OldBoatGuy

Saturday and Sunday at Priest Lake

2011-09-04T22:04:00.000-06:00

My three pretty passengers who helped me navigate, solve clues and puzzles, and just made for a very fun Poker Run that netted us the fastest time.

For the full story go here. http://woodyboater.com/category/classic-boat-shows/ It's the second one down.

Priest Lake, ID

2011-09-03T07:48:00.000-06:00

Ahhhhhh

Another Boat Show

2011-08-31T18:05:00.000-06:00

In the morning, I am driving to Northern Idaho to another boat show. On Friday I will enter the Priest Lake Boat Show, and I will spend 4 days there.

I have to leave my faithful tow car home. (It became unfaithful in Iowa). There my be internal damage to the engine.

So if you get a chance, join me for the next few days.

Retrieving my Oldsmobile

2011-07-08T20:52:00.000-06:00

I started out Sunday evening to return to Iowa to get my broken down tow car. Now the tow car is being towed by the tow pick-up.

I took a few pictures of the flooding on the Missouri River south of Omaha, NE. It is flooding for several miles east of the river. All Montana snow.

This has been going on since about June 15th. Interstate 29 is closed a few miles south of this point.

So now, repair my tow car, and get ready for the Priest Lake boat show on Labor Day weekend.

More pictures of Alganoc, by other people

2011-07-02T07:37:00.000-06:00

Chad Durren took these pictures. He is the man on my right.

And Jacob Glick took these. Chad's boat is the first one with his father, Randy and Karen Reed are with me in the second boat.

The last three of each group were going to or at the Sunday bruch.

The Story of My Return Trip.

2011-07-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

I have always been worried about my old tow car breaking down on one of these boat show trips. Especially on the way there. I have now towed this boat about 11,000 miles with this car. I have AAA, but that will only haul me 200 miles.

My old car is 32 years old, bought it new, owned it almost half my life. It has 265,000 miles on it with 120,000 on the last engine. I love the car, and I get many comments on it.

So on this trip to Michigan, I thought once more, "What would I do". Well, on the way home at about 10 AM on Monday morning, driving on US highway 34 thru southeastern Iowa, the engine suddenly quit running. I was just south of a town called Eddyville. I steered it into the driveway of a farm house! Larry VanGenderen is his name, and I am so grateful to him and his wife.

Then I got out and proceeded with diagnosing the problem. After about 15 minutes, I had determined that the injector pump had failed. Larry came down with a small tractor and pulled my rig out of harms way further up his drive way. Then I called AAA. They could send two tow trucks and take me to Des Moines, Iowa, about 60 miles Northwest. But no one now days understands these old diesels. And the cost could be several thousand dollars. Larry, the farmer, suggested a salvage yard for a pump. And I carry tools to do the job. These solutions just didn't feel right.

Thank goodness for cell phones.

I called rental places. No rental trucks had hitches. Then I thought of my thoughts of what I would do on the way to Michigan. I called used car dealers. I found a 2004 Chevy pickup truck in a town about 40 miles south in Bloomfield.

I asked Larry if I could hire him to take me there. He did and we had a good visit on the way. The truck was a good solid used truck with 109,000 miles on it, very clean and tight, gold in color.

It had new tires, a bed liner, running boards, most of the bells and whistles. They wanted $12,995, I offered $11,000, and ended up paying $11,225. My credit card had a 20k limit. I drove out of town with a new used pickup truck.
After I got hooked up to my boat, we put the Olds in a better place to await my return. I asked Larry what I could give him for his help. "I need nothing, but bring me some IDAHO spuds,"

I am returning to Iowa on Monday morning with a tow bar an a hundred pounds of spuds. I will not leave my baby in Iowa! This trip will cost about $700 in gas. Less than a repair bill in Iowa.

Google GEARED GREEN and watch Larry's JOHN DEERE tractor pull. He and his family farm 4,000 acres and compete in the pulling circuits in the summer. They are good people, good neighbors, and I thank you, Larry and Cindy VanGenderen!

Promised Pictures,

2011-06-30T05:35:00.002-06:00

I showed you I wrapped the boat in saran wrap. Then it blew off. This was in Laramie, WY.

And here is my boat in the water at Alganoc, MI

The boat on the left of mine is Chad Durren's. I met him on line about four years ago. His boat won second place in this class.

And we had a fine time, he and his father. Thanks, Chad, for coming.

Another online friend and his wife came to see "The Other Woman" also. Mike and Stephanie Sindel from Defience. Ohio. He found my blog about two years ago, and we have been chatting since. He owns a Chris-Craft Riviera, which they take out every evening for a ride from their dock on the river where they live. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of them. Thanks, Mike and Stef. Here is their blog http://woodie.ppworks.com/cruise/ Then click on CRUISE LOG.

Day three at Algonac

2011-06-25T18:52:00.000-06:00

Well, no pictures yet. The chip I bought for my camera is 4 gig. I new a 16 gig would not be recognized by my computer, so I thought surely a 4 gig would. Not so. I'll have to wait until I get home to down load thru a cord.

Two more cyber friends came to see me. A couple from Defiance, OH, and a local guy I bought parts for my boat who has a shop here. Thanks Mike and Stef Sindel, and Mike Murrley.

Friday at the boat show.

2011-06-24T19:35:00.002-06:00

This is the get ready day. Launched the boat this morning, with the help of my neighbors Randy and Karen Reed, who flew in late Thursday night to join me here. When it came time for the boat parade, we went out, but the water was so rough from the wind, we came back in. Sorry, no pictures yet.

The main part of the show is tomorrow. Judging and the people come to oooooo and ahhhhh.

A friend from the boat forum, Chad Durren, brought his boat Lily from Illinois, and he is tied off right beside me. We have been chatting on the forum and by e-mail for nearly 5 years now, it is fun to meet him and his father.

Arrived at Algonac, Michigan!

2011-06-23T14:59:00.001-06:00

I80 thru south Chicago was VERY stressful! I'll go home a different way, drop south toward Cincinnati, then west on a US highway. That way I will see more country.

I will launch the boat in the morning, and at 4PM we go on a boat parade up the St Clair River. Pictures tomorrow.

Second day on the road.

2011-06-22T17:41:00.001-06:00

No pictures yet, I had to buy a new chip so I could take pictures of the boat show. Wal-Mart had a four gig for $10.

Drove 590 miles to Iowa City, Iowa. Tomorrow, on thru Illinois to the show area in eastern Michgan.

I'm in Big Springs, NE

2011-06-21T19:50:00.000-06:00

But I made a major boo-boo. I left home without the chip for my camera. So the photos are on the internal chip, and I have no way of getting them off, until I buy a cord.

I wanted to show what happened to my saran wrap. It didn't work. It was partly shredded in just 35 miles at Pocatello, and at Laramie, WY, I had to remove the rest. So I hope it doesn't rain too much. Here in Nebraska there were tornado warnings for yesterday, but so far it is nice and sunny. And I had a TAIL wind all day long. Eighteen miles per gallon.

I drove 685 miles, left at 6:45 AM, arrived at 7:30 PM. Two fuel stops and three saran wrap stops. Now to find something to eat.

I leave in the morning.

2011-06-20T18:28:00.000-06:00

So about six AM I will pull out of here for Michigan. I'll spend the first night some where in Nebraska. I hope the tornadoes are gone by the time I get there!

I quit using the canvas tarp when pulling the boat. It caused too much damage. (See older post) I now use "saran wrap".

Michigan Boat Show

2011-06-17T05:28:00.000-06:00

Tuesday morning I will leave for a 9 day 3600 mile trip to Michign.

"Where It All Began" Algonac, Michigan

2011-04-06T08:08:00.006-06:00

I have just registered for this boat show. I'm taking my beautiful lady on another long trip.

This is in the 4th week of June. After that there are two more planned to Tahoe again in August and Priest Lake, Idaho in September. Who wants to come with me?

It's Bragging Time!

2010-12-22T08:50:00.002-07:00

If The Crash Test Dummy brags, (which is all the time) then so can I.

I GOOGLED my name. I found way too much info on me. But some of the things I found pleased me. Most of my boat show trips were there, and this is the one I wanted every one to see. Hee Hee

http://www.hemmingsdigital.com/hemmings/201009?pg=58#pg58

My Last Purchase

2010-10-10T21:23:00.003-06:00

I found this on E-bay and bid on it. It is a very rare 1959 Century 19 foot Resorter. The "Carrier Deck" front deck makes it VERY rare. I drove up to Seattle area on Friday, spent the night with Norm and Marge Nelson, then picked up the boat on Saturday morning. I was home by 1 AM Sunday morning.

