The Pink Flamingo in Arizona

It’s hard waking up without one of my best friends for almost 20 years. She has always been there for me through the good and the bad and has introduced me to so many wonderful people that are still great friends. She has been a bit costly and high maintenance through the years but worth every penny for all of the great times and great friendships we have made. She has only left us stranded a handful of times and it was usually either at a bar or with plenty of friends and booze which isn’t all bad. And even looking like hell she didn’t scare away Tammy on our second date and Dixie I think immediately fell in love with her. The Pink Flamingo will be forever missed and can never be replaced. I think both of us looked sad as I left her last night for the final day as her owner.

Here’s a quick video I made of The Pink Flamingo.  Sorry for the poor quality but it’s the first video I’ve tried making but it should give you a good overview of the boat.

Some of the main features of the boat are:
1.) 34′ houseboat with 6′ swim platform for a total length of 40′. Beam (width) is 13′-2 or so.
2.) Everything works. We just had it out the other weekend with 10 people on board and easily could have put another 10 or 15 on board.
3.) Completely remodeled. This is one of the nicest most comfortable boat you will find in the under 40′ range.
4.) A true Queen size bed to sleep on. No being cramped in a v-bearth or aft cabin on this boat.
5.) The back cabin with the bed, bathroom, and kitchen is air conditioned with a built in marine air conditioning system so you DON’T have to worry about tripping over an RV type air conditioner that mounts through the top deck like many in this size range. The upper cabin with the bar we have never needed to air condition because we honestly open up the front windows and the top hatch and leave them open the entire time we are at the boat and it’s always worked best that way.
6.) UNIQUE SUBMERSIBLE SWIM PLATFORM. THAT’S RIGHT JUST LIKE THE LARGE YACHTS YOU CAN LOWER THE SWIM PLATFORM IN THE WATER TO SIT ON IT, SWIM OFF IT, LAUNCH YOUR PADDLEBOARD, OR LET YOUR DOGS HAVE A COMFORTABLE PLACE TO SWIM FROM.
7.) Inside rear cabin area is 11′-2 wide by about 18′ long. Queen size bed, leather couch with dual recliners, kitchen, large fridge, large bathroom with 36″x34″ shower, and electric flush toilet. Again you won’t find anything with near as much room or setup as nicely as this boat.
8.) Upper area is 9’4 wide by 8′-4 long with a bar and lots of storage.
9.) Inside headroom is 6′-1 or higher.
10.) Top deck is 11′-8 wide by 18′ long. Lots of room to hang out with dual lounges that our friends love to sleep on.
11.) Single inboard engine with volvo outdrive. Runs great.
12.) No generator. We’ve never really needed one and if we do then I have just used a portable honda one that I use on the front deck.
13.) Pretty much everything comes with it. All the furniture both inside and on the top deck. Life jackets, swim floats, bedding, pots, pans, dishes, you name it. Literally jump on and go.
14.) Unique back shade sail and supports that can handle a hammock across the back swim platform. It’s where you’ll find me most afternoons if we are not in the water.
15.) No trailer. You’re not going to trailer a boat this size yourself and you probably only have to pull it out every 5 years or so for routine maintenance. Most things including the water pump can be done while in the water which is nice.

And a few more pictures of this great boat.

Stern as seen from the other dock.

Aluminum deck swim platform where back 3 feet can be lowered into the water. Hammock as well as built in misters makes this my favorite napping spot.

Graphics on Port side.

Close up of graphics on port side.

Close up of second set of graphics on port size

Port side

Bow area with room for a couple chairs.

Starboard side

Steps inside the front door that lead to the top deck.

Helm area

Bar next to the helm area.

2nd fridge in the upper cabin by bar area.

Lower cabin with steps, large storage cabinet, and main fridge.

Kitchen area with double sink and lots of storage.

Another view of the kitchen area

More storage next to the kitchen.

Built in workstation area and LED monitor. Storage bins for clothes and closet area to the far left.

Lots of windows to see out.

