17th Annual Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show

The 17th annual Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show has delivered on its promise to be the biggest and most exciting edition yet of this fantastic annual event! The show features all boat models and types with all the amenities at incredible price points! Monterey Boats and Chatlee Marine are certainly one if the premier featured craft in the show. On display this year Chatlee is showing a Monterey 194FS and the 214 FS. With the many lines represented and limited space Monterey is please to be represented. As Monterey and Chatlee grow together I hope to see more models represented and a broader representation of the Monterey line up.

Chatlee marine has a rich history in this region, sporting over forty years in the Sanford/Raleigh market bringing boaters and boats together and building memories. Jeff and Robbie Yow are the mind as well as the muscle behind Chatlee Marine today. Daily you will see Jeff and Robbie driving an excellent force of forty-five employees to make boating fun and enjoyable! Their facility located in Sanford, NC is a boat shoppers dream. Multiple indoor showrooms to store and display your new boat and the six acre test lake get consumers up and running safe and comfortably. The service facility with certified techs on staff as well as fiberglass repair Chatlee has it all!

This is the first year this show has had an opportunity to present in the all new Raleigh Convention center and everyone is glad to be there. Clearly this facility brings to Raleigh a much needed venue for just such an event. Earlier in the week this area was hit with an amazing 6"-8" of snow. I am sure there were some difficulties with the dealers moving into their display space but everyone made it and it all looks great! The snow melted just in time and the weather has been perfect, a great time for the whole family.

This year the crowds have been excellent. The show opened Friday with good attendance and Chatlee was able to connect a few Monterey boats and their new owners. Saturday in my opinion had to have broken record in attendance. The day didn't stop and the sales team did an outstanding job. Sunday poses to be as strong as Saturday and consumers are still coming out in droves. The consumer base in Raleigh, like Atlanta, seem to be educated and asking excellent questions bringing them closer to their buying decisions. We would love to see them all in a new Monterey boat!

Thanks to all the staff at Chatlee and Monterey boats for making it all possible and a special thanks to Jeff and Robbie Yow, Matthew Mabe, Robert Faulk, Andy Kraft, Charlton Richardson, Kipp "K Dog" Thompson, Marc Zimmerman Jeff Osborne, Matt Wicker, Chris Martin, Logan Griffith & Scott Knuth

...

The Chatlee display you can't miss!

Another view of the display...

THE World famous Johnny Craig

Kirk Lewellen

Regional Sales Manager Monterey Boats

1918 Cliffview Ct.

Murfreesboro, TN 37128

Cell - 615.207.1108

Fax - 615-896-6635

http://www.montereyboats.com/

http://www.kirklewellen.com/

47th Annual Atlanta Boat Show

The 47th annual Atlanta Boat Show held at the Georgia World Congress Center is a NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association) supported regional boat show. This year there are several dealer and manufacturers missing from the display floor. JOA Marine and Monterey Boats is not one of them.

Set up for this display space started last week and JOA has done an amazing job. Monterey Boats sent their corporate display and signage making for a great looking display. The team from Monterey to assist with the setup (John and Dave) did a great job and certainly went the extra mile. The long drive from Williston, Fl didn't slow the guys down, we worked until about 9:00pm on Monday! Thanks again!


Today (Wednesday/opening day) is typically a very slow day on the boat show scene. This year, it seems that everyone was expecting the worst and to our surprise the retail traffic was quite good. From the on set of my arrival I was able to stay busy discussing Monterey Boats and JOA Marine from the time I walked in the door to about thirty minuets before the show closed. There are several boat enthusiast and potential new boat owners in attendance.

On Day two the crowd seemingly was a bit lighter but the quality of the crowd was excellent. Customer are asking intelligent questions, I am enthused about the opening results this year. The weekend officially starts Friday and I feel confident that there will be larger crowds and Monterey along with JOA Marine will have a great show. Fridays show was a hit, the turn out was excellent and everyone that came through the Monterey display got an opportunity to view the Montery Flagship 400 Sport Yacht. The 400 is an incredible machine and we stand head and shoulder against anyone else in its class!