Now who wants me to restore this boat for them????? Or buy it?

McMinnville, Oregon...Spruce Goose

2010-09-03T07:09:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures of Howard Hughes' wooden troop carrying flying boat that he built from 1944 to 1947. This plane flew just 8 months after my boat was delivered to my home town. For more, GOOGLE Spruce Goose. It could carry 750 fully equipped troops.

These last two are models of the construction out of birch plywood. The skin is about an eighth of an inch thick, made of 9 plies of very thin birch layers. The wing span is 20 feet longer than a football field. It is made of 95% wood. A man can walk upright in the wings, and thus service the engines while the plane was flying.

Toledo, Oregon

2010-08-23T19:10:00.005-06:00

This is my boat, The Other Woman. ^^^

Tugs, sail boats, row boats and mine. Mine was the only varnished mahogany boat there.

On the Way Home

2010-08-23T08:22:00.002-06:00

Stopped and spent the night in McMinnville, Oregon. I will go through the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum today. That is where the Spruce Goose is now located. Pictures later.

A Friend Came to See Me

2010-08-22T06:57:00.002-06:00

When I made plans for this boat show in Oregon, a classmate of mine from 55 years ago, who lives in Olympia, WA, said he would like to come to it. We kept in touch, and yesterday, Garth Holmes, from the home town of my youth, came and spent part of the day with me. We had a wonderful visit. He bought me lunch, gave me two of his novels, and I took him for a boat ride. He said that was the first time he had been in a speed boat for 54 years. Garth was the Senior Class President, and we had not seen each other for 50 years until our 50th class reunion 6 years ago.

Thank you, Garth, for coming.

Toledo, Oregon

2010-08-20T19:39:00.002-06:00

I'm in Toledo, Or. That's at the west end of US 20 hwy. It sure was a beautiful drive over here!

At McCall, Idaho, August 14-15, 2010

2010-08-17T18:45:00.004-06:00

These two pictures are of my boat and my friends, Randy Reed and his daughter, Susanah.

Also my boat.

On Saturday we went on a parade around the South end of the lake, to show off our boats to the locals. Then early Sunday morning we went on a full throttle run to the North shore and moored on a sandy beach. It is a beautiful lake.

On Thursday, the 19th, I'm heading for Oregon for another boat show. My boat was/is not being judged at these shows. Just talking to the people and having fun.

I'm in McCall, Idaho

2010-08-15T06:49:00.000-06:00

Man, I've been busy. It sure is a fun boat show!

Count Down

2010-08-10T07:02:00.001-06:00

Three days until I leave for McCall, Idaho for a boat show on Cascade Lake.

OK, Now I Know I'm Crazy

2010-08-02T20:04:00.002-06:00

So I found this boat in Pleasent Grove, UT. I just can't help myself..........

Starting Count Down

2010-07-22T17:47:00.001-06:00

Getting ready for the McCall, Idaho Boat Show. I will leave Friday morning, the 13th of Aug.

Tarp and Dock rash on my boat.

2010-06-16T13:33:00.002-06:00

This was caused when the tarp ripped on the way home from Texas, and the soot from the diesel engine entered and etched the varnish.

The same side, starboard, same problem.

While loading my boat at Texas, a dock hand let it get away and it smacked the concrete wall.

A little sanding with a sanding sponge, and a coat of varnish, and all is well.

Well, I may be crazy!!!!!

2010-05-21T21:59:00.002-06:00

But I bought another boat.

My Boat in Texas

2010-05-10T13:52:00.004-06:00

At K & W 3

2010-05-09T22:18:00.002-06:00

This is another concept auto. It is a 1941 Chrysler. I found 3 examples of this car on the Internet, besides this one, so maybe 10 were built. I don't know what this is worth, or what it sold for. It was offered at one of the auctions that took place there.

At Keels & Wheels 2

2010-05-08T17:23:00.003-06:00

This is a 1955 Lincoln. It was built for Henry Ford II. It was the only one built. It is called a "concept car". It was not built to drive very much, only as an idea for a possible future design. It is amazing it survived.

This car was purchased by it's present owner in 2001 for $1,300,000, and was then restored over a two or three year period for who knows how much. Of course it is not driven. Think of the responsibility of the people who haul it around the country to show it.

At Keels & Wheels, one

2010-05-07T07:23:00.002-06:00

These are pictures of some of the cars that I used to own when I was a youngster.

This is a 1952 Oldsmobile. I owned one like it during 1958.

This is a 1941 Ford. I owned one like it from 1953 thru 1955. It was my second car.

This is a 1954 Austin Healey 100. I bought it in early 1962, and I was T-boned in an intersection by a person who ran a stop sign in July of the same year. It was destroyed, and nearly killed me.

I had many other cars during my life, but these were at the show, and brought back fond memories. I was surprised that not one 1941 thru 1948 Chrysler product was there. Nor a single 1958 Chevrolet. I expected, and hoped, to see a 1948 Tucker but it was absent. Only 53 of them were built.

Final Day Ten

2010-05-05T15:22:00.003-06:00

Home at 2:30 PM. Hee Hee Those other days the wind blew? That's because it saw me leave the Motel. This morning I got up early, (2:30 AM) and I snuck out under cover of darkness and it couldn't find me! My Rocket went like the wind, 65 to 75 mph easy, it swallowed hills with ease! It took me 4 hours more to come home than going down. I averaged 61.2 mph going down, 55.2 mph coming home.

It was cold today, 32 degrees when I got up, but on the road in Wyoming it got down to 16 degrees, and only 42 here in Idaho.

So Wheels and Keels boat show is over. Next one is in McCall Idaho in August.....see you then

Day Nine

2010-05-04T19:39:00.001-06:00

GRRRRRRRRRR! The wind blowed all day on my left front fender. Forty to fifty miles per hour. That's like trying to drive 100 mph!

Days 7 & 8

2010-05-03T17:47:00.002-06:00

Didn't have wi-fi last night in SanAntonio, TX I'm on my way home and I am in Roswell, NM tonight. Only 2 days left, then I can sleep in my own bed, Don't take that the wrong way.....Hee Hee

Would you believe it??????? Head winds going to Texas, Head winds leaving Texas It's like they didn't want me to come, and then they didn't want me to go. It's really frustrating. My car will roll along at 70 miles an hour on the level, even 55-60 up most hills. But put a 40-50 mph wind on the nose, and I can only manage 45 to 55 miles an hour. Grrrrrrrr. And my lowest fuel mileage was today at 13.5 mpg. Without a wind I get 16 to 18.

Day 6, 3rd in Seabrook

2010-05-01T21:46:00.003-06:00

My boat must still look pretty good, it took 2nd place at Keels & Wheels.

With a friend of mine from the Dallas area. Michael was the one who suggested I come here.

Day Five, 2nd in Seabrook

2010-04-30T20:23:00.005-06:00

Got up early to go clean the boat for Saturday's judging. It had rained a little during the night. Humidity is 100%, all my papers are damp.

There was supposed to be a Motor Tour in old cars to the Houston Space center and to the final Battle grounds of the war between Texas and Mexico. But it was canceled, so I got $100 back.

Then I went to an auction of old cars. Some sold for $3,000. A 1940 Oldsmobile sedan.

This one sold for $395,000. It is a 1935 Auburn, boat tailed speedster.

Then we had a Friday Night Party with free food and a cash bar. Good night all.

Forth Day

2010-04-29T18:19:00.003-06:00

I am here, at Seabrook, TX. Car speedo said 1810 miles GPS said 1816, Google Maps said 1813. That was with short side trips. Actual Google is 1770 miles. Any way, it took me four days. If I hadn't stopped to see my grand family, I could do it in 3. It was so much fun to get to know my sweet great grand daughter, Abigail. Born on Lisa's birthday, 5 years old.

It was 70 degrees when I left at 10 AM local. Arrived at the Motel at 3 PM, after a stop for fuel. Wind again, but not as bad. I'll bet there won't be a wind blowing me home! 83 degrees, and a little muggy. Launched the boat and secured it to the dock, did some cleaning, etc. Only a few boats here, but dozens of old cars. Pictures the next 3 days.

Day Number Three

2010-04-28T20:40:00.004-06:00

I only had 321 miles to drive today, so I didn't leave Kansas until 9:30 local time. My destination was Dallas. One of my grand children lives just a little east of Dallas. So I spent the night with him and his family, a beautiful great grand daughter. We went to dinner, and had a wonderful visit.

