by Adam Havens

No, this isn’t a business post, but we needed a place to share this story and to keep for our family to look back on in the future. To be clear, my dad and stepmom didn’t purposely buy a red heart-shaped hot tub.  They bought a house that already had one.  This master bathroom was something special.  It was horribly tacky, complete with a red shower surround, red sinks, and the most beautiful red heart-shaped hot tub right in the middle of the room.  And of course it had a platform built around it that was carpeted – well – because that makes sense. Anyway, my brother Matt and I have 3-year old girls so we thought it was great – they’d make lifelong memories.

Dad wasn’t having it.  He did let us give them one bath in it back in 2015 before he ripped it out without us knowing.  He got it outside all by himself and all in one piece.  He then let me know it was on the driveway and he’d have someone come pick it up. Matt and I got together with the wives and formed a plan. Turn it into a sandbox? Coy pond? No, how about a boat?? Yeah, a boat.  So I got connected with an awesome guy, Ben Boercker down at the Lake of the Ozarks.  He came highly recommended as a fiberglass specialist and luckily he thought our idea was just crazy enough to help out.  So after two years of Ben working on it when he can, we just unveiled Sweetheart Cruises to our dad and stepmom.  Keep in mind that my dad is a professional comedian so it’s challenging to prank a full-time jokester. We were a little nervous he’d make us go to the middle of the lake and sink it, but Ben did such a great job he might just let us keep it. I can say with 99% certainty that my dad and stepmom now own the only red, heart-shaped hot tub boat at the Lake of the Ozarks.  Hope you enjoy seeing the transformation and their reaction at the end!

My wife’s original reaction to this bathroom is why the tub needed to live on. It’s hard to not look at it and smile.

It’s kind of shaped like a boat, right?

Originally Ben tried to just keep the heart shape, but it was too wobbly. More foam!

A LOT more foam!

I’d say this is the typical look on people’s face when they see Sweetheart Cruises. Or confusion.  One of the two.

Fiberglass bottom is all done.

First trial run to see if it would actually float and drive! It’s surprisingly stable.

Paint job!

Can’t thank Ben Boercker enough for his help. His wife is expecting any day so thanks to her for letting him finish this up! If you ever need fiberglass, body, paint, or custom work done down at Lake of the Ozarks, give Ben a call!

Off to deliver! We did have to drive this from the boat launch to the house so if you’re familiar with the Lake of the Ozarks we actually had to do a short run in the main channel.  Thankfully it was so early there were only a couple of fishing boats.

Matt’s daughter Emersyn is our navigator for the maiden voyage.

Complete with heart-shaped umbrellas! Thanks Amazon!

And here is how a 2-year long joke finally comes to a close!

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