How I became a 2009 270 Sundancer owner... The Good, Bad, & Ugly.

So as the saga continues (do read the first and the second posts of the story). My brother and family arrived soon after we got our 175 Sport. For a period of a couple of weeks, the whole gang essentially lived out on the canal. The good part of the Rideau Canal, besides the scenery, is that boating there is more slow and relaxed. This is due to the fact that there are speed/power limitations since it is a canal. In those areas, waterfront properties and even some restaurants utilize the waterway as the below pictures show.

A blue heron crane perched on one of many navigation signs.


All manner of waterfront properties line the canal. The below modest property, however, appeals to me more.


Kelly's Landing, from the street side it looks like a gas station. From the canal side, it's amazing with plenty of dock space. Their seafood chowder rivals the chowder I had at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.


Back to the story, so you can imagine that we had a great time for the most part. However, you have to take the good with the bad. The bad part is that a Sea Ray 175 Sport is one small boat. Add to that the fact that my wife is nervous about boating, being on the water and she doesn't swim, then finally having a fairly crowded boat. This, of course, put a damper on things especially when I started to get a serious case of footitis. When it comes to my wife, I essentially kept my mouth shut as to not rock the boat, pardon the pun. I was happy as is.

Then came the ugly. By ugly, I mean the situation where one has a small boat, traveling on a waterway that is a prime tourist destination for all manner of cruisers and yachts. Everything from 30' weekenders to 110' ship/riverboat (whose bridge/top deck canopy would lower to clear bridges) carrying tourists. The ugly part is some of the boaters rushing to make the lock schedules, creating massive wake waves by plowing water. This further complicated by the fact that being a canal, there's hardly a day where the wind creates waves. This makes it good for water skiing/wake boarding at all times, ugly for traffic, noise, and more wake waves. This is the ugly of the Rideau Canal.

Now how does this all fit into me being a proud owner of a 2009 270 Sundancer, it fits because it prompted my wife to give me permission to fix it. It started when we experienced a few harrowing moments when we were subject to these wake waves, being knocked about and/or even crashing over the bow (if we were anchored). In the end, she still loved and wanted the relaxing boating lifestyle but in her words, "buy what you need to give me what I want. I hate waves!" Enough said but I thought that getting a new boat would be too drastic, that I would be overstepping my bounds. I honestly thought she was talking about safety. Please remember that my expectations up to now were low to begin with and I was happy so far. So with that misdirected thought and me being very safety conscious, I had professionally installed ($$) a Raymarine A57D GPS/chartplotter/fishfinder, a SR50 Sirius receiver (which connects to the chartplotter) for satellite radio/marine weather, and a Ray49 VHF/DSC radio. The AIS receiver was just out of my price range, as I was broke from the other stuff. The service guys at Hurst Marina were great and we were all amazed on what I squeezed into my bow rider. Basically, at a push of a button my wife can call for help. The real selling point was that I could issue a DSC safety call/hail where all DSC radios in range will pickup. That means that I had the ability to tell these 34'-44' cruisers to "WATCH THEIR WAKES!". Problem solved.

Not quite as the summer went on. My wife continued to dread the traffic, which in turn made me modify where we boated and when. Thinking that this is it, little did I realize another fortunate event was about to occur...

The story continues...

Cheers,
Kaoru

Posted by Kaoru [Boating] ( December 05, 2009 07:23 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

How I became a 2009 270 Sundancer owner... The boating lifestyle.

Continuing with the story (read the first post first), me and my wife finally took delivery of a brand new Sea Ray 175 Sport bow rider. I was on cloud nine since achieving one of your life dreams is a rare occurrence in life. Little did I know at the time how much further I will go beyond my dreams and blow away all my expectations. So for Father's Day, my gift was the fulfillment of my summer dream of boating, not on the Ottawa River, but on the Rideau Canal. The Rideau stretches all the way from lake Ontario to the Ottawa River at heart of Canada's capital as below map shows.

[quote]The Rideau Canal; a National Historic Site of Canada, a Canadian Heritage River and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, consists of a series of beautiful lakes and rivers connected by canals. It stretches from Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, to Ottawa, Canada's capital. Maintained by Canada's Parks service it is arguably the most scenic waterway in North America. Whether you visit by boat, car, bicycle or on foot, the Rideau has something for you.[/quote]Of course my home port, Hurst Marina, resides in Manotick along the longest stretch of canal between the Long Island locks and the Burritts Rapids locks, a total of 29 miles. This is where my saga picks up. When me and my wife took delivery, we were given a "floating slip". Of course, I was a total newbie regarding "slips" and such. As I found out, a floating slip is basically the normal slip for sport boats as it was the least expensive. The more expensive "fixed slips" were reserved for cruisers and yachts as those slips had shore power, etc.

So here in Canada, the federal government was in the process of instituting pleasure craft operator licenses. The actual license is easy to obtain since it can be done online. All you do is review some provided material about navigation, safe boating, and various maritime regulations then write an online exam. The second part, the practical portion of the operator license, has been left to the boat dealers. They're mandated to provide a water/operation test on the delivery of a new boat. So we took delivery of our bow rider and immediately did our water test with Hurst's sales staff. When we returned to the marina to tie up to our slip, to our dismay there was no more room in the "floating slip". Our salesman called the office saying there was a problem and he was promptly told that someone is coming out. A few minutes later, an older gentlemen came walking. I knew something was up since the salesman immediately stiffened and talked to the gentlemen very formally.