Darn the wind, double darn the wind. It blew 40 to 50 miles an hour into my windshield. Slowed me down and used a lot of fuel. The day started out at 54 degrees, and ended up at 81 degrees.

Day Two

2010-04-27T17:50:00.005-06:00

Left Fort Collins, CO at 5:50. Drove 630 miles. I had to scrape frost off the windshield. It didn't warm past 42 degrees until 400 miles later. In Wichita, KN, it was 65 degrees.

The Maroon Rocket is running flawlessly. (Knock on wood) (Hee Hee, My Wooden head.) However, I'm losing brake fluid from the reservoir. That's a puzzle.

Stopped for the night (at 6:15 CTZ) at South Haven, KN, that's just 4 miles from the OK border on I 35. I had to use a toll road....gerrrr! They got $2.75 extra taxes. A toll road should be a choice!

Traffic wasn't too bad thru Denver, a breeze thru Wichita.

Day One

2010-04-26T17:36:00.002-06:00

Left home at 5:30 AM. Drove 580 miles to Fort Collins, CO. Arrived there about 3:30 PM. Ran into a snow storm 50 miles west of Laramie, WY. It stayed below freezing until about 10 AM. Here it is 62 degrees.

It was a good day, not much traffic.

ZERO

2010-04-25T18:58:00.002-06:00

Yep, in the morning I leave.

Here's a picture of my Maroon Rocket. (1979 Oldsmobile 98 Rocket)

Ten days to follow.

ONE

2010-04-24T19:21:00.002-06:00

Today I washed the winter's dust off, took it to the lake and made sure it still ran, and put her cloths on. It's sitting out in the driveway, hooked up to my Maroon tow car, waiting for Sunday to pass.

TWO

2010-04-23T18:11:00.000-06:00

Of course, only 2 days left until I leave for Texas and The Keels & Wheels Boat show.

Three Days Left.

2010-04-22T18:27:00.002-06:00

Hee Hee, I can hardly wait.

The Countdown Has Begun!

2010-04-21T18:59:00.001-06:00

I'm getting ready. Only 4 days left.

Strange People

2010-03-24T06:04:00.002-06:00

Bloggers are really strange people. We write a post, post it, and then sit around waiting for some one to comment. Or we wait anxiously for some one else to post so we can be first to comment. It's a BIG CONTEST. GET A LIFE, PEOPLE!!!!

A Wondrous Thing Happened

2010-03-12T18:17:00.002-07:00

This was only seen on Idaho Public TV, but last night (March 11) my boat and I (as well as a dozen others)were featured on a show called "OUTDOOR IDAHO" It was named, "Wooden Boats and Wondrous Lakes".

Last summer one of my boat show trips was to Sandpoint, Idaho. While there, I was interviewed and video taped for about 10 minuets by a columnist. I was called by the station and told I would be featured at 8 PM. It was very humbling to receive that honor.

Please, forgive the bragging, but I just can’t help myself. Hee Hee

This Weather Sucks!

2010-02-22T18:21:00.004-07:00

When is it going to warm up around here? The last three mornings it has been from 2 to 5 degrees below zero. All the snow, which was starting to melt a week or so ago, has turned to ice, some of it 1 foot deep. It is hazardous to my health to walk out there. Normally by now it is starting to warm up and feel nice outside.

I’m preparing for my next boat show. I’m doing major work on my tow car, the 1979 Oldsmobile, and minor work on my boat. I’m heading to Seabrook, Texas on April 26th. Seabrook is about 30 miles south of Houston near Galveston. The show is called Keels and Wheels. They have an old wooden boat show and an old automobile show. There will be some 50 or 60 boats, and as many old exotic cars. A cruise around a huge lake called Clear Lake which includes Galveston Bay, and a motor trip (in one of those old cars) to the old San Jacinto Museum and Battleground. That is the site of the last battle between Texas and Mexico which settled the boundary between. It took place several years after Alamo. We will also visit the Houston Space Center.

This is going to bean expansive trip, so if any one wants to chip in, now is the time. Hee Hee.

My January 2010 Trip

2010-01-26T09:21:00.006-07:00

This is my trip to Arizona, Death Valley and California.

Us three. Ned, 85, Ron, 81, and Yours Truly, 73, the squirt.

These are pictures of Death Valley.

Rock wall with inlaid stones.

More inlaid stones.

Rock wall with little barrel cactus clinging to the side.

We encountered snow at 7000 feet on Hunter Mountain. We had to winch ourselves up the road for about 100 yards.

Tortured rock layers in Titus Canyon.

At Teakettle Junction, on the way to the RaceTrack.

Trails of moving rocks.

A rock that moved.

We had to leave early, because that winter storm that hit CA. was on the way. We then went to Angels Camp to visit Ron, and it rained for 4 days. He got 7 inches at his home. We then headed back to Bagdad, AZ, before my car got stranded on the wrong side of a mountain wash gully. After I left Ned's place, it rained 3 inches in the desert, and washed out his road. I stayed in Cedar City, UT, and woke up to 4 inches of snow. There was 4 inches of snow when I got home.

Until next years trip. But boat show will be coming this summer.

On Vacation

2010-01-18T10:39:00.003-07:00

I left for southern climes on Monday, 11th. Got to Bagdad, AZ on Wed, 13th, with my oldest brother. Then we spent the next 4 days in Deathe Valley, now I am in Angels Camp, CA with my other brother. All three of us. The first time we have been together for about 4 years. I'll be home about Monday, 25th. Pictures to follow.

My Gold Buick

2010-01-12T21:25:00.001-07:00

There's my Buick.

And there's the Gold.

My Annual January Trip

2010-01-03T13:27:00.002-07:00

Ever January I take a trip to see my older brothers in AZ and CA. I'll be leaving on Monday, January 11. I will drop off Idaho spuds to some of my favorite people, and spend a night with my daughter. Then off to southern climes. I will return about two weeks later. I don't know why I am telling y'all about this. Just thought I aught to post once in a blue moon. Which was New Years Eve, by the way.

And if CRASH happens to find the time to read this, (it took her 3 weeks to notice my last post) she can look in her E-mail for a note from me.

'Tis the Season to be Frozen!

2009-12-10T13:00:00.002-07:00

When the sun was about to shine forth above the eastern mountains at 7:30 this morning, my outside thermometer read 17 degrees below zero. Coldest night this winter at my house.

Then I got in may car and drove to Spanish Fork, Utah to spend three days with my daughter, and attend 4 recitals of my very talented grand kids AND daughter. Jass Band, Choir, Piano and Clogging.

If we have time, I will baptize (using my grand kids) my dead sister and her husband, and Lisa and I will do their Initiatory and Endowments. Later on we will seal them to each other.

Then I will head home Saturday evening, because I have to coordinate tithing settlement in our ward at 8:30 AM Sunday morning.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Birthday

2009-12-03T17:37:00.003-07:00

To my grandson Ryan, happy birthday to you, and to great grand daughter Lexie on Thanksgiving day. Happy birthday to my daughter Brenda. next week. Happy unbirthday to everyone else!

I'm particularly happy today! I only had one polyp! Hee Hee. WOW! What a subject, I could go on, but I think I'll stop here.

I’m thankful for.......

2009-11-23T10:14:00.012-07:00

I am thankful for the beauty of this world. It’s beauty helps over shadow the unpleasant things we see and hear.

I’m thankful for mornings, waking up in a new day is so wonderful. I wake up happy, and ready for the day’s challenges.

I’m thankful when the wind doesn’t blow, but I still enjoy the day, even if it rains or blows.

I’m thankful for evenings, especially calm summer evenings, when I can sit on the patio and watch the evening slip away into dusk, listen to the birds as they settle in for the night, and relax with my cat on my lap.

I love beautiful colorful sunrises and sunsets, tall billowing cumulus clouds, deep blue skies. The patter of rain, the rustling of leaves and branches in a soft breeze. Birds reeling through the sky, bunnies hoping around my yard.

I love spring, when the trees wake up and the tiny little leaves start to come out. I love when the robins come back. The world is renewed each spring.

I love hot summer days, watching the crops grow and mature, promising food for a hungry world. And warm water for boating.

I love fall, when the colors come out and the geese head south.

I love the beauty of winter, and the frozen frost on the trees, the white of a new snow fall, how it softens the earth.

I am thankful for all the good and wonderful things that have been invented, to make my life easier. For warm or cool cozy cars, good roads, computers, refrigerators, heating systems.

