I jumped ship!

RichMarionOhio

RichMarionOhio

New member
Hi Guys n Gals and fellow Chaparral owners!
I finally did it and jumped ship from the old website. Got sick and tired of the scum posters. Hope to find most of the regular posters here. Sorry Chaparral Corporate. Y'all dropped the ball on that website. Hate to say it, but because of your lack of support on the old site, I'll NEVER consider a new Chap purchase.
 
I would never buy a new Chap. Their quality control is non existent these days. I only buy 3 year old boats or trucks. Let someone else take the $ hit and deal with the quality issues.
 
Hi Rich. Welcome to Net Boat Talk. And a big thanks to member Bt Doctur for telling you guys about this site. I keep the spammers at bay so we all can talk about the boats we love.

I'm a fellow buckeye, but down close to Marietta on the Ohio River. What boat do you have and where bouts do you boat?
 
Doc said:
Hi Rich. Welcome to Net Boat Talk. And a big thanks to member Bt Doctur for telling you guys about this site. I keep the spammers at bay so we all can talk about the boats we love.

I'm a fellow buckeye, but down close to Marietta on the Ohio River. What boat do you have and where bouts do you boat?
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Thank you Doc for the welcome!

I have a 2000 Chaparral, 205 SSe Cuddy. This is my second Chap. My first was a total restoration project which I bought from a fella down on the Ohio River. When I said total, that might have been a slight understatement. Everything except the gelcoat and stringers had to be repaired/reupholstered/repalced. It was a 1987 198 XL. It took about 2 years total but it was like new when I finished it. I had documented all the work on the old forum complete with pics. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. But sadly, in late 2014, a vandal torched the boat while it was parked at the park rangers' office overnight. The investigators fiured that they had tossed a can of gas on the boat and lit it. The ranger had gone by the boat 10-15 minutes prior to finding it fully involved. Sure, I had full insurance on it but that didn't pay for the blood, sweat and tears. Over the next couple years, the same guy torched other boats and the outdoor theater at the campground and he was finally caught. Within a few months, I found my current Chap south of Columbus and the price was right. It was/is in near pristine shape with only 185 hours on it so I bought it. There were only a few maintenance issues that needed taken care of and I added GPS, Garmin Fish Finder, and a Marine radio. I boat at Alum Creek Lake which is north of Columbus. I hope to be adding pictures both of the boat and the lake environs as soon as I can. I look forward to interacting with the membership and chiming in wherever I can.

Again, glad to be here and Happy Boating!

Regards,
Rich
 
Awesome. Sorry the vandal torched your boat. Sad that people like that exist in this world. I had my 1988 Four Winns 200 Horizon stolen from my docks. I had had the boat since 1990 and it was in great shape. Loved that boat. Some low life stole it, tried to start it but evidently could not start it so they shot a hole in it where the drivers feet would normally go ...or near the heart of the boat. I got a call from the damn saying my boat was found down there. It had capsized. Had to be pulled out upside down. This was in 1999. the boat was totaled.

And my brother bought a Chap 198XL brand new in 1986. Nice boat. We rode with him and his family a lot until I bought the four winns. His had the 350 engine and would get up and go pretty dang good.

I will be taking my current boat (a 2005 Sunsation 288 MCOB (mid cabin open bow) up to the performance shop near Alum creek sometime soon. Might reprop it and need the trim gauge sender replaced ...and maybe a gps speedo installled. Always something. LOL

Good to have you on here. Happy Boating to you to.
 
Doc said:
Hi Rich. Welcome to Net Boat Talk. And a big thanks to member Bt Doctur for telling you guys about this site. I keep the spammers at bay so we all can talk about the boats we love.

I'm a fellow buckeye, but down close to Marietta on the Ohio River. What boat do you have and where bouts do you boat?
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Hi, Doc,

I finally registered here also. I just went to the previous site, which I hadn't visited in a few months, and couldn't believe the enormous increase in spam traffic!
I miss the great input from people like WingNut. I hope he migrates his info over here.
I don't think Chaparral Corp has any interest in maintaining a forum. Their focus is selling new boats. Period.
Anyway, thanks for guarding the gates for us!!!
 
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Hi LakeTime. And welcome. I am sure I've seen that Wingnut has an account here and posted a few weeks ago. You can message him which would send him an email notification (if he allows those in his profile).

Funny about the Chap forum. I offered to run it for them so they could keep it chugging along. No response from them. Maybe they didn't read their own forums. I even used the contact us option but no reply. Oh well. Happy to carry on here. Hate that so much good info will be lost.
 
RichMarionOhio said:
Hi Guys n Gals and fellow Chaparral owners!
I finally did it and jumped ship from the old website. Got sick and tired of the scum posters. Hope to find most of the regular posters here. Sorry Chaparral Corporate. Y'all dropped the ball on that website. Hate to say it, but because of your lack of support on the old site, I'll NEVER consider a new Chap purchase.
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Hey Rich, good to here from you again.:)
 
RichMarionOhio said:
Hi Guys n Gals and fellow Chaparral owners!
I finally did it and jumped ship from the old website. Got sick and tired of the scum posters. Hope to find most of the regular posters here. Sorry Chaparral Corporate. Y'all dropped the ball on that website. Hate to say it, but because of your lack of support on the old site, I'll NEVER consider a new Chap purchase.
Click to expand...
I did as well, plus it has or is shutting down.
 
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I moved over too. What happened over there is shameful. Hopeful we can reconstitute much of that content and knowledge over here.
 
Hopefully, there will be more members bringing things to the table.
 
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