I'm finally down in Tampa, so I can start looking for boats! Today I looked at Lauren Gail, a Columbia 26. Although 26 feet is smaller than I've been looking for, it is a shoal draft boat and looked good in the pictures. Plus, it was cheap. The owner was a typical Florida nutcase. Met him at a marina where he already had a bud light or 5 going. I followed the fellow to what must have been the worlds most dodgy boat yard. He didn't put his beer down while driving. I could see right away the boat had been repainted poorly, but I did like the shoal/wing keel. There was minimal deck hardware, but it is a pretty simple boat. I walked the decks and noticed some spongyness near the mast tabernacle. This is not a good thing. The interior was a bit nasty, decked out in green upholstery. It is not a beamy boat, but there was nice standing headroom in the main cabin. What shocked me is that there is no access to the bilge. I guess that's how they are, but it didn't seem like a good idea to me. The worst part was finding a aluminum contraption below the mast tabernacle. This boat had some obvious cabin top issues at some point - you can count me out. It was a nice trip up to Palm Harbor anyways, but I won't be going to the stupidly cheap CL boats any time soon again.
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