Saturdays crowd was INSANE, there were record numbers in attendance. The consumers on the Cruiser/Sport Yacht docks were all very patient with the long lines and actual wait times to get a glimpse of Monterey's amazing line up this year! With the three new sport curisers introduced this year the 260, 280 and 320 Monterey has allot to offer and the buzz is out. There were several customers that decided to take advantage of all the incentives that Montery, Volvo, JOA Marine and the Atlanta Boat Show had to offer. Congratulations to those consumers and JOA for an outstanding job.

This years show adds some interesting things to visitors to the World Congress Center this year including the Mrs. Geico team and race boat on display. Their display came rolling in on a color matched and logoed semi that is quite impressive. Another unusual display this year is what is called the Stinger, Hornet. It looks akin to the old Robert Q Riley Tri-Magnum with some modifications. The builder appears to have done a nice job but I guess the Detroit auto show was too much of a stretch for this manufacturer...

Here are a few other interesting pictures of Atlanta and the boat show....

The Monterey Cruiser display

The World Famous Darren Matthews

The Monterey Sport Boat display

The Atlanta Skyline at night

Another Atlanta skyline at night

And during the day

The life of a boat Rep during show season... Glamorous huh?






Kirk Lewellen
Regional Sales Manager Monterey Boats
1918 Cliffview Ct.
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
Cell - 615.207.1108
Fax - 615-896-6635
http://www.montereyboats.com/
http://www.kirklewellen.com/

The Dodge Truck Rebuild

Well here we go again, This will (I hope) chronicle the rebuild of a 1994 Dodge Ram 1500, 5.2L V-8 now owned by my stepson Nick Balsbaugh. This truck has come to us as a family "hand me down" and I have hopes that we can do the repairs justice and Nick can carry on a love with this truck just as its previous owner did.

Years ago my cousin Tricia White purchased this new 1994 Dodge Truck. At the time this thing was the vehicle to have! To Tricia this was her "baby" and it was a beloved member of her family. This was the first year that Dodge had produced this retro body style and she, along with allot of others, loved it. Unfortunately several years ago Tricia crashed her truck and was subsequently heart broken by the mishap. Due to other issues the truck had been sitting for quite sometime until recently her brother Bill White had some transportation issues. Tricia generously allowed Bill to take her child (broken bones and all) as a replacement means of transportation until a time as he could make a decision on other transportation... WELL..... The accident that Tricia had crunched the driver side front fender as shown to the left, Bill's accident unfortunately creamed the passenger side... Needless to say there was not much hope for the truck at this point without a real investment in either time or money. With that in mind I showed Nick the truck and asked if he was ready to tackle this challenge? He agreed he was up for it ready to hit it head on, he now owns the truck. Just after Christmas 2008 (December 28th to be exact) we started to work on the beast. On that day we were able to (in a matter of about three to four hours of tinkering) able to get all of the body panels removed. From that point I really felt like we were making progress. Since that time, Nick secured two fenders from a local junk yard at a reasonable price. The passenger fender has a small "ding" in the well, center line of the wheel arch and will require some minor body work. As for the drivers fender everything at the moment looks OK, even the color matches! As of January 6th 2009 we now have both left and right fenders installed and aligned. The passenger fender was white in color and we had to paint the interior before installing it.... So far so good. The new front bumper has arrived along with the new front billet grill assembly. We are still waiting on all the final hardware to finish assembling the truck. You can check out more pictures here.






Well its Friday January 9, 2009 and we made some nice progress tonight. The Headlight buckets, headlight assemblies, bottom bumper trim, and lower bumper inserts have still not arrived. Tonight the Front main bumper assembly was installed with only minor issues. On initial installation the main attach brackets appeared to "sag". After some inspection and a little brogan maintenance we found that there is quite a bit of adjustment in the attachment of the main bumper supports. The secondary side supports were mangled during both crashes but Terah and I were able to "make like new"! It did involve a torch, a hammer and some umph, but after some gentle persuasion it all came together. Bren stopped by for his two cents worth and he informed us that we had installed to bumper too high. So



again, Nick is ob his back with a wrench in his hand... Even after this discovery we have opted to wait on all the additional bumper trim until we receive the new light buckets. There is some minor concerns that when the headlights are installed that we may have some clearance issues. I think some is this is simply due to our inexperience.

