I personally came from a family where we'd buy a "toy" and pretty much keep it forever. You develop a personal relationship with it, and you get to know it's quirks, it's peccadillo's, and ultimately even though it's inanimate it's personality. If you're the kind of guy that has ever talked to your car, or your boat before you started it, you just might be one of these guys.
Bob Stoneman is one of those guys, and his 19' Spectra tells one of those tales. Bob purchased the boat 39 years ago in April of 1976 and instantly fell in love with the boat.
Bob has been a resident of Manhattan Beach for 45 years, and he used this boat for skiing in the ocean (and Marine Stadium in Long Beach) in the early mornings, as well as running the boat in Parker for several decades. Both his kids Laura and Adam learned not only how to ski, but how to pull skiers growing up in an environment I think most would be lucky to have!
When Bob moved his program from Parker to Havasu for Vacationing, he felt he needed a bigger boat for the water conditions up on the lake so he also added an Eliminator 250 Eagle to the fleet.
The 19 Sports the original 460 Ford, that was refreshed by Teague Custom Marine awhile back.
The kids are grown up now, and recently his Daughter Laura had such fond memories of her dad's 19 Spectra, that she went out and got another one. Bob said he would have just given it to her, but he's not ready to give it up yet. He still enjoys the boat as much as the day he bought it, and it is now become his "Sunday" boat for Havasu.
Amazingly enough after 39 1/2 years the boat for the most part is all original. He put a new interior in it a few years back, and like most people with fiberglass tanks, he had to switch them to aluminum. The original hour meter remains in the boat and it only has 663 hours on it! Bob attributed the low hours to just short early morning ski runs.
For me, I'd like to say it's great to meet another guy like myself that doesn't just own something based on numbers. The memories created in it, eventually make it part of your family, proving that with some people "not everythings for sale."
