I just got back, about 4am on Sat. I left Thurs around 11pm and got there around 6:30 am Fri.
It was nothing like I pictured, the place was a total wreck, the house has obviously been empty for longer than a few months, if not, the old woman was living in a run down disaster of a house. The garage wasn't even locked, there was a pad lock on the door but it wasn't locked, but it took me 40 minutes to figure out how to open the garage doors. There was no power, so no lights, so all I had was one lantern and a flashlight till the sun came up. It rained the whole time. The garage was stuffed to the ceiling, the Cadillac had four flat tires, and was buried completely with boxes, rolls of old carpet, and huge bags of what looked like old Christmas decorations. The roof on the left side had been leaking for a long time, the boat on that side was full of water, and the instant I touched the rope hoist leads the stern of the boat dropped as the hooks securing the block and tackle above straightened out. That dumped about 300 gallons of water onto the car, the carpet, and all the bags of trash.
Right away I could see that the transom of that boat was rotted through, someone had been patching it with some sort of sealer for years and there was a rusty water trail from where the patch was leaking as it hung there, and dripped down onto the hood of the car, which was stained brown from years of it dripping there.
The second boat was decent, and the pile of crap below it made it easier to get down. I was able to lower it down, then I shoved my trailer in as far as I could and slid that boat down onto the trailer. Its got two pedestals and seats and a wood floor that someone added. The registration was in the boat too which will help. I then dug my way back hoping not to find any live critters in the piles of bags and junk, I found the 40hp first, it was hanging on the back of a 17ft glass boat sitting on two huge rolls of old carpet. Getting that out of the garage was tough, there was too much crap in the way to back in, so I managed to lift it off the boat, (The clamps weren't even tight, and I bear hugged it and slowly moved it a foot at at time back to the open door. I couldn't lift it very high and there was no way I was going to get it in the boat, so it had to go in the trunk. I cut a huge piece of old carpet and draped it over the back of the trunk and over the back bumper, took off the fiberglass hood, and then leaned the motor against the back of the car and sort of flipped it over the trunk lip ending up with it standing upside down on its flywheel. I then walked it over to one side, and laid it down, finally get it to sit back side down on the floor of the trunk.
I had to dig around a bit and found a second motor but its a Mercury not a Johnson. considering what I was told, I took it. Its a minty clean 1973 9.8hp, and very light. I cut another piece of carpet and laid that in the trunk along side of the 40hp. Next to the Merc was a super clean 9.9hp Evinrude, but only until I read the tag and realized its a 15hp. That got wrapped up super tight and put in the floor in the back seat. It was too clean to leave out in the weather.
It took another hour to find the two Johnson motors. both are short shaft tiller motors in decent shape, Both were clamped onto a single stand but both were locked together with a cable and huge old padlock. It took about an hour of fiddling with them to get them unlocked and off the stand. I managed to wrapped up and into the boat.
That was about all the weight I dared put on the back so the second motor went in the boat, behind the middle seat, again on a piece of carpet. By I looked around a bit, and found a few tools here and there and two huge vises, which I took, partly because I wanted to ad some weight to the front of the car to level it out a bit. I cut more carpet and sat both vises on the passenger floor of my car. I also found some spare props, four 6ft oars and oar locks, and then I found two Chrysler motors, one 15hp, with electric start, and a 20hp with a tear drop cover. I grabbed the two Chrysler motors. I wrapped up the 15hp and put it in the boat next to the 9.8 Mercury, and I bagged and wrapped the 20hp, then put it in the back seat all wrapped up in a blanket held in place with packing tape. I laid a Harbor Freight shipping blanket over the back seat, found a piece of cardboard and slid the motor in on the seat. I took three new bags I had bought and inflated them and tied them closed and stuffed them between the motor and the front seats so if I had to stop in a hurry it wouldn't come crashing into the back of the front seats. I then looked at it and realized it looked like a dead body all wrapped up. Its a good think I didn't get stopped on the way home.
I tried the house keys, but none matched, and at that point my interest in going through that place was about gone. I was wet, tired and wanted out of there. I fought with trying to get the garage doors closed for an hour, then locked the garage door. I tied down the boat, made sure nothing was going to fly out of the boat, and then got the car good and warm, dried out a bit in the heat with the ac running, and got about five hours of sleep in the car before I went and got fuel and headed home. The whole time I never saw a single soul around there, no neigbors, no traffic, nothing. Just an old ratty house at the end of a street. There may well have been things in the house but I got what I came for and was done. I already had loaded more than I should have in the boat and car and was leaving minus a the one junk boat so there was no cover for what was in the boat, but it also meant I didn't have to waste time tying it down or loading it either. I left it where it fell atop the car, which by the looks of it wasn't worth much either. My guess is the pics I was shown were older than just a month or two, more like ten years or more.
I got on the road at about midnight, which was good because it meant less traffic, but it was light rain off and on for the first few hours. I stopped in MD for fuel and got home around 4am. I unhooked the boat, and managed to get the 40hp and the 9.8hp out of the trunk, but the rest still needs to be dealt with but for now, I'm done for the day. It can sit there till my back and knees recover.
I snapped few pics, the first is the boat before I moved it there. I got the 40hp, the little Merc 9.8, and the 9.9 Evinrude, and the 20hp out of the car, but still have to get the two 15hp Johnsons out of the boat and the vises are still in the car. In all there's 5 motors, all appear to be in great shape, if not almost new.
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Not sure if this one has ever been run, it still had all the hang tags under the hood and the tiller is still wrapped up in a box..