I am thankful I was born in this era, after the hard part of living, and before the hard part of living.

Most of all, I am thankful for life. For living in this free, even if it is a troubled, USA. For a Heavenly Father who loves me and helps me down the road of life. For my family; sons, daughters and grand children, who love me and are concerned for my welfare.

I am thankful. Happy ThanksGiving!

Love, Dad, Grand Dad, and Friend

Christening the boat.

2009-09-27T10:26:00.003-06:00

Even before the boat was finished, my daughter Peggy wanted to do an official christening of the boat. We didn't get a chance to have her with the boat until September the 26th. I took the boat to Logan, UT, to Hyrum Lake and there we did the honors.

Montana Boat Show

2009-09-14T19:51:00.004-06:00

A few of the 40 beautiful boats at Lakeside, Flathead Lake, Montana on August 21, 2009. The first tree pictures are "The Other Women".

SANDPOINT, IDAHO

2009-08-11T15:08:00.004-06:00

Sorry I am so slow in posting SandPoint, Idaho's boat show. This was held July 10, 11, and 12.

This first one is actually my trophy display on my fireplace mantel.
This is the shirt Ron and Ruby, my brother and sweet sister-in-law gave me.

This is my "Other Woman"

And the rest are several of about 40 boats entered there

I'm going to LakeSide, Montana on August 20th, and then go thru Glacier Nat Park after the show. LakeSide is about 20 miles south of Kalispell.

Awards Banquet, Saturday Evening

2009-06-20T23:08:00.002-06:00

It is amazing!!! I won third place among the catagory called, Utility.

More boats.

2009-06-20T08:08:00.005-06:00

This boat is the Sunken Treasure. It was sunk for 40 years on the bottom of Lake Tahoe. He brought it up, and restored it, even the engine, It is a small boat, 14 feet, and was swamped by a large wave.

Th boat is owned by the same man, and the engine is a Jaguar V12.

This is a 33' , 1936 Gar Wood, worth about $250,000. The dash picture, shows an instrument cluster that would cost $10,000 alone.

This is the engine in that WW ONE baot, a Liberty out of an air plane. Garfield Wood bought a thousand of them and made them into marine engines for racing and for sale.

This is the youth project. This 9 year old boy, with the help of his father, built this boat.

This the official DAY 1.

2009-06-19T20:14:00.010-06:00

This is Friday, 19th, VIP day. My boat was judged at about 12:30 PM I stayed with the boat most of the day and talked to many people. It was so fun to watch them when they read the name, and then talk to them.

This is a special person to me.

This boat is one of the one of the most rear and unique boats. It is a Graveete. Worth about $200,000.

Custom made for an airline owner in the '40's, probably worth 1/4 million.

This is a Riva, rear and expensive.

A '30's boat with a rare Kermoth engine.

Thursday, launch day.

2009-06-19T09:30:00.003-06:00

Launched the boat about 11 am Thursday. and took it to the Marina.

There it is nestled between two 24 foot beauties.

Alongside another Gar Wood.

That's me.

Going like mad.

This boat is a 1919, with a WW ONE Liberty Engine, out of an airplane.

We arrived.

2009-06-17T22:05:00.003-06:00

We're at King's Beach. Left my home at 2 AM, picked up the Funny Farmer at 7 AM in SLC, and arrived at our motel at 8:30 PM. It was a real workout for my 30 year old Olds.

Boat Show List

2009-06-12T19:03:00.002-06:00

The list is published. There are 79 boats. Eight of them are boats built after the end of the wooden boat era, which ended in 1968. These boats are newly built replicas, built as late as 2007. The oldest is a 1915 30' Launch. Seven of them are Gar Wood. Some of them are worth a quarter of a million dollars.

Her Clothing

2009-06-11T18:57:00.003-06:00

My lady must travel with clothing.

2009-06-10T15:56:00.001-06:00

More pictures in the water.

Next week to Tahoe!

I'm Ready for Tahoe

2009-06-09T18:56:00.005-06:00

The boat is ready for Tahoe. She is named and painted. The towing car is ready.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T06:37:00.014-07:00

Today is her birthday. I wanted her to be my Valentine from the very first night I saw her on that dance floor in September, 1963. At first she was very cautious. She didn’t remember me the next week. (I think she did, but didn’t want to act too excited!!) It took me two months to get a date. She gave me all kinds of excuses, chances for me to back off. She had five kids. No problem. She was on probation. Huh? (She was a widow going thru probate court.) But I didn’t let up on her. Finally I could come to her home for Sunday dinner and meet her children. Now, today, her children are my best friends and my most favorite people. It was in November, 1963.

I courted her a year and two months before we got engaged on Christmas day 1964. We planned our wedding for July 12, 1965. We went on a two week honeymoon thru Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and back home to Idaho.

Then we had 42 years, 2 months and 5 days together. I’ll admit that ever day was not a honeymoon, we had our problems. She had to forgive me 70 times 7. But they were good years. I helped raise her children and we had a beautiful child of our own. Then 21 grandchildren, 17 greatgrandchildren.

She got a teaching degree and taught 5th grade for 27 years. She held many Church positions and worked beside me in the Temple for 15 years. She endured the lose of a son and a daughter, her parents and two siblings.

When she left me for a better place September 17, 2007, I was numb for awhile. And I didn’t know how much I really loved her, until she after was gone.

I hated to let her go. But she was in so much pain. When I realized that she was gone, I didn’t dare touch her or talk to her for a few minutes, I was afraid that I may wake her up, because she didn’t want to stay. I wonder if she watched me hesitate. She came back and talked to two of her daughters and let us know how much she loved us, that the Gospel is True, and that it was time for her to go.

She was born February 14, 1933 to a poor but hansom mechanic father and a beautiful housewife mother in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Lived 56 years in the same house. As the area grew, she belonged to 3 stakes and 3 wards, and never moved. She had 2 acres of beautiful yard and flowers. She loved her children first; her home, yard and flowers second; her cat third; and then me. She is now "Heavens Master Gardener".

I love you Darlene, my Sweetheart, my Valentine. 'Til we meet again.

My Boat is Entered

2009-02-05T11:41:00.002-07:00

My boat, THE OTHER WOMAN is entered in the Lake Tahoe Wooden Boat Show. It is called the Concours d’Elegance. It is held in June 2009 from 18th to 21st, Thursday thru Sunday. The boat must be in the harbor of the Sierra Boat Company, Carnelian Bay, Ca (north shore) on Thursday. It will be judged on Friday or Saturday. Saturday evening is a barbeque dinner, and they will announce the winners. Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, the peoples choice award will be given, and we all "roar" out into the lake, and then I’ll go home.

Wish me luck, but really, I am one of 75 other boats just as beautiful as mime. It will be fun just being there.

Epilog...the Love Affair Continues

2008-11-21T19:53:00.009-07:00

Did you notice that my first post about this boat was titled, "The Beginning of a Love Affair?"
"Affair" means other than your wife. Read on to see where this is going.

Now that the boat is finished, I am making plans for next summer. I will be going to local lakes near here and in Utah for exposure. I mentioned that I will be going to some boat shows. Tahoe, Coeur d’Alene, Lake Oswego, up near Seattle, to name a few. I needed pictures, I actually needed to finish by October so I could find water in a lake. And I didn’t want to turn it into an ice breaker.

My motto with hobbies is, no deadlines. As soon as you "have to get it done", it becomes a chore. So I spent more time at the shop, without making it a deadline. If I didn’t get it done, then there was always another year. But I finished it with about 3 weeks to spare, you know, water was still in the lake.

You’ve read the chapters and seen the pictures. As I went from one day to the next, I could hardly wait for morning to come. Yet if other things needed to be done, or a trip to see my grand kids, there was no urgency. But there was one thing I noticed that bothered me a little. I was anxious to get one step done, so I could start on the next. I wanted to get the framing done so I could start putting the bottom planks on, etc. And each night when I went to bed, I planned the next days work, seeing in my mind what I would do. I used to fly instrument approaches in the airplane the same way. In my mind. All the steps. Before I was in the plane.

You saw the beauty of that boat. I still can’t believe that I did that. I knew it had to be near perfect, but I am so surprised that it is.

A boat is a girl. A boat needs a name. I wondered what I would name it.

You may know that I was partially retired. I had no set working hours, just get the job done, which was managing a grain elevator. I was actually teaching the bosses son the drill. And his wife to keep the books and inventory correct. As they learned more, the less I worked. I had been doing this for 7 years, and I fully retired at the end of 2007.

