[Fr. Frank]

Originally Posted by 3rdday

That boat was for sale by project boats in Grant Florida, where was later restored many years before it was featured on the show. I saw it a long time ago, when I was down in Stuart taking to Fantastic Plastics. I didn't like the fact that it had the Yamaha models that had all the problems.
The restoration was very nice, they extended the hull with a euro transom.

Time for a SeaCraft Story!
That boat was originally had twin 165hp Mercruisers, and was called the Raven. Owned by the proprietor of a small auto repair shop in Eau Gallie, Florida, it sat in the water at Anchorage Yacht Basin in Melbourne for a couple of years before sinking at the dock in 1988 in only about 2'-3' of water.

I was the new manager at the marina at the time, and I re-floated it, then hauled it out to try to remediate as much as possible. We discovered that the owner had converted much of the electrical to solid house wiring, and we saved one motor, but the other was toast. The interior was still in very good condition, however. The owner had no insurance and signed the title over to the bank which owned the marina (The marina was in bankruptcy).

I offered the bank $1000 for the boat "as is, where is", but they declined my offer. The bank put it up for auction 6 months later, and I again bid $1000 for the Raven, which did not meet the reserve price. So the boat sat there on the rack.

I accepted a call into full-time ministry in '89, and left the marina. A couple of years later, the Raven was still sitting on the rack at Anchorage, and the new marina owners declined my offer of $500, as they were suing the PO (the elderly auto repair shop owner) for storage charges.

After the previous owner passed away the Raven was handed off to Project Boats for sale, where it sat in their yard for another few years.

I made one last attempt to purchase the Raven in late '95 after moving back to the USA from the Bahamas, but my offer of $500 for the hull and $500 for the trailer it sat on was turned down. The next time I saw the hull was photos during the resto.

And now you know the rest of the story...