The Purchase of a 40ft Cruise-a-Home: The Search for a House Boat #1

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The whole idea began when our newly graduated eighteen year old son decided he wanted to move out and live on a boat.

My husband and I have owned a 35 foot boat for about 7 years. We have enjoyed weekend adventures and a week-long adventure to the San Juans with a group of friends during the summer of 2015. A few of our friends are retired and now live on board their 50 foot yachts, but we have quite a few years before we can retire, plus we have another high-schooler still at home.

So our son became very serious in his search for a boat around July of 2016. He had received some graduation money and he was working part time for an apartment complex. He had saved up about $1500 and we had told him we would match his money to buy his boat. He was enthusiastic with this proposition and was hoping to find a decent house boat for about $3000 or less.

We scanned Craigslist daily and came across many promising boats. One boat, a 35ft 1962 Chris Craft in the Seattle area, warranted an actual drive to go see. It was very pretty, but it was made of wood with a fiberglass overlay and the bottom had some soft spots that made my husband nervous. Fortunately, she was priced at $2500, unfortunately a bottom repair would make her unaffordable. We continued looking for the entire summer. We looked at a 40ft cruise-a-home also in Lake Union that had rotten stringers and seized engines listed at $5500, and a couple of 32ft bayliners that didn't run. Most of the boats we looked at didn't run, which we expected for his price range, but he did need the bottom and stingers to be solid.

Then in August, a long time marina friend of ours told us he was going to be selling his house boat. He had recently gotten married and needed to get something different to accommodate him and his new wife. He had a 1972 Delta Clipper 35. The entire inside had been updated in the early 90's, the bathroom was redone, it had tile counters, a working stove and sink, and a really nice leather couch. It was the perfect "bachelor" boat. Unfortunately it didn't run and had not been hauled out in over 11 years.

We had it checked out by a dive company and fully inspected the stringers and hull from the inside and decided to move forward with the purchase at $2500. Our son gave him a $500 deposit and everyone was happy until September came and our friend was not ready to move off. He renegotiated with our son and said he would be off by October, our son was disappointed, but school was starting and he needed to concentrate on college instead of a boat he didn't have yet.

October finally came and our friend was still not ready to move off and frustration started to set in and we started searching for boats again. The boats available were even slimmer then before and the prices were higher. We looked at TollyCrafts, SeaRays, ChrisCrafts, a Monk, and another Cruise-A-home but nothing was as nice as the Clipper or as cheap.

Then in November we came across a completely gutted Cruise-A-Home in Friday Harbor, Washington. I talked with the seller a couple of times before finally deciding to make the trip to go see it. It took us all day to get to Friday Harbor from where we live in Bremerton, but it was a fantastic trip. The ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor was crazy expensive -$59- but the ride was beautiful, and the island was quite a treasure.

We had a wonderful overnight stay at the Earth Box Inn and the best New York pizza at Cousin Vinny's Café. The next day we went to The Bait Shop for fish and chips before getting back to the ferry. Definitely bring lots of cash, they upcharge tourists here.

Anyway, as soon as we landed we headed to the marina and saw the Cruise-A-Home. From the exterior it looked great, but the inside made us all think "meth lab". It was dark and dingy with wires sticking out everywhere. The company, Friday Harbor Marine, had been using it as a satellite station for their Mobile Mechanic Service. Friday Harbor Marine had had a fire a few years back and this boat had become their saving grace for keeping their business afloat. The inside had a work bench, peg board shelves, and tools galore. Fortunately, they had rebuilt their mechanic shop and no longer needed this boat and were selling it for $9000.

Once we got passed the dark and dingy we noticed that it had a new water tank, new water heater, new fuel tank, new water lines and manifold, and new electrical panels.

The mechanic who had been working on her explained to us that before the fire the boat had been undergoing a remodel/rebuild, but after the fired they stopped working on her and instead used her for a shop platform.

We knew this boat was way more than our son could afford, but with all the mechanical replacements in new condition and the only thing really needed was interior, we thought this boat was a worthy investment.

We offered Friday Harbor $7000 plus $250 for delivery to Port Townsend and made the purchase on Presidents Weekend, November 2016. Our son was excited and scared because this boat was going to be a big undertaking, but he now owned a boat and it was going to be his in two weeks.