So when I started on the boat in the spring of 2006, I had a lot of time for the boat. Now I didn’t neglect my wife. When I retried, she didn’t want me home all the time anyway. You know, like one of her friend’s husband, in his boredom, he rearranged her recipe book!

We teased each other a lot. I always had a hobby in the evenings. I built things out side, a garage, bridges, a grape arbor, a covered walkway for her vast yard, helped build flower gardens, etc. But I always came in from my model railroad, or my model planes, etc. by 9 PM and spent the last hour and a half before bed with her. Talking, rubbing her feet, laughing, watching TV. When I got my first computer in 1988, and spent so much time on it, she gave it a name. She called it "Meg" (It was a "Mega-Turbo") It had that name on the front.

So one day she teased me and said, "You spend more time on that boat than you do with me."

Now I had my name.

THE OTHER WOMAN

Here is my beautiful wife with her brother at 3 years.

Here she is at 17 years. Here she is at 45 years.

Here she is at 61 years with her lucky husband.

Here she is at 69 years.

I would never step out on this wonderful woman.

Here is the boat at 59 years.

Here is the resurrected boat.

Here is my resurrected wife. You know, the prime of life.

They are both so beautiful.

And that is the last thing I need to do on the boat. I’m having a graphic artist paint it on the transom later on.

I am going to expand these chapters and pictures into a loose leaf folder to display at the boat shows. So this gave me a start.

Thank you for reading and commenting. Read you on the blog, I am the OldBoatGuy.

The Grand Finale #12 of 12

2008-11-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

I took the boat back to the shop, put it on the floor so I could work on it easy and here are some pictures. I painted the white stripes, installed the chrome, seats, ceilings, etc.

This was on 1 October 2008

On 7 October 2008, I took it again to the lake for the pictures I needed for next years boat shows.

Next to a beautiful woman, isn’t that the most beautiful thing you have ever seen? Well, to me anyway.

My freind Randy took some of these pictures.

Movies. Launching.

Short trip around the lake.

My friend Randy is driving.

There’s your boat ride.

All three times I was at the lake, people came to see it and talk about the boat. They saw it while driving by. They were older men who remember them from their younger years or owned one. One of them was a prior owner of this boat. This is the only mahogany planked wooden boat in Southeastern Idaho.

In 2008 I spent 685 hours. Total of 2 years 6 months and 2 days. Total of 1674 hours of which 145 were spent on the engine and 88 on the trailer. If my time is worth $10 an hour as an apprentice cabinet maker, that’s $16,740. The other costs were in the thousands also.

The next boat would take me less time. But I don’t think my legs or shoulders will hold up for that much work again. I would love to do another boat, but.........

The Last Stage and Water Test #11 of 12

2008-11-14T13:00:00.009-07:00

Laying the carpet.

New wiring in the boat. I found cloth covered wire, just like in 1947, and put in curly pig tails.

The ceilings. In a boat, the inside walls are called ceilings, crazy.

They will be screwd to the inside of the topside frams to cover up the ugliness.

Gas tank. I took it to a radiator shop and had it cleaned. The gas had turned to guk after 28 years and melted the gas level sender.

The trailer. The original trailer was pathetic. I found an old used home made boat with a nice trailer under it. I bought them and took the trailer, had it sand blasted and painted. I have no pictures of the trailer until the end.

With the boat at this stage of the restoration, it was time to install the engine. It had been test run on the bench and had no leaks. It was painted and wired and full of oil. All I had to do was put the boat on the trailer, move the boat under the engine that was hanging on a chain hoist, and set it in the boat. Remember when I talked about drilling the hole for the prop shaft? This was the moment of truth, or consequences.

It lined up so near perfect that I only had to adjust the front motor mount about 1/8 of an inch.

You can see a small space on the top between the flanges. It must be with in .004 of an inch. That is the thickness of a hair. I made the adjustment and bolted it together.

The water test was next. Here the boat is on the trailer. It has no chrome hardware and no seats. I am just going to take it to the lake and check for leaks in the hull.

That’s my son and me going about 35 miles per hour. I had a leak in the engine water pump. I’ll repair that later. My neighbor Randy took the picture. There is still masking tape on the side. I will also give the deck one more coat of varnish. Then paint the white water line and paint the deck stripes white.

I guess that about wraps it up. The next one will be the finish. The boat in all it's splenor!

It's almost over. 12 July 2008, #10 of 12

2008-11-11T21:55:00.020-07:00

January found me sanding. And sanding, but more on that later.

Now I was ready for the staining. I spent from the 4th of March until the 12th of April testing by trail and error the color of different stains I wanted to use. I stained and varnished samples by the dozen.

I finally had the color I wanted. The planks on the right would turn out the way I wanted them to.

While I was sampling, I was doing other things, like rebuilding the engine, new wiring inside the boat, working on the trailer, I spent from 9 Jan 2008 to 8 July 2008 sanding the hull. It had to be perfectly smooth. If I didn’t do this right, all the rest of the work would be in vain. I would sand for an hour, my arms got tired, then go do something else for awhile. This was all hand sanding with a long board, first vertical with 60 grit, then 80 grit. Then horizontal with 80 grit to sand out the vertical lines, then 100 grit sandpaper. I would draw lines with a lead pencil all over the planks about an inch apart. Then when I sanded, the high points would be removed and erase the lines leaving the low places with lines. That is why it took 6 months!

Finally on 9 July I applied the stain to the hull sides. They would be stained and varnished first because I had the boat jacked up high. Later I would set the boat on the floor and do the deck.

The staining took six hours. The next day I applied CEPS as a sealer. The next day the first of 14 coats of varnish. I varnished in the cool morning before breakfast. Leave the shop for 2 or 3 hours until the coat was tack free. Then I would go back and work on other things. Early the next morning I had to lightly sand the previous coat, wipe it down with a solvent and apply another coat.

I tried three methods of applying the varnish. A special $35 brush that is never washed, just put overnight in kerosene. I tried spaying. I had 10 coats to experiment on. The brush left little hairs and varnish residue. The spraying was either too dry and left a sandpaper feel, or to wet and it sagged and ran terribly. And it took two coats to hid the sag or run. My final and best method was cheap 99 cent 4 inch throw away foam brushes.

It took 4 coats before it started looking like this.

More sanding, more coats.

I was only going to put on 12 coats, but the 12th and 13th were not perfect. Number 14 was.

I lowered the boat to the floor and installed the deck molding.

Then sanded everything perfect, including the bull nose.

Then the stain, 12 coats, you know the drill.

It is now 7 September 2008.

I am now going to digress and show you other things that I was doing in my spare time. You know, while the varnish was drying.

Rebuild the carburetor.

The engine. Disassembled and rebuilt, including more power and painting.

The last picture, it is ready to start on the bench.

Seats. I had them done by my friend Ray’s Upholstery. This a before.

Whoops, the piano is a different ptoject. The finished seats will be seen at the end.

Chrome was done by Rayco in Rigby. This is the before photo.

Gauges. I did these myself. The tach (not pictured here) was sent to Clawson Classic Instruments in Washington. You will see it in the finale.

Next time I'll start with the carpet.

Continuing on....12 July 2007 #9 of 11

2008-11-11T07:17:00.013-07:00

Another delicate thing I had to do, was to use a small laminate router (see all these tools I had to buy) to make the two horizontal edges of the two planks fit together tight. I couldn’t take a picture, because I couldn’t route and hold a camera at the same time. I will try to explain it.

The top edge of the last plank I just put on is made straight on the table saw and then I use a hand plane to make it perfectly straight before it is installed.. The next plank up is clamped to the hull with about a 1/4 inch gap between. Then a small laminate router is guided along the top of the bottom plank, and it cuts the bottom of the top plank exactly like the one below. So when the plank is lowered, it is a perfect fit. These technics all come from that wonderful book by Don Danenberg named "How To Restore Your Wooden Runabout."

The transom planks are next. Here is my jig for bending the planks. All three at the same time.

Look at that grain. It shows the book page affect.

The next step is the deck planking. The center darker plank is the king plank, and in the next ones out you can see the book-page grains. Even the rear deck had pieces of these same planks back there. Once again, a judge will look for that.

It is 1 Aug 2007. I took my wife to the hospital the next day, she was there for a week, and I didn’t resume work until mid October. I lost her on 17 Sep 2007. (Reread FunnyFarmers 17 Sepember post) She had been ill for several months before 7 Nov 2006, vote day, when she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I only tell you this, because my loss and my wondering mind caused a mistake when I returned to work.

