Two of the happiest days in one’s life are the day one gets a boat…
Mary had a sailboat. The storms during the winter had reduced the number of functional cleats to one. During Mary’s ownership, it sank twice (Note the black tube on the starboard side–this is connected to a bilge pump). If it got loose from its mooring, a possibility during fierce winter storms, we were liable to damage done to other docks and boats.
…and the other is the joyous day one gets rid of said boat. We gave it away.
Nullius in Verba 
My dad and I built a canoe when I was about twelve or thirteen years old. I’m pretty sure it was from a kit, and it was actually canvas stretched over the wooden frame with some sort of coating applied that made it watertight. All in all it came out looking pretty nice, mostly because of Dad, of course. He was very good with building things. Anyway, it took us a few months to get it all done and then we took it up to a couple of the quieter lakes in northern AZ a few times and tried to get it to go where we wanted. Not easy. That thing would wander and shimmy and tack this way and meander that way and pretty much did everything directionally except what we wanted it to do. So for a couple of years it went into drydock on some hefty brackets Dad built on a wall in the carport.
Then we got an opportunity to trade the canoe to a fellow who had a Jaguar XK-120 that was in desperate need of restoration. We gave the man our canoe and he gave us a car we couldn’t possibly afford to bring up to snuff. Got it running (with the stupid Chevy 283 drivetrain somebody had substituted for the Jag straight-six) and most of the body looking nice (if you like primer), and we were able to get the insides of the doors and the dash in good shape, but the rest of the upholstery and the chrome work and especially the drivetrain were just beyond us. We ended up selling it and I have no idea what Dad did with that money. Probably paid bills.
There is somebody who lives close to the store I manage who drives a gorgeous, white XK-120. Every time I see it I can’t help but wonder if at one time it sat in my family’s carport, waiting for the right engine.
Alan,
Great story. Two houses and one marriage back, my neighbor built a canoe from cedar strips, one flimsy strip at a time. Gorgeous thing. Don’t know how it maneuvered though.
Can’t kill a Chevy 283 with a brick. Pretty good engine.