This web page details our opinions of and experiences with:
Glen Scott Fenske
Scott Fenske
of Granite Falls, WashingtonThis May be the Dumbest, Most Dishonest
Son of a Bitch on God's Green Earth
You Decide
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The vessel we purchased from Scott Fenske was advertised to have a "brand new engine". Fenske's story was that he had allowed the original engine to sit through a winter without antifreeze, and that the block had cracked, and that his insurance company had paid for a new engine. Who knows if there's even a shred of truth in this tale. In any case, Fenske claimed the engine was built by S&S Rebuilders in Spokane, Washington:
S&S Engine Remanufacturing Inc.
North 1023 Monroe St.
Spokane, WA., 99201
509-325-4558
Fax: 509-326-8245
800-942-7800
www.rebuilt-auto-engines.comFenske bought a rebuilt short block from them, had it shipped to Granite Falls, and bolted on the rest of the engine (heads, manifolds, carb, pan, etc. It's not a difficult job -- unless you're an F'ing moron. When we were looking at the boat we never dreamed that such a simple task would be so utterly beyond this human being. Without further ado, and without even the need to insult Fenske, let us show you just a few examples of Fenske's workmanship:
This shot, and the next two or three images, shows the top of the fuel tank that Fenske himself installed in this boat. If you recall, Fenske advertised this, in writing, as an 80 gallon tank that he, himself, installed by ripping up the permanent deck. He went to great lengths to show us where he had installed the tank under the decking, and why he had chosen such a large tank, what the range of it was, etc. etc. etc. We even asked him if he had seen any signs of dry-rot when he'd had the permanent decking removed; he thought for a moment, furrowing his brow, and replied, "No, none at all, it was clean and solid." Come to find out, the decking had NEVER been removed, not by Fenske or anyone else, and he had installed the tank when the engine was out simply by lowering it into the engine well and sliding it up under the deck. Size of the tank in reality? 36 gallons. We have the original receipt here, for the 36 gallon tank that Fenske CHOSE, and SIGNED FOR. This is probably the most blatant and eminently prosecutable instance that we will ask to be compensated for in court. But what about the image above? Look closely: The plastic nipple that extends upward from the tank is just that -- a PLASTIC nipple. Not rubber. It's a thick-walled, very heavy and durable nipple that's built in to the tank. It is designed to accept a hose OVER the nipple (a vent line). Fenske, however, couldn't figure this out. So he took a length of galvanized tubing and -glued- it into the brass "L" fitting on top. He then stuck this tube down into the tank. Of course the brass fitting wouldn't thread INTO the plastic nipple, and neither would it fit OVER the plastic nipple, so Fenske just butted it up against the top of the nipple. The fitting and tube were free to bounce up and down in the fitting. There was NOTHING holding the brass fitting to the plastic nipple. The brass fitting simply sat ON TOP OF the plastic nipple, and the weight of the tube inside the fuel tank is all that held it there. Fenske recognized that this wasn't good (smart guy), so he globbed a bunch of silicone around the space where the fitting and the nipple butted together. Of course the silicone didn't stick, and the sloshing gasoline disintegrated what was left, until he was left with just a tube hanging down into the tank. Fenske figured this wasn't good either (really, really smart guy) so he took a hose clamp and tightened it around the OUTSIDE of the hard plastic nipple. This had the effect of.......NOTHING. The plastic nipple wasn't compressable, of course, so no matter how hard Fenske tightened that clamp, it didn't make the nipple tighten around the tube by even one thousandth of an inch. The tube remained rattling around in there, with gas puking out into the engine compartment every time the boat accelerated. Why we didn't smell the gas when checking out the boat is a mystery. Later, after we got it home, after a trip on the highway, we found several gallons of raw gas in the bilge. Fenske had been operating the boat just like that. Fenske had commented during our test after looking at the fuel gauge that he didn't have as much fuel in the tank as he'd previously thought. Why? We know now that it was ALL IN THE BILGE UNDER THE ENGINE! We're going to submit this to Guinness. They must have a "Dumbest Human" category. This is not your garden variety stupidity. This is so far beyond stupidity that we're not sure we even have words for it. Mental retardation? We're confident there's not a professional mechanic alive today who has ever seen anything like this, not even in Afghanistan. We're simply speechless. The entire engine -- indeed, the ENTIRE BOAT sported a thousand things just like this. Why didn't we spot this when checking out the boat and walk away? Our wives routinely tell us we're "not nice", and that we should be -- that we should be nicer, gentler, more accepting of our fellow man, more trusting and compassionate, that not ALL people are stupid/evil, etc. etc. ad nauseam -- and so, against our better judgement, we were in a phase to try to be just that. Nice. We didn't tear the boat apart as we should have. We simply accepted this jackass's word. After all, he was a home owner, and we knew where to find him. No one in their right mind would lie about a boat or its condition when they're tied to an area and can easily be dealt with by a variety of means. But perhaps when you run into an individual THIS FREAKING DUMB, he never considers those things. The pictures below show this insanity from varying angles:
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