8 Oct 2007

After everything settled down a bit, I went back to the shop. But it was too soon. My mind was elsewhere, and I made a big blunder that was hard to repair.

In the previous chapter, I had dry-fitted the deck planks. I took them off and preceded to rubber them in place. But when I put the king plank in place, I got the screw by the deck opening in the wrong hole, and it was off to the port side by about a quarter of an inch. I did not find this out until I glued the last outer most plank in place, and I would not have been able to remove the king plank. It had been too long. You can see that the inside curve did not line up with the ceiling board underneath. I am so thankful I did all of the port side first.

I then went home and didn’t return for two more weeks. My journal shows I went to visit my grand kids again and another short trip.

On the 25th of October, I made a thin tapered sliver of wood to fill the gap.

You may have noticed grooves in the deck planks. These are called a kerf. Later, these would be painted white for a striped look. I had to fill a kerf on the king plank, and have a kerf on the sliver. It was quit delicate, but I got it done.

After the deck was stained and varnished, I’ll challenge you to find the flaw.

Now both decks are finished and the covering planks are rubbered in to place.

The next step is cutting all the bung plugs to fill the screw holes. When a hole is drilled, it is counter sunk deep enough to put a wooden plug on top to hide the screw. Here is the process.
I have a special cutter that cuts a plug with the outside diameter a tiny bit larger than the inside diameter of the hole. It is tapered on the end for an easy start.

I then saw them out in a long line.

Then I dip the end plug in glue (not rubber), place it into the hole and tap it with a hammer. It breaks that one off the string of plugs and sets it into the hole.

You can see the little plugs sticking out, there is about 2500 on the sides and deck. I did not put plugs in the bottom.

Then I cut each one off just above the plank and sanded them smooth. After the wood is stained and varnished, they can hardly be seen.

The unique thing about this operation is, I saved the end of each plank, 4PF, etc. and labeled them and cut the bungs for that plank, put them in a sack for later and then put those bungs in that plank. This kept the colors matched pretty close. I spent 1 week cutting and inserting bungs.

The end of 2007 has come. I work/played for 515 hours during 39 weeks. When I first started the restoration process, I figured I would be through in July of 2007. When that came and went, then it was July 2008. It was taking more time than I thought. So my goal became, get it in the water so I can take pictures so I can enter it in boat shows during 2009. That means September/October 2008. Entries need to be in by May of 2009.

Tomorrow I will start the sanding and staining process.

More loving work, 8 May 2007 #8 of 11

2008-11-09T07:35:00.022-07:00

New rear deck support. Can you see the grooves in the wood in the lower center of the picture? This boat was starting to spread apart at the top. Years ago, someone put a heavy wire from one side to the other to hold it together. I reinforced these corners to eliminate the wires.

More paint in the bilge. Remove, rebuild and paint the steering gear and the horn. The steering gear is the same as a 1946 Studebaker pickup.

More new battens on the side of the hull.

Now we start on the topside planking. You can see the pattern plank and the new one trimmed and ready to go on. Trimming more to get it just right.

The one above is perfect.

The clamping methods I had to innovate for each set of planks.

There it is, all rubbered and screwed in place.

For each plank I had to trim and dry fit it before the glueing. Then I would install a plank on each side. See the long board with the weight? My boat was not true. The stem was not perfectly vertical. I placed a plumb line on the stem and when it was vertical, I glued the second pair of bottom planks in place. They held it true.

This method was used to force the plank down hard against the one below.

The hull now has three planks on each side.

Let me tell you about my planks. I had to order this African mahogany from a place in Michigan. I buy it in different widths 8 to 13 inches, and lengths 8 to 10 feet long. The boards are 1.5 inches thick. Before it is shipped, the supplier re-saws the board into two 3/4 inch thick pieces. You can see the pairs of planks below.

You can see them stacked in the picture above. These two 3/4 inch thick boards are now opened up like a book, and one is placed on the port side, the other on the starboard side. This is called book-page. Each board has it’s own grain and color. When you look at the front of the boat, you will see the same pattern on each side. If that were not done, when it comes time to show the boat, it will be down graded. This pattern will be easier to see after the boat is all varnished.

Before I put them on the boat, they are planned to ½ inch thick This wood is quit expensive. The 1.5 inch thick board costs $12 per square foot, plus the re-sawing which cost 60 cents per square foot. The mahogany and white oak for this boat cost $3600 plus $700 freight. And the sad part of it is, I loose half to planning and trimming to size. So an actual square foot on the boat costs about $25.

Four planks on.

I steamed this board in place. Sadly, it broke, and I lost a $100 board. I had to choose another set of planks, to keep my book-page effect.

Clamping the top planks into place was a real challenge.

All planks are in place. Hoorraahh. It is now 12 July 2007.

That last picture was number 500.

In the picture above, the plank looks straight. But because it is curved around the hull, it has to be shaped in a curve. The plank is about 5 inches wide, but I had to have a 13 inch wide board to start with. This photo is of a lower plank, you can see the curve.

This one is quit long, see you you tomorrow.

Assembly Again, 9 Feb. 2007, #7 of 11

2008-11-07T09:00:00.013-07:00

Because the original keel was broken, the new keel had to be drilled for the propeller shaft and the rudder shaft.

This was a really stressful operation. I had to measure it perfectly so the prop shaft would line up with the engine flange. There is no universal joint. A straight line from the engine to the end of the shaft. And I wouldn’t find out if it was perfect or way off until September of 2008. That was when I installed the engine and lined every thing up.

A narrow strip of wood is cut to cover the chine and rubbered into place.

I then installed the first topside plank onto the topside frames.

Above, you can see the new batten being clamped into place. These are under each topside plank running longitudely with the seam. They support the planks between the frames, and provide the proper water proof sealing.

After the new bottomside planks are sanded and faired smooth, they are CEPS’ed, and the screw head holes are filled with FamWood putty. I have also painted some of the inside of the boat, it’s called the bilge, with the proper color of paint. I had to find wood that had not been exposed to the sun so I could match it. I needed this boat to be as original as possible.

You see here the pitot tube, the engine water pickup screen and the drain plug fittings installed.

The pitot tube is arranged forward facing, and the water is pressurized in the hole, and that makes the speedometer increase or decrease with the speed of the boat.

Reinforcing knees and gussets are placed in the corners of the boat.

The bottom of the hull is then painted with 5 coats of alternating colors of a special water barrier coat paint.

Here is the scary old boat guy. Should have had that for Halloween.

After the barrier coats are dry, each coat takes a day, I applied two coats of copper bronze bottom paint. The bottom part of the hull is now complete.

It is now 21 April 2007.

I have been a little over a year getting to this point. I have kept a log and diary of what I did each day and the time I worked on it. From the start on 15 April to 31 Dec 2006, I worked 475 hours. Now a lot of that time I was sitting in my chair and planning the next move. Envisioning in my mind how I would do the next step. Also there were trials and errors that had to be redone. And experiments tried that didn’t work. Such as, my first attempt at steaming was in boiling water. I cut the side out of an old hot water heater and it took way too much electricity and never did get to a boil. That took 2 days and a cel phone. You guessed it, I dropped it in the salt water.

The next thing that needed to be done was flip the boat right-side-up. This was done on cables and pulleys, hanging the boat from two chain hoists. Then I put the padding where it needed to be and got some help from my neighbor Randy. More promises. By the time I get this done, I will be all summer filling my obligations.

Work went on by installing the top transom bow.

Next I took off the rest of her clothing. The bottom planks would now hold her in shape.

Here is a photo of the inside of the hull, the bilge. You can see the new bottom side frames, the auxiliary frames, the plywood floor, and those long boards are the bilge stringers or keelson. The engine mounts are attached to these and they along with the keel, chines and shear hold this boat together.

The next chapter I will be installing the topside planks. I'm sure you are so excited and can hardly wait.

The Election, my thoughts and opinions.

2008-11-06T11:23:00.003-07:00

Warning! DON"T READ THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ ABOUT CHANGE. Political change. Life changes. My opinion. I repeat, MY OPINION!

I am writing this post after reading several other posts and comments around the internet.

Some one asked me about the 1977 peanut farmer, he was generic, the stumbler was benign, the actor was awesome, senior shrub started the New World Order (or at least revived it), the unfaithful one, slick willie, was a pawn like all the others, junior shrub a disappointment, and............