Queen size bed that is over the engine are. Again lots of windows really makes it roomy.

Bed and couch area. All windows in the lower cabin have pull down RV style blinds also.

Leather type couch with dual recliners.

More storage and an area underneath the table that has our dog bed for our 60 lb dog.

Door into bathroom area.

Large bathroom with vessel bowl sink. Storage behind mirror and storage bins to the right.

Large 34″x36″ shower.

Nice porcelain electric head.

Steps going to the top cabin with curtain to close it off.

Loungers on upper deck for more sleeping spots and hanging out.

Table with freshwater tank underneath it.

Full size gas grill.

Shade sail over hammock and swim platform.

View of the hatch that slides back to close off the top deck.

Another view of the recliners and all the storage room underneath it for your pool floats and such.

Beautiful sunrise from the swim platform.

And here’s a bunch of pictures from when it was last out of the water and we launched it in June of 2012.  You can see how great of condition the boat is in and how solid the swim platform is built.

Finally we spent the night on the Pink Flamingo out on the lake.  It’s been a long wait and I forgot how relaxing it is to be away from the dock for an overnight.  Not to mention we missed all of the drama at the dock on Saturday night.

Our friends Charlie & Cindy and Aris & Janet also camped out so we had some safety in numbers with the anchoring.  With 3 anchors out front and 1 out back we didn’t move at all.  It was so many great laughs along with great food and of coarse drinks.  The weather was perfect and we didn’t even have to run the generators at night which really made it great.  Several other friends stopped by during the days and it was just a perfect couple of days.  We even returned with all of our anchors and nobody had problems parking in the slips.

Dixie’s Dinghy turned out to be a bit too heavy on the back swim platform but some friends let us use their paddle boards and I was able to coax Dixie into going to shore twice.  The picture is one of the few times she stood nicely on the front.  Most of the time she was nervous moving around or trying to cuddle up by me which makes it much harder to paddle.

Already dreaming about the next time we can do it.

Finally some decent pictures!!  Mainly because our friend Gene was in town and he actually knows how to use a camera.  And he had a wide angle lens along which greatly helps in the small space.  We’ve been in the water for 6 months now and met some great friends at the marina.  The Pink Flamingo is the preferred boat to pile on and go for a later afternoon and sunset cruise.  Partially because of the large top deck it has for a 34 footer and probably partially because I’ll stay sober sometimes to drive.

But either way I must say I’m pretty impressed with what we have been able to do with it over the years.  I don’t know if I ever want to tackle a project like this again and I know I’ll never ever get remotely close to what I have invested in it.  But for us it’s perfect.

The queen size bed is so much nicer than the twin or futon that I slept on for 10 years.  The huge upper top deck has plenty of room to move around on and it’s not crowded even with a dozen or more people up there.  The swim platform is awesome being able to lower it down since much of out time is spent in the marina.  Dixie will swim and fetch the ball off it where before she wouldn’t jump in the 10″ off the old platform.  It has also become known as “The Pool” and tends to open up when the bar at the marina closes down a 9 p.m. in the summer and it’s still 100+ out.  We have the dual reclining sofa if someone stays over or plenty of room up top to pitch a tent or throw down a mattress.  Plus not having a separate spare bedroom means we don’t have guests staying every weekend.  And best of all we have the room of a 45 or 50 footer but get to fit it in a 40 foot slip saving a few hundred a month.  And also important in Arizona is the marine air that can keep the bottom half nice and cool in the 115 temps.

I’ve lost track of how many people have come aboard and been amazed at how nice it is for a boat, especially one that is 40+ years old.  We often here the “Damb, this is nicer than my house” comments from guests.  Granted they must not be looking too close at things because I’ll admit I’m not master carpenter especially when it comes to trim work.

I can’t thank enough all of the people who have help or inspired me with this.  Although I many times cursed out Steve who had originally made his Chris Craft larger or Jimmy who cut my railings off and started the ball rolling.  It’s been a once in a lifetime experience to say the least and looking forward to the second half of our lives on The Pink Flamingo.

