Thanks for the welcome 75Fantasy.  After retiring 18 months ago I set about working on my bucket list.  I built a vintage dirt bike from the frame up, with a bunch of custom touches.  Went to Europe for a month with the wife and her best friend, living out of backpacks.  Came home and 4 days later we started on a 6400 mile trip to New York to attend the biggest vintage motocross race in the country.  Saw Mt. Rushmore/Sturgis/Deadwood, Chicago, Niagra Falls, Nashville, Carlsbad caverns, and some friends we hadn't seen since high school.
I live less than an hour from Perris, Elsinore, and Silverwood, and about 3 hours to the river.  I grew up on the river literally, as my grandfather owned 600 acres next door to Water Wheel from the 1940's to the 1990's.  Boating has always been a great form of recreation for my family.  I love my boat and figured it was time to get back out on the water, doing something else that brings me pleasure.  Can't afford something newer and nobody makes a hull design that fits our lifestyle nearly as well as what I have, so now is the time to make the magic happen again.
Pursue the things that make your family happy people.  It is the only way.  I want to leave this earth smiling.

Towing is usually not nearly the concern that stopping is. 
One time I towed my 18' Horizon with a Bronco II.   It was misting, not even a sprinkle really, and the weight of the boat (no trailer brakes) at just 20 mph pushed the Bronco right through a red light and into the center of the first intersection that I came to.  Luckily it was about 5 a.m. and no accidents were had that day.  I will never tow with a Bronco II again.  EVER.

I saw the post on FB yesterday and I couldn't believe it.  Keith worked close to my house and I hadn't seen his Tahoe in quite a while.  I wondered if he had taken another job somewhere else.  He was so easy to like, just a great guy to talk and of course to boat with.  Well Michelle did the "real boating" Keith was just along for the ride LOL.  I will never forget the time I was complaining that he had made some "Apple Pie" and I had missed out.  Then one day out of the blue, Keith & Michelle pull up in front of my house and hooked me up with a jar.  Five years ago I had sold my house and didn't want to take a ton of engine parts with me.  I tried like hell to sell them, but I didn't have much time.  Several guys on here flaked on me and so I ended up giving Keith the whole batch or take them to the dump.  Polished BBF exhausts, aluminum intakes, a beautiful set of mounts and logs for a Mopar, rebuilt 850 carbs, distributor, etc  I'm glad he was the guy who finally wound up with it all.

RIP Keith    It truly was a pleasure spending time with you and the family.  You will be missed.

I haven't been on this site in many years.  The boat hasn't been in the water in 6 or 7 and sadly, the FB page seems to get all the activity now.  But scrolling through this thread was a delight.  So many old friends and memories of things that will never be forgotten.  Some things just have to be seen to be believed.  Like trying to save a cow from drowning and drunktards.
Anyway @lbhsbz thanks again for posting these.  It made my week.

Blatant threadjack  warning:  come next month I will have a 3bed/2bath house with pool and boat parking for rent in south Corona.  Quiet neighborhood and cool ass landlord.  Likely around $2000 mo.  Let's talk...

LOL
I have two friends right now that live on big boats just because of the high cost of housing.  One in Dana Point for about a year now who is a foreman for one of the richest men in So Cal, and one in Long Beach going on 20.  Raised two kids on a 52' Chris Craft thru high school who both earned full ride scholarships for basketball.  He was a scrap metal dealer who never finished high school.

GT you live in a very unusual area as far as real estate values are concerned.  $4000 a month rents a mansion most anywhere else in the country.  And home values gaining 40% since 2009 is pretty unusual too but is likely that many folks in homes found the values going down 30% or more pretty rapidly.
Owning a house is not always a good investment, but if you find something you feel like might be a "forever home" than that is a lot of intangibles that are hard to put a price on.  What I was suggesting to Squirrel Master is that because he seems hot to buy sooner rather than later is that when the economic bubble bursts this next time, and it will, the loan he took out for $400K he will continue to be on the hook for while the house is only worth $280K and there will be many in the area for sale.  If he has his cash in the bank, he can comfortably buy way more house than previously expected, which will pay off down the road.  The same goes for investing.  Smart folks are keeping their cash out of the market, waiting to jump in when stocks get cheap.  The window won't be open for long, but it will allow smart folks to minimize their losses.  At least that is my plan.
This next bubble popping will be different.  The government will not be able to print another 9 Billion dollars of stimulus like they did this time.  We will be burdened by Obamacare in full effect, we have half of the country on public assistance already and jobs continue to leave.  Stock prices are way over inflated now, they have a long way to fall.  And that is why I am using other people's money (rent) to pay for my new house.  I waited nearly 20 years to buy a second home.  Refinanced a few times along the way to get better rates while never taking out cash, and always paid biweekly so my 30 loan was done in 18.
Bottom line is that I was looking for a way to invest outside of the stock market.  I lost 35% in the Obama recession and I don't have time to make that up again.  At least with other people paying the loans on assets I own, just seems to make more sense at least in the short term while we see how the world is going to fix itself.   And congrats on the house GT, she's a beaut.

I have a set of 14 Scorpion roller rockers for sale.  Just call Summit and buy one more pair.  Pretty sure they are 1.7s.   Make me an offer.

Garage cleaning day.  Don't have room for this stuff in the new garage so it really needs to go.
Somebody needs this stuff.  Yeah even my Mopar shiz.  That is a dream boat that just isn't gonna get built anytime in the next decade.
Don't make me leave all this stuff on Crewchief's front porch or take it to the dump. 

Any chance you live in Utah?   I have one I'd love to sell but it is there and I am not.   It could be brought back with enough warning.  What are you looking for?  Stock heads kinda deal?

Are you going to be staying around afterwards?   Ill be  glad to buy you a beer or two after my dental appt. Monday.   Good luck at Westec.

The Hot Sauce is good.  Works as claimed, but there are other products that IMO work with less elbow grease.  Now the Transom Sauce is the bomb.  I wouldn't use anything else back there.  The spray bottle suck ass though.  I have had half a dozen bad ones, and only 2 or 3 good ones.

The throttle is a REX and it pushes the cable straight out the back.  It is a floor mount NOT stringer mount.  Works like new and no rust.


On the 850 Holley, I will have to look and it is packed away with the Mopar stuff right now.  I don't think it has the J tubes though.  It is an ugly painted green carb that I think was on Ralph's race boat.

The logs are just dirty from being in storage, they won't need much to be shiney like new.  The Ford ones I have are definitely not shiney and pretty but they are solid.  Pardon the duct tape on the windage tray, it is holding a bag of bolts.

Cadillac parts?  LOL       I did almost build a big ass Poncho motor for my boat early on instead of the Olds.