The older man perused our situation, looked around and said, "put Mr. Daigle there in the corner" as he was pointing to a fixed slip right next to an older but large Sea Ray cruiser and a 30' pontoon boat. I couldn't believe it but panic then set in as thoughts of paying extra $$ for the slip flashed in my mind. I guess the gentlemen saw the panic on my face so he added "by the way, don't about the price difference, it's all good", nodded to the salesman and walked away. I later found out that the gentlemen was the owner of the marina.

Now your most likely wondering why I even mention this. As it turns out, it became one of the key catalysts in moving to a larger boat. As I mentioned, our slip was among a slew of Sea Ray (Doral, Four Winns, etc.) cruisers. It was actually funny to see a lowly Sea Ray 175 Sport, the smallest of the small, rubbing fenders with 28-34' cruisers. But besides that picture, my wife immediately noticed the lifestyle. Our slip neighbours, an older couple, would sit in their Sundancer sipping red wine as the sun set over the canal, having quiet conversation and what appeared to be a most relaxing moment. The expression on my wife's face on seeing this was the same expression I had when I entered the showroom floor of all those shiny new Sea Rays. This was the first indication that my wife is going to enjoy boating.

The story continues...

Cheers,
Kaoru

Posted by Kaoru [Boating] ( December 05, 2009 11:31 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

How I became a 2009 270 Sundancer owner...

I've been reading CSR for awhile now, ever since I began researching Sea Ray boats which began just after Father's Day this summer. I've decided to share how I became a proud owner of a brand new 2009 Sea Ray 270 Sundancer with all the bells and whistles. Believe me when I say that I'm still trying to figure out how it happened.

To start the story, a little background first. I grew up in the land that God gave to Cain, namely Northern Labrador. Though winters are in the -40's (doesn't matter if its Celsius or Fahrenheit; it's the same at that temperature ), I've always enjoyed boating/fishing in the summer since there's more lake than land. Even though boating consists entirely of sport boats/runabouts and the odd pontoon boat, I've always dreamed of having my own boat. Of course, my expectations in terms of a boat was no more than that.

Fast forward to just before Father's day. I'm now living in Ottawa (Canada's capital) married to the most wonderful wife who has given me two beautiful daughters. My dream of owning a boat, unfortunately, was always pushed aside for other priorities. Then a strange fortunate string of events took place.

It started with my younger brother and his family coming from Labrador to Ottawa for summer vacation. Prior to their arrival I suggested to my wife that we do something different. That suggestion was to rent a pontoon boat and spend the day on the Ottawa River. Of course, it wasn't taken seriously since my wife tends to be nervous around pretty much any mode of transportation. The suggestion, however, was revisited without my knowledge with my wife's classmates, as she was taking a course on how to deal with stress. It was suggested to her that boating is an excellent way to learn how to deal with stress (of boating/flying, etc.). As the eminent arrival of my brother approached, as well as Father's day, I mentioned the boating idea again.

This time my wife jumped at the idea, which of course left me bewildered but happy. Since we were already in the car driving around, we passed by some marinas to see how much it would cost to rent a pontoon boat. The $500+ per day sticker shock made me utter the words "at that price I'm better off buying a boat". Imagine my shock when my wife said "why don't we look?" I was beside myself. Once that passed I realized that I should seize this opportunity because it may not come again. I quickly said that we should see what wares the local boat dealers have.

At that point, we were looking for a pontoon boat. The first dealer/marina we went to sold pontoon boats and had a beautiful marina with a park, the works. My wife's exact words were "I can see myself relaxing in a place like this". I thought that I had it made, it was a done deal, boat here I come. Nope. "We'll only get a boat if we can get a slip" issued my wife. The marina was full. Crap. "Why can't we just trailer the boat?" I asked, trying to save things. Nope. "I don't want anything in the garage" was the reply. As I was processing this, the salesman chimed in that a pontoon boat wasn't really practical for trailering. Crap. We left with a cloud hanging over my head.

On the drive back to the house, we passed another marina/dealer namely Hurst Marina in Manotick. I knew of it before but I dismissed it out of hand since they sold high-end cruisers/yachts, and as I found out is Ottawa's only Sea Ray dealer. Of course, I assumed my wife would insist that it's beyond our price range. To my surprise, "Hey! That marina looks nice" my wife chimes in.

We enter the large indoor sales center, my eyes wide like a kid in a candy store. After a brief conversation with the sales staff, I find out that they don't sell pontoon boats. But that fact seemed to evaporate as my wife was staring at the shiny new Sea Ray's. Add to that the statement by the sales staff that if we buy a boat, they will provide a slip in the marina. Before you know it me and my wife were proud owners of a "2009 Sea Ray 175 Sport"... (that was identical to the below)



The story continues in the next post.

Cheers,
Kaoru

Posted by Kaoru [Boating] ( December 05, 2009 02:53 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]