The Pink Flamingo is now in Arizona and has been for a year.  By the time we moved out it was too hot to work on it and being that the marinas are a hundred steps down when the water is high, a 1/4 mile walk to the slip, and 30 minutes from the nearest Home Depot I figured it was best to finish the majority of work on shore before dropping it in.  But as always time flew by and it’s hot again and time to drop it in the water.

In the last year I finished most of the inside, wiring, added a more permanent hatch for the top, and designed and helped build a 6′ swim platform that has a 3′ section that will drop in the water.  At least I hope it will.  It’s been 10+ years since I’ve done any real Mechanical Engineering work so most of it was by the seat of my pants design.  On the swim platform I decided to go with a white aluminum deck.  We actually need more weight in the back but a wood deck would float and the composite almost floats plus gets too hot.  While the aluminum transfers heat fast the white color actually helps keep it a bit cooler in the blaring Arizona sun than the wood was.

Hales Marine had repainted the entire upper cabin for me and I must say it looks sharp.  With the graphics added on The Pink Flamingo is looking better than the day it was built I bet.

It doesn’t seam like we have made much progress since the first weekend when it all came together so fast.  But then again I did meet the love of my life Tammy and I’ll blame it on her.  Or maybe thank her for the progress that we did make because she wasn’t going to stay on it until it had a working bathroom so much of that is done at least.  Plus we only get a few good months of boating in Illinois and who really wants to spend all of that time working on the boat.

Thanks to a dear friend Dave Bishop who has since passed away we scored a great deal on some nice cabinets for it.  During his weekly visit to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore for his house remodeling he saw an entire semi full of nice cabinets they had.  At the time I was still trying to figure out the complete design for the inside.  I knew we needed a bar up by the driver so when I was the DD I could still join in the conversation.  We also needed a kitchen area now that I had a great women in my life.  And a computer desk so I could work from the houseboat as I had for the last 8 or so summers.

So off to the ReStore I went with a million ideas in my head but no official plan.  The cabinets were going fast at $35-$50 per cabinet for brand new cabinets so I picked out a bunch of different ones that I figured might work for what we needed.  We took them back to the marina and started placing them on board and playing with a few combinations and finally decided on the layout I have.  And even more a miracle than actually coming up with the final design was the fact that I had just the right number and sizes for it to work out nicely.  I think I ended up with 2 shorter cabinets that we didn’t use and we had to have a friend custom make a tall cabinet then for besides the fridge.

So at this point we had most of the cabinets and countertops in, a working bathroom and shower, windows, and part of the ceiling.  The swim platform is on as well as the ladder to the top deck, railings on the top deck, and the hatch and stairs to get to the top deck from inside the front of the boat.  Of coarse all of that was accomplished because we needed it to be done in order to have the band play on top for the yearly sandbar party.  But still no back door or finishing touches on it yet so there is plenty to do still.  Here’s the few pictures I could find from then.

I’m not sure if remodel is the correct term or not.  The front cabin and windows, steering wheel and console, wiring to the engine, and engine and outdrive or still original and untouched.  In this process the head was moved, cabin pushed out and back, 90% of the AC wiring redone, gas and water tanks moved and replaced, hell even the holding tank was moved.  Although the holding tank was then moved back to the original location which was really a shitty job (sorry for the pun LOL).

To keep a long story short as short as I can after 10+ years of owning The Pink Flamingo and having lots of fun on it my friend Jimmy finally got sick of me talking about remodeling it and cut off the old railings (half of which were broken anyways) and got the process rolling.  A friend had done a similar remodel 15+ years ago which I was always envious of how much room he had in his after pushing the cabin out and to the back of the boat.

