost summer of 2020. Arriving in Annapolis in January, I began perusing online classifieds all over the eastern seaboard for a particular elusive model of boat that I had always dreamed of owning but had never been able to locate and secure. As a kid growing up in South Florida, my father owned a 1989 Chaparral 2100 SX bowrider that he purchased new at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show for $17,500. I loved that this sport boat featured classic and sleek ‘go-fast’ lines, while maintaining a functional and practical
##The Chaparral 2550 SX is both exceptionally sleek and sporty with clean, sharp, and timeless lines, while maintaining a deck and cabin layout that is functional and spacious.
deck layout. However, I did not like its dated interior, carpeted plywood deck, or open bow design. Hence, my personal dream boat became its larger, closed bow brother: the 2550 SX, which makes a fine coastal runabout (due to the additional safety that a closed bow affords) and overnighter. Unlike the 2100 SX, later models of the 2550 SX cuddy cabin featured a fiberglass floor liner, a head, a small galley, and a spacious berth, perfect for sleeping two. Although I always desired to own one of these vintage sport boats,
##After climbing all over the vessel it was clear that the boat was all original and essentially a time capsule from 1995.
I could never find one until January of 2020, two months before bedlam was unleashed on the world. Although I now lived in Annapolis, my dream boat was 1000 miles away in Plattsburgh, NY, which lies on the shores of Lake Champlain. As one may imagine, this made the logistics of purchasing the vessel both tenuous and tedious to iron out. To exacerbate matters, the boat was locked in storage until March—which quickly became late May after New York’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions were enacted during the Spring of 2020 and maintained into the summer months. Thus, through the Covid lockdowns, I maintained contact with the seller, before we were finally able to make the trip in late May. Before trekking north, we agreed upon a purchase price of $15,000, which included the boat, original trailer, and many extras like a full canvas enclosure, mooring cover, and cockpit cover—all contingent upon a thorough inspection and sea trial. After months of preparation, we rented a Dodge Ram 2500 diesel truck to make the trip to bring our new baby home. The trip north was uneventful. Upon arrival we checked into a hotel for what would be a mostly sleepless night. After PropTalk.com December 2023 37