The next part of the project to tackle was installing what on initial inspection is a cheeze piece of chromed plastic. The new grill was installed without any real problems. The original grill had certainly taken it toll during its mishaps but the new grill from LMC Trucks looks great! Luckily all the necessary hardware was still on the original grill support and it was undamaged! The installation took some time but after the process was over with it really wasn't that bad and it looks great. Nick has ordered new lower bumper inserts to replace the factory original grey plastic inserts. These new inserts will have the same look as the new grill. The ole girl is really starting to come together.



Here's Nick feeling pretty good about himself! Great job Nick!











Terah looks to be happy cleaning up 15 years of grime! Terah is a pretty good sport and great help around the shop!













She's coming together nicely! New Chrome bumper and grill. There will soon be some euro headlights, chrome top bumper cover and lower valance to complete the rebuilt front end!








This truck is over 14 years old and looks like new inside!








Notice the new Airtex intake - installed by Terah Cash (with some guidance from Mr. Miyagi...







Mr. Miyagi say "Make like new"! Thanks for the Shades Tricia they make a nice addition at no extra charge!





Again, thanks for stoppiong by and taking a look at our progress. We are hopeful that we could be complete with this project inside a week. Nick should be able to transfer tags and pay his taxes on this truck next week and he has contracted a local paint and body shop to do the final color matched factory colored pait job.


You can check out more pictures here.


Kirk Lewellen
Regional Sales Manager
Monterey Boats
1918 Cliffview Ct.
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
Cell - 615.207.1108
Fax - 615-896-6635
http://www.montereyboats.com/
http://www.kirklewellen.com/

Dad's Potato Leak Soup with Nana's "Souper" Cornbread

Well it seems the potato leak soup has been a hit. I thought I would share it whomever might like to know what it contains and how to put it together. The Soup reicipe came from my father from years gone by. This soup is always a hit and not difficult to make. I don't really think you can screw it up. The cornbread recipe came from my mother in law that scavenged it from somewhere. She and I made it for the first time during Thanksgiving it seems to now be the preferred bread accent to several of our meals lately. It is hearty with some yummy goodness inside! Check them both out you won't be disappointed!

Potato Leak soup

1 Bunch of Leaks
3 Carrots
2 Med. Onions
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 16 oz. Cans of Chicken Broth
6-8 Med. Potatoes
3-4 Stalks of Celery
12 Oz. Country Ham
8 oz. Sour Cream
1 pt. Heavy cream

Cook onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and Leaks in olive oil (just a little). While that is cooking, cook and chop the country ham and add it to the Onions and carrots. Add one can of Chicken Broth and continue cooking. Peel and grate more than half of the potatoes (if you use 6 potatoes grate 4) chop the other two into bite size pieces. Add the grated and chopped potatoes with the second can of broth to the pot. After all that gets “rollin’” turn down the heat to a simmer and add the sour Cream and Heavy cream to the mix and that’s about it…

The Cornbread is not hard either….

1 – Can cream corn
1 Med. Onion
1 cup of Sour Cream
2 Cups of Cheddar Cheese (more or less)
1/8 – ¼ cup of milk
2 Cups Cornmeal
1 cup Flour
Pinch of salt
2 – Eggs
½ stick butter

Heat oven to 400 deg. Place your cornbread pan in the oven with about ¼ cup of oil. Mix Cornmeal, flour, salt, with the onion, cream corn and milk enough to make cornbread consistency. Pour that mixture in a heated and oiled cornbread pan. Melt the butter in the microwave and pour the butter over that mixture. Over that layer 1 cup of sour cream (more or less, I have found it easier to thin the sour cream with a little milk to spread easier) I have also found that too much sour cream can be over powering, more is not better in this instance. Over THAT layer the Cheddar cheese and bake for about 45 minutes! Yummy Goodness!

Hope you enjoy


Kirk Lewellen
Regional Sales Manager
Monterey Boats
1918 Cliffview Ct.
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
Cell - 615.207.1108
Fax - 615-896-6635
http://www.montereyboats.com/

http://www.kirklewellen.com/

 

I have had an inspiration

1-3-2009



With my recent loathing of any television programming as of late, I have to admit that for what ever reason I have been inspired! The DVR taped the latest New Yankee Workshop program I watch occasionally. This program started almost elementary in discussion but I too was made again aware of things we get sloppy and sometimes impatient doing. The explanation was excellent and not too "dumbed down" to remember the basics. I can envision a total novice with a band saw and a teaspoon of gumption completing this project with no problem!


