We Take a Peek Underneath
(Say, does this sling make my boat look big?)

August, 2008  Before we finalized the purchase, we had the boat pulled from the water to see if there were any evils lurking underneath.

Because Georgia had been in a severe draught for the past three years, this was not as simple as it might sound--the water was down nearly 18 feet and getting a boat of this size out of the lake was a real challenge.  A nearby lift would usually be the method of choice but there was no water under it (literally, there was no water).

Fortunately, one of the last three usable ramps on the lake was in our marina and there was just barely enough water there for us to use it--our marina had recently extended the ramp about twenty feet or we'd have been totally out of luck.

We hired a semi truck with a huge trailer and retained the services of Martha the Marine Surveyor, and so on a blisteringly hot day in mid August we finally got to inspect her bottom (the boat's bottom, not Martha's).
 

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We were very pleasantly surprised by what we saw. The hull was in impeccable shape except for a couple of very minor issues. One (a loose zinc) was fixed on the spot and the other will be taken care of when we have it pulled again to have the bottom painted black and a new transponder for an upgraded GPS system installed.

How bad is the draught, you ask?

Here's a photo to give you an idea--see the black structure lying on the ground on the left?  That's our marina's guest dock where visiting boaters tie up when they come drink your beer and eat your food. This draught is bad.