The election is over. I am not a prophet. But in a post on Nauvoo on April 7, 2008 I said this, "Oboma will be the next president and he will become the anti-christ."

I also posted Tuesday on Nauvoo and said this, ‘It’’s vote day. In another thread, a nationwide fast was encouraged. Fasting and praying can give us inspiration on who the Lord wants us to vote for. Another thread asked if God chooses the president (or a dictator or king, etc). He may very well do that. Let's say that He wants to bring about a prophesy. He influences people to vote for a man of Muslim decent who has enough charisma to bring about world peace and start the beginning of the end. Or He wants to wait awhile longer. And He has us vote for the opposite. When I get to the polls will my hand with the stylus be directed to the proper hole?’

The old POW didn’t have a chance. The strategy of Oboma was brilliant. The polls are by the Dems, and are in our faces multiple times each day we looked at a paper or the Drudge Report. He went to Iraq, like he was he pres. He chose his cabinet, like he was the pres. He had the money.

OSC wrote a book, "Treasure Box", where a group of people picked smart youth and groomed them for public office. This is what they did. They, the super rich who really run this country. (Read Skousen’s "The Naked Capitalist") (No, crash, this is not nudity.) And provided the money. From where, you research it.

You now probably think this old boat guy is an old crack pot. I’m just venting like the navel gazer did. OBG to OCP. HeHe

I’m not upset by the election. I quit being upset by elections when tricky dick was re-elected. I’m looking forward to the future. Give me death or give me the millennium. Either one will be a painful and/or wonderful experience. Painful in what happens before, wonderful to go through it.

The youth, and I mean up to 50 or 60, don’t want the millennium yet. I want it. I was disappointed when Bruce’s prediction of the year 2000 plus or minus 3 years did not happen. "The Millennial Messiah"

"The Mark of the Beast" will be a hard thing to endure. Can’t buy or sell anything. Can’t pay the property taxes. How do we keep our homes? We give them to the Church. I’ll gladly leave my 4000 square foot home for two rooms somewhere else. That’s all I need. Some one else with a big family will move in. Some one will farm my farm. I will go back to work as a mechanic or carpenter and then I can go to the store house and get what I need. I’ll even give up my boat, without being able to ride in it again, and the Church can sell it and use the precedes to help the greater cause.

Or maybe all of my family will come and live with me, and fill the house.

There is a place for almost every hobby and profession during the Law of Consecration. No police, no lawyers, no politicians, no health care needed. No bad guys, all good guys. All repentant good guys. We don’t have to be perfect. Just being honest with our fellow man/woman.

If it doesn’t happen now, it will happen sometime in the future. Almost all prophesies are fulfilled. The story of Jonah comes to mind. It is one that didn’t, because Nineveh listed to him and repented. So I pray everyday for peace in the world. I would love to have a gentler soulution to the out come.

I love this country. I love the Lord and His Church. I love my family. We can endure it.

Unlike navel gazer, I am leaving the comments open. I can take it. Can you?

Assembly continued, 5 Dec 2006, #6 of 11.

2008-11-05T21:06:00.012-07:00

I am at a loss here as to how much detail I need to explain in the restoring process. Words are boring, but I cannot always show a picture. The boat hull had to be kept perfectly level athwartships from stem to stern. In other words, no twist. Now there is a word. It means from one side to the other. You saw yellow levels in one of the pictures. Twist would cause the boat to want to constantly turn.

The bottom also had to be perfectly flat length wise for the last 6 feet of the boat. If it were not flat, it may dig the nose into the water, causing excess drag and erratic turns. Or porpoising, a constant movement of the nose up and down.

This took constant checking of my work, and a term called fairing. I laid my long flat level on the frames and then ground some wood off, or glued a thin piece on to keep every thing proper.

We now are going to use the planks we took off back in May. The pattern planks. Here you see three of them temporarily in place. The boards we buy are not long enough to go the full length of the boat.

The spot they are joined together is called the butt joint. There must be a butt block placed under that joint, You see some of them here.

Here I am rubbering them into place.

I have steamed two planks, S1 & S3, and clamped them in place.

The next two P2 & P4 are steamed and clamped.

After all of them are steamed, clamped, allowed to cool and removed and set aside, the next step is the first layer of planks, remember the diagonal ones? But in this case, they are replaced with marine plywood. At this stage, I must have the boat square in relation to the stern. I measured from a point on the stem to each corner of the stern, applied a little correction with a brace, and rubbered and screwed the plywood into place.

You can see the brown rubber in the last photo above. This rubber is used between all wood connections. It not only glues the wood together, it makes everything totally water proof.

The last group of pictures were taken on 5 Jan 2007. I had worked 30 weeks and 575 hours during 2006. My log shows I worked from 1 to 7 hours a day, some days zero hours. I spent 7 weeks in the harvest from 14 July to 1 September. After that I worked some every week until the end of the year.

Then I dry fit the planks previously formed into place over the plywood covered hull. If I had put the plywood on first, I would have had nothing to clamp the planks to, to bend them over the hull.

The planks are in place and all the screw holes pre-drilled. You can see there are a lot of screws. About 3500 of them used in the boat.

You can see the notes I wrote to myself for later reference. Also, each plank had a number, from the keel out and from the chine up. P4R means Port #4 Rear. The date is now 19 Jan 2007.

The dry-fitted planks are then removed, laid on a saw horse, and a sealer call Clear Epoxy Penetrating Sealer (CEPS) is applied. This stuff soaks into the wood and it allows no water to penetrate, thus protecting the wood from rot. It also makes all glues, rubber, paint, etc adhere very tightly. You can see that all the holes are filled with the new screws.

I then apply a generous coat of rubber on the plywood and the plank and screw it onto the boat, two on each side at a time. This is one of the operations I needed help on. My nephew Jim came, but only after I promised to take his family water skiing. Just joking.

The bottom planking is complete. It's 9 Feb. 2007.

Next is painting the bottom.

Assembly Started, 31 Oct 2006, #5

2008-11-04T04:32:00.007-07:00

I will start this page with some nomenclature. The frames (the on edge boards that look like ribs, heaven forbid you use that word around a boat builder) on the bottom of the boat are called "bottom side frames." The frames on the sides of the boat are called "top side frames." Thus planks (the flat boards screwed to the frames) on the bottom are called "bottom side planks", etc. The frames that support the deck are called a "carlin". The deck planks are called "deck planks", with the middle one the "king plank". You will see those later. The plank on each side of the keel is called a "gar board". The reinforcing gussets you see at the corners of the frames are called "knees" Boat building has it’s own language.

Starboard is the right side of the boat when looking from rear to front. Port is the left side of the boat. This way we can identify which side we are referring to no matter where we stand, upright or not. The way to remember; short name with short side and short color, thus, Left, Port, Red..... long name, Right, Starboard, Green.

The assembly actually started with the first bottom side frames being replaced, but disassembly was still being done, since I replaced every other frame and then came back to the old ones I had left in place.

With the keel, transom and all the frames in place, glued and bolted to each other, it is time to start molding the keel for the auxiliary frames and the bottom planking. When I use the word "glue", I am not using a glue as in an Elmer’s or a Bond-tite type wood glue. It is a product made by 3M and it is called 3M5200. It is a highly adhesive rubber-like compound I squeeze out of a tube like silicon seal or DAP. It is so strong that after 5 hours it is impossible to separate the wood pieces from each other. They must be routed out. But it is also flexible, allowing the boat to twist and give a little in rough water. If one uses a fiberglass epoxy, it welds the wood so strong, hard flexing will tear the wood apart internally, thus opening up cracks for leaks and rot. So in the future I will use the word "rubber". Conventional glue is used in a few places on the boat.

This picture shows the un-routed keel with saw marks on it to help me get things right.

The next two photos shows some of the routing done. It is very hard to see, I didn’t have the angle or light right. This is the routing for the auxiliary frames and then the auxiliary frames in place.

All the port side auxiliary frames were steamed and then bent into shape with one operation.

This photo shows the routing on the grip/stem, where the bottom side planks will rest.

In my next post I will installing the new bottom planks.

Disassembly continued, 26 May 2006 #4

2008-11-02T12:22:00.015-07:00

When I used the word "disassemble", I didn’t take all the pieces off and then reassemble it like an engine. I took only a few off at a time, so the other old pieces would still hold it together and in the proper shape.

You can see the rotten wood from years of water left in the hull after a day on the lake. There is a drain plug on the bottom of the hull, but all the water cannot be drained. There are too many nooks and crannies. The restored hull will be water proof, and this will not happen again. New procedures will be used that were not even thought of back in those days. They quit building wooden boats about 1965, and went to fiberglass.