As a wood worker I "grew up" with my father in his shop. I learned wood working by osmosis I enjoy it, I can do it, it's creative and I find it entertaining and fun! I too have a small shop in my garage that I occasionally "play" in. This most recent program went back to the roots or at least to me, seemed that way. Some of the first things I remember my father creating were tables, parson benches, pie safes and the like. This program reminded me of those times. So with that, I have been inspired to build some desperately needed Adirondack chairs for the yard.

I can't say at the moment I have fully examined this project but I'm thinking.... Mahogany or teak?

Well I found a chair that I think will work nicely for a pattern. It will involve disassembly, that won't be an issue considering there was no glue used in its original construction just a few screws and bolts. After disassembly and a light sanding to cleanup the parts I should be ready to start production. this chair was purchased from Harbor Freight and is constructed from a light weight Fir (I think). It has been somewhat maintained over the years but it is starting to show its signs of wear. This chair is about three years old. It is stained with a simple, old, cheap, red wood stain which worked very nicely. For the new chairs I am still leaning toward a Teak or Mahogany and a more natural finish... Well, something else to think about...

Keep your eyes peeled and see if anything develops, spring is right around the corner.


Kirk Lewellen
Selling fun and lifestyle
Monterey Boats
615-207-1108
http://www.kirklewellen.com/
lewellenk@comcast.net

Building a Bicycle with a Gas Engine

This idea started a whimsical idea after running across a YouTube video of someone in Franklin Tennessee with an electric bicycle. I found the 80CC engine on ebay and started the process. After initially losing the bid on EBay the seller send me another offer and I took it! The MSRP on these engines can run $200 +. Needless to say I didn't give that much for this one... After a week or so waiting anxiously on UPS, the package arrived from BC Canada!

Now, with an engine and no bicycle I had to "go on a hunt"! A friend had told me of a used bicycle shop on the outskirts of town that also doubled as a tack shop. You gotta love Tennessee... The proprietor was fully aware of the bicycle conversion and made a suggestion of the cruiser pictured here. Ironically enough it is called an Earth Cruiser. All things considered I thought this would probably work very well for what I had intended to do. Contrary to that however, This was not a project for the complete idiot. It did involve some modification to the kit as well as some modification to the Bike itself.

The first issue is the sprocket that mounts to the rear wheel.... The hole is not large enough to accommodate the coaster brake or the diameter of the hub. After "enlarging" the hole things went smoothly until attempting to mount the motor... The Motor mount was not designed for such a large frame and there was some minor modifications there also. All in all, nothing was a "big issue" but again, this is not an installation for the complete idiot!

Finally after two nights of tinkering, modifying, beating, banging and with a few choice words I was ready for a test. I really thought this was going to be more difficult and cantankerous that than it turned out to be. I primed the carb, engaged the clutch and peddled away. at about 8-10 mph I released the clutch and it roared to life and I was cruising! Unfortunately that wasn't the end of the adventure... It seems that the back sprocket was considerable out of round with the wheel and took some work to finally get it lined up... Another night or two later the subsequent test went flawlessly! To date I have only about 50 or 60 miles on it but it purrs right along the weather herein Tennessee has gotten too cold to enjoy riding but I am anxiously waiting for warmer days!

The Preverbial First Post

Well, here we go! OK, seems like the thing to do... Blog... This is my first attempt and I am really not sure what might be some things to come. I am not a writer, I tend to have a conversational tone in general. So, wish me luck and I hope you enjoy it!

Here might be a few things I could write about in the life and times...

My experiences in boating, boat sales, the boat industry in general or Monterey boats? My creative side has a greater tendency to be a bit more "tactile" in nature i.e. I like to build stuff... Cars, like the Bradley GT, Bren's Volkswagen, the Long EZ, the newest gas powered bicycle, RC airplanes, Boats and more. In short, this verbal creation is a new thing although, I did take creative writing in High School...

Kirk Lewellen