Small World

[NJWardy]

OK. Tonight I take my son to soccer practice and I run into an old highschool buddy I haven't seen in over a decade. We catch up and in the course of talking he tells me had a boat that he used to keep in the same bay area where I keep my boat. So I follow it up with what kind of boat...

195CC Triumph. I nearly fell over. Same boat as me. We talked about why we bought the plastic boat over glass and metal and we had the same reasons.

The only difference was he told me that he paid $14k for his new Triumph 4 years ago in NC! I paid over twice that much. Could there really be that much of a price difference? Well I found a new fishing buddy and we plan to go out for stripers this fall.

It truly is a small boater's world.

[Jim Jenkins]

Another Story

Our business is portable storage containers. While showing a customer the 20 ft. and 40 ft. containers on our yard inventory, I opened the doors on a 40 to show the size and potential uses.

Parked inside the front of the container was my 170 CC. Our customer exclaimed, "My boat is just like that". He went on to tell about having back issues and had to give up fishing and boating due to the pounding but after trying the soft ride of the plastic boats, was now able to fish lakes and more importantly the waters around Charleston, SC.

We still touch base on Triumph 170 CC stories when we have contact regarding his need for portable storage.

Small world indeed.

[NCangler]

Great stories guys. And Jim you've given a new idea for an alternative to a boat covers.

[Jim Jenkins]

For anyone interested in using a storage container for getting your boat out of the sun and other weather. The inside dimensions on a standard 40 ft. shipping container is 7' 10" wide, 7' 10" high and 39' 10" long. Only the 170 trailer will fit in the container with about 5" overall clearance on width. I can use this with the close clearance by using a forklift with a trailer ball on a fork to push (back) the boat/ trailer into the container.

It would be possible to manually push the boat into the container if you could resolve the transition to the 5" heigth from ground level. I just use some cobbled up wooden ramps but again, I am pushing with a Toyota forklift that has side shift. Haven't torn the fenders off yet.

On the up side, my 2002 170 CC looks close to new. Seats, trim all good with no sun damage at all. I try really hard to get her out in the sun for 6 or so salt water trips (4-6 days each) and another 5-6 lake trips of 1 day/night each year. NC weather/sun is not as brutal as FL but being inside really helps.