We built the walls up out of 2×4 for strength (yearly we put a band and about 20 people ended up on top of the boat so it had to be strong) and 1/4″ plywood with a fiberglass sheet glued to that.  Similar to how they build many RV’s.  The 3 walls were built ahead of time at a friends place  and on the day (May 31, 2008 I believe) that we were going to start ripping off the old cabin we had over 15 friends who showed up to help.  In 1 day the old cabin was cut-off, new cabin put in place, and the roof rafters and sheeting were installed.  Not bad for a days work.  At the time I figured it was going to be simple, little did I know 5 years later I’m still trying to finish it (and still wasting money on it).

These are the pictures of the start of it.  I wish I would have taken better pictures and documented the process while we were doing it.  But shortly after the cabin was installed the rain started for weeks it seams and our lakes were so flooded that the parking lot was 1.5 feet deep under the boat.  Which greatly slowed the progress on it the first year.

After a year of tinkering on the Pink Flamingo she was finally ready to hit the water.  Besides removing almost all of the extension cords and actually wiring things properly I also designed and help fabricate a 6′ swim platform for it where 3′ of the platform can lower into the water.

Unlike Fox Lake where we had a few sandbars to hang out at most of the lakes in Arizona are deep and hence we’ll be hanging out in the marina and the bays.  So having always loved Steve’s platform back on his Chris Craft in Fox Lake I figured that it would be well worth it to make a similar one for the Pink Flamingo.

I also blame it on Dixie since she doesn’t like to jump off things to swim.  So our hope was that she would swim off a platform that’s a foot below the water.  Now that the boat has been in the water for a few months it’s probably the best thing I ever did and it get’s plenty of use.

The graphics I found on the web and Sean at Fast Track Designs in Phoenix (www.fast-tracdesigns.com) tweaked the lettering and did a great job with the graphics.  It really made the boat come together.

The boat is maybe 90 to 95 percent complete now.  A few finishing touches here and there but it’s looking better than it ever has.

The 30 mile transport to the lake was interesting following behind it.  Launching was a snap and it took us half the time to launch it than it did for the guys to get their 28 foot pontoon boat and a trailer and out of our way.  Hales Marine Service again did an excellent job.  The Pink Flamingo started right up and it’s great to have here back on the water.

Look out Arizona, The Pink Flamingo has arrived!!!!

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In 2011 we decided to see how Arizona would be year round.  After many years spending the winters in Arizona and the summers in Fox Lake, IL I had learned to hate snow and cold.  Tammy said she always wanted to move someplace warm and she received a job offer 20 minutes from the house we already owned so we decided to give it a shot.

We were partially done with the remodel on the Pink Flamingo and having owned it for over a decade I just couldn’t part with the old girl.  But most transport quotes I received I just couldn’t justify it until the local marine transport in AZ called and they had an empty load going back from Chicago.  The only kicker was it was Thursday and he was hoping to head back on Monday.  So after a long weekend of work to get it ready and lots of help from my brother Brian and my father we had it packed full of household stuff and ready to go.

I have to admit I was awfully nervous but Hales Marine Transport took awesome care of the old girl and since it was arriving in AZ a month before us I decided to have them do some of the fiberglass repairs and repaint it so it was ready when we go out there.  Unfortunately when we arrived in AZ it was already blistering hot and I still had lots of work to do on it before launching it so it took over another year for it to finally hit the water.  But that’s another story.

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Life is much different out here in the desert.  For starters Dixie’s morning potty break is no longer as easy as opening the door and letting here walk past the tiki bar to the grass to do her thing.  Now it involves a nice long walk down the docks, up the stairs, and out for more walking.  Although she usually goes right at the top of the stairs which looks to be a popular spot thanks to the lazy dog owners who don’t pick up after their own dogs.

I figure though that the exercise is good for us and even though I don’t always feel like doing it 3 or 4 times a day overall it probably won’t kill me to hike the stairs.

Luckily if we purchased a collapsible wagon which helps moving the main stuff back and forth easier and there is a tram if you want to skip the stairs also.

Everyone we have met so far has been really nice although nobody can ever replace the great friends we made back in the midwest.  But I knew sooner or later there would probably be a jackass or two in the marina and sure enough they startled us this morning on our walk.  Kind of funny seeing wild burros next to the parking lot.

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