This is a 3 piece unit called the stem and the grip. It forms the bow (pronounced bough) of the boat. The far end bolts to the keel, which is the backbone of the boat. The keel and grip/stem are in the center, the chines (the yellow levels are resting on the chines) form the lower outside edge of the boat, and the shear forms the upper outside edge of the boat. You will see these later.
These ugly rotten frames (labeled P3, P4, etc) you see, and the stem, grip and keel will be replaced with new white oak. The original were mahogany. They will be used as patterns for the new ones. I failed to take a picture of that operation. I took the frames from both sides, laid them together, compared the shape, and then decided which one is more true. Then it was placed on the new piece of white oak and the pattern drawn, taken to the band saw, and wallaa, a new frame. I actually cut both frames out at the same time, so they were mirror image twins.
In the top picture you see the new keel, grip/stem and some new frames in place. The shear is on the floor in this up-side-down photo. The bottom one shows all the new frames replaced.

An interesting and challenging operation is steam bending. A piece of wood will only bend so far before it breaks. But when you heat up the cells inside the wood, then when you bend it, the cells on the inside of the curve will squish smaller, and after it cools it remains in that new bent form. (If you heat it back up again, it will straighten out.) The board is soaked in salt water, and the moister transfers the heat quicker. Later on, I skipped the soaking and heated longer. Here are some pictures of the steaming process and a jig I built to form the transom pieces. The piece of wood is inserted into the steam box, steam is applied for 1 to 3 hours, depending on the thickness, and then removed and within seconds it is applied to the form/jig.

The black piece you can see is bent. It is black because it took me 4 tries to learn how and get it right. The steam should be 212 degrees, but at my altitude, 4500 feet above sea level, water boils at 205 degrees, so it takes longer to heat up.. These pieces are the transom bow and cheeks, which form the new transom.

You can see that I left some of the side planking on to help hold the shape of the boat.

One of my friends called this a naked boat. I wonder if she (the boat) is embarrassed? Boats sre girls, you know.

The date on this picture is 31 oct 2006. Halloween! It has now been 6 months, but I took 6 weeks off to help in the harvest. I generally work about 4 hours a day, some days only 1 hour, some days not at all and toward the end I worked up to 10 hours.

See you later.

Disassembly. 29 April 2006 #3

2008-10-31T14:01:00.016-06:00

Here are some more pictures of the poor condition of the boat.

This boat is now 59 years old. It was built in Newport News, Virginia. The boat was delivered new on 4 March 1947 to a dealer in a city just 13 miles from where I now live. It was used quit regular for 24 years. It has stayed here in this area all it’s life. I am the 7th owner.

I laid the boat on it’s side and stripped fiberglass cloth off the hull.

Then I started removing the screws. These screws had putty over them and putty in the screwdriver slots. I had to chip the screw head clean of putty with a screwdriver and hammer, and then remove the screw, sometimes by hand, sometimes with my power drill. Look at the next picture and you can see the screw holes filled with putty.

Here you see the bottom off, and the plank "patterns" laid on the floor for future reference, which didn’t come until December.

The inside of this boat was so dirty, even greasy dirty, I had it sand blasted. Before and after.

You can see the white putty between the planks.

After years of soaking and drying out, the planks swell and then contract, letting in lots of water. A former owner put in the putty.

The bottom had two layers of planks, one set ran diagonal and a set running fore to aft attached to the diagonal ones, with an oil soaked canvass between them. This canvass would soak up the water that came thru, but after years of exposure it finally became ineffective. These boats were only expected to last 6 to 8 years, about the same as the automobiles of that era. You can see the diagonal planks in the picture above, and the one below.

So they put the putty in the cracks, and when the planks got wet and swelled again, it put stress on the frame joints and pushed them apart. In the first picture you can see space on the left where it is pusshed apart. You can see in the second picture the half round holes. They are not lined up like they were when it was new. These are things I had to correct when I put it back together. The stress also broke about 25% of the brass screws and 75% of the brass bolts.

YAWNNNNN. Boring, huh, Crash.

2008-10-29T14:10:00.006-06:00

The Beginning

It all started in late May of 1973. I was driving thru a small town close to my home and I saw this old wooden boat setting by a service station. I was a mechanic for a farmer out in the country, and I went to the larger town to get parts often, so I drove by this boat quite a few times. After about two weeks, I stopped and inquired about the boat. It was in poor shape. Spaces between the planks, and a small hole in the side. But he said the engine had been rebuilt 2 years ago, and ran well. I had known the man for years, he had owned it for 4 years and he would sell it for $300. I wrote him out a check on June 13, 1973 and pulled it home.

Now look at this picture, imagine the boat with out the white, just ugly brown wood. That’s the way it looked. But it did have wood covering the deck and chrome hardware. The trailer was and is pathetic.

I had two teenage sons 18 and 17 and a teenage daughter 15 still at home.. They were excited about the boat, and the boys each gave me $100, so now we were partners. I had space in the shop where I worked, so in our spare time we took the engine out, and flipped it up-side-down, and cleaned and sanded the hull, and repaired several places. Then we applied fiber glass cloth and painted it white with a red bottom. We got it in the water in late August and started having fun. It was under powered at our altitude (4500 ft.), but we still had fun. One in the boat and one water skiing. It was OK to have no observer back then.

When Christmas came, I gave my share of the boat (I had paid for all the repairs) to my sons. They used it hard thru 1977, it developed zip cracks in the fiberglass along every plank joint and started leaking. It got worse each year and they installed two bilge pumps. And they wanted "More Power", you know, Tim Taylor of "Home Improvement". So in the spring of 1978, they bought their own boat and gave the oldie back to me.

One nice day the summer of 1978, I took my 20 year old daughter and her girlfriends water skiing. After the picnic, which lasted too long, the boat had water above the floor boards. The bilge pumps had failed! The girls started bailing water and I removed the seats to reduce weight. Then I got it started and slowly the self bailer removed the water. We took it home and I put it in the shed, and there it sat for 28 years.

I tried to sell it several times, with no takers. In 1982 I pulled it out and did some work on it, hoping I could get it ready so I could teach my youngest daughter, now 13, to water ski. I removed the deck wood and did some patching, but the loss of my job put the boat back in the shed. It never saw the light of day again until February of 2006.

I was now retired, and I wanted to clean things up and sell the boat. I went on the internet and did some research, and found out that this Gar Wood boat was rare. Out of about 3000 built from 1921 thru 1947, only 300 have survived. You have all heard of the name of Chris Craft, there are thousands of Chris Craft boats out there.

So I found a boat restoration company in Ohio, sent him pictures, and he replied that the boat was worth $1000 to $2000 as a "pattern" boat. You take a plank off and use it for a pattern for a new plank. He said he would restore it for $50,000 to $60,000! But suggested I could buy a good one for $25,000. I checked prices of wood and other materials and I figured I could restore it for $10,000. Of course my labor would be free. I bought the Bible of boat restoring, "How To Restore Your Wooden Runabout" by Don Danenberg and started the project.

I removed the first screw on 15 April 2006 (the first of 3500), rented a shop from my neighbor next door and moved the boat in on 29 April 2006 and started to work. No, not work, but play. I have had so much fun on this project. I could hardly wait to get started each morning.

Now, my profession is in the automotive mechanical world. Forty-three years. But I have learned to do wiring, plumbing, I even built our garage and other buildings and many wood projects for my wife. But I am not a cabinet maker, and that is what this boat was going to be like. I had to buy many special tools. I already had a nice radial arm saw, but I needed a router, table saw, band saw, planner, etc. I spent $3,000 on tools over the next 12 months!

See you later.

2008-10-29T10:00:00.003-06:00

The Beginnig of a Love Affair

I am the OLDBOATGUY. This will not aways be a humorous blog. I'll try to infuse some funny stuff. But it is a narrative with pictures of my/our boat. It will be downright boring for some, and highly interesting for others. It will take me though 2 ½ years of boat restoration. Actually, more than 35 years from the purchase to the finishing of the restoring.
I had owned 2 boats before this one. An old wooden inboard boat I shared with a friend in Salt Lake City before I got married, and which I left with him, and a fiberglass outboard I bought in 1967, in which I taught my children to water ski. I had to sell it because I started selling insurance, and needed the money.
So now I will start my love affair with this old boat........next time. (I hope this will work, I don’t know what I am doing.)