Saving the "No Problem" from Gilligan's Island

I found the boat in Long Island and it had been on the hard pack for a couple years.  It was a little funky with a custom-made flybridge I hadn’t seen before on the Blackwatch but the price was too good not to at least investigate.  Chris and I hopped on the Orient Point Ferry from New London to check out the boat in depth.  As we pulled up to the No Problem I couldn’t help hearing the theme to Gilligan’s Island start to play in my head as I looked at the aftermarket flybridge. Once I got past that, I saw the hull itself was in top shape for a 1989, and I thought, “Maybe we have something here…”

These boats are cored hulls and you want a good surveyor to handle the job. Kevin Duchak was recommended to us and really looked out for our interests.  Long story short the boat had a couple issues but not a deal breaker.  Our broker Henry O’Shaughnessy from SportFish Yacht Sales did a nice job negotiating the situation with the seller’s broker. We knew it was as low as it was going to go when the seller told his broker to tell Chris that he’ll cut the flybridge off himself and relist it at more than double what we were paying for it.  Before long the transaction was completed and the No Problem was steaming out of Shinnecock Inlet turning east for Cape Cod.

The flybridge was the first thing to go.  We had contemplated creating an artificial reef in Block Island Sound, but relented and waited until she was back at the dock to dispose of it properly.  Our goal in season one was really just to make the boat fishable for the last few months, and schedule a refit the following winter.  So with a few minor tweaks she was, all-in-all, good to go, and we made a few trips that summer and fall down to Cuttyhunk and over to Woods Hole for some blackfish from the Blackwatch.  As these pictures show we tend to leave the boat in the water until the bitter end!