My daughter, a youth group leader, brought out a bunch of her girls for a weekend at our family's lake house. They had been planning the trip for months as a culmination of their years together all the way through high school. About noon the day of their arrival our boat started making a loud squealing noise. While I'm not a mechanic by any means, I was pretty sure the issue was a blown internal water pump - a fairly major problem. My fear was that the kids weekend on the lake was ruined but I wasn't going to go down without a fight.
I called around to all of the boat repair places I could think of but nobody was answering. It was, after all, the middle of summer and boat shops are busy. My next thing was to visit as many repair shops in the area as I could and plead my case in the hope of maybe finding a sympathetic ear.
The first shop I visited was indeed sympathetic but explained weekends on the lake were always busy and that even if they could diagnose the problem, there was little chance of getting the part before Monday. The second shop I visited explained that he was at best one to two weeks out. At this point I was beginning to panic. This second guy did however suggest I see Joe at Buchanan Boat Works, a place off of the beaten path that I'd never heard of.
My next stop was Buchanan Boat Works. There I found found one of their mechanics coming off of his lunch break. He said the owners, who live on premise, were on their way out as well. Sure enough, I ran into Luanne, the Mom in the Mom and Pop operation. After listening to my story she said that they too were covered up but that, if I brought the boat by she would cajole her husband into looking at it after hours. This worked for me and at least gave me a chance. I went home, pulled the boat out of the water and and figured I'd given it my best shot. I got it to the shop at 2:30. Joe told me top drop it off right by their main shop door so they could water test it. He said they would get to it ASAP. I went home pretty much hoping for a miracle. It came about two hours later when I got a call from Luanne saying to come and get my boat, it was ready to go. She explained that it was indeed the difficult problem we thought it was but that they were able to commandeer the part though a rather complex scavenger hunt.
Joe and Luanne are absolutely the nicest, most knowledgeable people you could meet. They went above and beyond my wildest expectations. They not only saved our weekend but they made a customer for life. I can't possibly recommend them enough. read more