My V20 Story - 6K posts and 4.5 Years

[Blue_Runner]

...I was going to wait until this morning and post something really cool (don't know what). But, as Murphy's Law always does, old Murphy got me real good. I was reading the broken bolt thread by Miketturbo and just thinking about the great advice Cfelton and Steplift72 were giving to Mike when, at a weak moment, my fingers started moving and before I knew it I had accidentally posted my 6,000th post! So now this will be 6001 and I guess I'll just live with this mistake and try to make it right on 7,000. I know all of you were sitting on the edge of your chairs awaiting the really cool post this morning...at ease, it wasn't to be.

The Early Days

I came to this cool site 4.5 years ago after stumbling upon and buying a 1973 V20, the same year of my birth. She needed everything but I was in love with her classy lines, incredible flair, and wide open cockpit. The site was just what I needed, other people in the "same boat" as me who had tackled these tuff restore projects and could offer the most relevant advice around - they all had V20's and loved them.

Unbelievably, the '73 had twin 140 hp Johnson hanging on her transom when I bought her, which had never been floated (thank God b/c she would have sank after sliding off the trailer. The transom was said to have been "redone" and looked it, but it turned out the work was done by a team of goofballs that apparently did not know much about boats, let alone glassing in a tranny.

My first mission was to remove the ridiculous horsepower and use one of the single 140 engines for a while, which I did. It seemed to be working out ok until one day I noticed a neat little 4 -5 inch crack in the transom and figured out that those clowns that worked on the transom did not bond the skin back to the wood, or even attempt to for that matter. So I found a glass shop and took her in. $1500 later the transom was in fine shape. At this point I had made a "fast fence" behind the house, not the fastest fence (I'll get to that in a min), but 280 horsepower nonetheless. I decided I would sell the 140's and repower with a brand new motor.

Pubah's Contribution

Somewhere in between all of these shenanegins I got really lucky one day. I logged in to the site and saw a post by a guy named France that offered up a full enclosure for sale. I pounced on it first and sent him some cash and next thing ya know I had an enclosure. Its a great enclosure too. It holds some sentimental value to since after all, it was owned by the Grandest of Pubah's. Thank you Franco, it has paid for itself many times over.

Enter Skools Out and The Fastest Fence

I put the 140's on eBay. While they were up for sale, I was on the site looking at the boats for sale and contemplating all of the work I needed to do on the '73. There was a fella with a post in there who went by "94V21" and he had a 1994 Wellcraft V21 for sale. He had done a ton of work to the boat and I liked the looks of it alot. As a matter of fact it had everything and more than I had ever planned to do to the '73, except for a new motor. I made arrangements to go look at it, and took cash with me. I met the guy in a parking lot (food lion maybe?) and we were chatting about the boat when my phone range. On the other end was Skools Out calling me about my eBay ad for the twin 140's! At the time Skools did not know I had a V20 or know about the site. Long story short I made some arrangements for Skools to check out the motors then got off the phone and bought the V21 on the spot and took it home.

Later I met Skools and his dad when they came to pick up the motors at my house. Skools saw my '73 and told me about his '78 V20. I told him about the site and said he should join up and he did. Skools took the motors home and hung them on what came to be known as The Fastest Fence in the world because he had several hundred horspower on a wooden motor stand. I believe it was a couple of 225's and the 140's can't remember.

I wasn't quite ready to install the new motor so I ran the V21 for a while with the 94 Yamaha 150 it came with. The motor ran ok for some time but then would not make full RPMs ~3800. I pulled the plugs and installed new ones which did the trick for a while then it happened again. Again I felt it was a fouled plug and switching plugs fixed the issue. At this point I was about ready to repower with a new motor so I removed the 94 150 and installed a 2004 150 2-smoke. The motor which I bought in 2005 was a leftover '04 Yami 150 which I bought in Va for $7500 (no sales tax since I bought out of state) and hung on the back of the V-21.


No good deed...

Around this time MJ was having some bad luck with engines so I mentioned to him that I was going to be selling the 94 150 I had just removed, on the cheap. A whole other story all to itself - MJ bought the motor and he and CB never could get it to work out. Suffice it to say many tribulations followed and I still feel bad about selling that motor to MJ (sorry MJ & CB).

Anyway, that is my V20 life story in a nutshell. I want to thank BigShrimpn, MJ and Chum and all of the regulars for making the site what it is today. In my opinion theres not a better cyber hangout around. The folks on this site are the some of the smartest, most civilized, funny, respectful, and goofy people all rolled into one I've ever met.


Thanks fellas, looking forward to 7,000.
Blue Out