Boat Buying

You may be wondering what I do in my free time. For the first couple months of my employment with NOC, I couldn’t really answer that question because I simply didn’t have any free time. I worked six or even seven days a week. Rare was the day in which I did not go rafting. All the paddling for work made the only real hobby available in the Nantahala Gorge (paddling) rather unappealing. If I had an opportunity to spend a few hours high and dry on shore, I took it. But as the season went on, I started to envy my friends who could boat to work. Finally, I too started kayaking the Nantahala.

The season winding down has been a mixed bag for my new hobby. On the bright side, I have more free time and am far less exhausted after work. However, boats are harder to borrow because so few people are still around. Thus, in order to maximize what time I have left living on-river, I decided to buy my very own boat.

At first, I thought it would be easy. I heard plenty of stories of people dropping a hundred or two hundred dollars on a big bucket of plastic for a first boat. I went online and searched around for used boats. I found plenty available, but when I started asking more knowledgeable boaters about which ones would be good beginner boats for me, I faced a crushing reality. Whitewater kayaking is not a sport popular with small people. Boats are built primarily for men who weigh at least fifty pounds more than I do. While I didn’t think that was such a big deal, I assumed I could outfit any boat to fit me, my friends warned me that paddling a boat that was too big was a quick way to guarantee I would not enjoy the sport.

So I searched and I searched for a small boat. In the beginning, I was very insistent about staying in my price range (low), and I took a long time to research a boat before contacting the seller. Of course, this limited my options, and I saw a lot of boats sold before I even had a chance to make an offer.

Finally, while browsing the used boat ads online, I found the perfect boat. Without going into too much detail, it’s a very popular design used by paddling instruction schools. The boat I found is the smallest manufactured, designed for youths and smaller paddlers. It was being sold by a paddler moving out West who had never really gotten into the sport, only taking the boat out a dozen or so times. It had a few battle scars from close encounters with rocks, but nothing significant. It was also $600.

I almost passed it up completely. That’s quite the chunk of change to spend on a toy, but I talked it over with the local boaters who unanimously declared that it was a great boat and a bargain at that price. I contacted the seller, figuring they could be talked down.

They could not. I very nearly wound up in a bidding war. The seller had another interested buyer. I could drive over to TN that day and see the boat, but the seller threatened that it would only be worth my time if I was prepared to offer more than $600. I checked in with the staff of the Outfitters’ Store at NOC. They confirmed that $600 was a bargain, but warned not to go above $750. I told the seller that I had cash and could come immediately. The seller agreed to meet in two hours, I hopped in a friend’s car, and we were off like a rocket.

After a few stops at various ATMs to acquire the necessary cash, we arrived at the designated parking lot to await the arrival of the seller and the boat. Turns out, the seller was a girl almost exactly my size, which was a very good sign. The boat was slightly more used than I initially anticipated, but still in near-perfect condition. Most importantly, it fit like a dream. I was ready to buy it, but scared to open negotiations, afraid the only direction they would go was up. Instead, I just whipped out a pre-counted stack of bills and handed it to her.

Instead of counting it, she just asked how much it was. I told her it was six hundred, she nodded and asked me if I wanted a skirt as well. I did. The skirt doesn’t fit me, but I plan to sell it. She also gave me some extra foam to use in outfitting the boat. Could I have driven a harder bargain? Possibly, the other buyer may have been a myth. But far more importantly, I finally have a boat of my own.

At the time of writing, she has not yet been paddled, but she has been thoroughly admired by the locals. People here are so nuts about boats that one neighbor identified the boat with his eyes closed, just by feeling the hull. A few tried to get in the boat themselves, but none of them could fit comfortably. Currently, she’s sitting in my shed, and tonight she was utilized as overflow seating (when the bed and hammock were both in use). I’m still suffering a bit of sticker shock. It’s tough to spend that kind of money when you earn minimum wage, but I am beyond excited to join my friends “goin’ boatin’”.

For the curious, my new boat is a 2013 Dagger Mamba 7.6.