Am I a Scrounger? You Make the Call!

I was recently at the AGLCA rendezvous when a fellow DeFever owner said to me, “Since you are so good at finding things, can you help me find a stabilizer fin?”

That comment immediately made me think two things:

1. Do I know of any stabilizer fins (I don’t), and

2. Am I a scrounger?

I thought this would make a fun article, so here it is. Let me know if you think the label fits!

My Boat Acquisitions

We have owned five boats, not including our dinghies. My first two were sailboats, and they were in good shape when I got them, so I wasn’t a scrounger yet.

Maybe it started with our third boat, a 1978 Marine Trader 34.

We had sold our last sailboat, a Catalina 27, because we needed the cash for a new business. I was at a local marina, just looking for something cheap to get back on the water. In conversation, I mentioned I really wanted a trawler. The marina owner said he had one he had bought at auction and brought up from Tennessee (we are on the Ohio River). I took a look, sent my wife photos, and we quickly owned a trawler. It was damaged and needed work, but I wouldn’t say I “scrounged” this one.

Boat number four, our DeFever 43. Okay, I think this is where I started to become fixated on finding cheaper stuff. I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into detail. In short, I am always keeping an eye out for "cheap" boats. At this point, I knew we wanted a DeFever. I found a listing on Marketplace in Kentucky for this 43, priced at $35k, I think. I tracked it down to a broker in Maine who told me the charity that donated it was trying to get rid of it. He quoted $12k but encouraged an offer. I said $8k, and once again, we owned a trawler—this time bigger and needing even more work. Okay, maybe this one was scrounged. 

Boat 5 is a 19’ inboard runabout, currently sitting in my yard, half taken apart. I got her for $800 with the trailer. (She is now free to a new home—Barb says it needs to go!)

Parts for a DeFever 43 Restore

Moving on to getting Liberty 2 back into shape. Most of these acquisitions have come from our own DeFever forums, as I am always keeping an eye out for items popping up.

Refrigerators:

•  Our first purchase was a set of Vitrifrigo 12V refrigerators. Our 43 had the older “cooler” style fridges, and I saw someone selling their fridges as part of a 44-foot retrofit. After a "quick" winter drive down to Florida, I had "new" refrigerators. That was December 2023. They are still sitting in my family room, unfortunately, but I have a fancy new cabinet (Photo 3) waiting to go into Liberty, and they will make it onto the boat in the Spring of 2026. 

Stove: 

• Once again, off the forums, I saw Steve Schmidt posting that he was updating his galley and selling his Princess 120V stove (Photo 3). Our drive this time was to Maryland, and we had a new stove! That was January 2024. The stove is actually in place, but not wired up yet. 

Salon Table: 

• If you are a 43 or 44 owner, you may have or have seen the quarter-round tables. We hate them, so I was on the lookout for a replacement. I had posted a question on the forum about table legs, and someone reached out that they had an extra table. (Photo 4)  Their original 49 CMPY had sunk, but they rescued the table undamaged, and their new boat didn’t need it. So, another trip to Florida, and we had a new salon table. And yes, that is still in the family room.

 Engines: 

• These were not a forum find, but rather an eBay find. I knew the engines in Liberty worked, but a couple of things made me nervous, so I was always seeing what was out there. I saw a pair of engines and transmissions for sale that had come out of a Marine Trader. The owner was doing an electric motor conversion, so I grabbed them. (Photo 5) This time there was no driving to Florida; it was shipping from Texas. The intention was to see how Liberty’s engines did on our relocation from Connecticut to Sandusky, OH, and then make a decision on which of the four engines I would keep. As fate had it, the oil analysis on the old engines in the fall of 2024 made that decision for me. My "new" engines would be going into Liberty. That is a story for another article and the reason the refrigerators and salon table are still at home.

• 

Anchor: 

• Liberty has a manual windlass, which is not ideal. In researching new windlasses and anchors, I had decided on getting a ROCNA Vulcan. This was going to be a future purchase, as serious anchoring wasn’t in the plans for a while. Alas, Jerry Paul had listed a brand new “extra” one on the forums. His delivery captain’s misfortune and insurance delays meant he had a brand-new spare. So, I had to grab it early. We decided to ship instead of driving to Florida this time. The anchor, acquired in August of this year, is now on the boat.

• 

Swim Platform: 

• The First Mate questioned me on this one! Will Cook of Loon upgraded his teak platform to a fancy hydraulic one (he should write an article!). Of course, I saw his old one listed on the forum, and I grabbed it. The intent is to refurbish his and then swap it with the one on Liberty. I just picked this one up in Alabama on the way back from the AGLCA Rendezvous. (Photo 6)

Windlass: 

• I mentioned before that we were not planning on upgrading our anchoring for a while. But, looking on Marketplace, I found the exact windlass I was planning on getting, listed by a salvage yard. This used one is a third of the price of a new one and looks in great shape. So, maybe this will be my latest purchase (and it's only 30 minutes from my house in Cincinnati!).

So, am I a scrounger? After writing this down, maybe I am! You tell me.