Here
she is, sitting out back of a boyscout camp in Conroe. She
had been completely stripped of almost everything that could
be removed. The mast and sail rig were gone, the cleats were
removed, even the rudder gudgeon were removed.
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I
talked to the head of the scouts boat program, and this boat
was supposed to have been chopped up and destroyed, but the
volunteers had not gotten around to doing it yet.
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So
I offered to haul the hull away if they would give her to
me for free.
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Getting
a title was a bit of a challenge, the boyscouts didn't have
one for it. I first ran the TX number and it came back as
someone in Houston.
I called them and talked to them about the boat, they
said they had sold it to someone else, but had a better
boat to sell me (can't remember the type). I explained
that this was the one I was interested in, so he gave
me the name of the person who bought it.
So I called this next guy and said that I was interested
in the boat. He told me he would be glad to sell it for
$5000, but he was in the process of restoring it and really
wanted to finish it before selling. I asked if he had
seen the boat lately, because it was completely stripped,
and laying in a field up in Conroe. He sounded rather
panicked, and said would call me back in just a minute.
Moments later, he called me back and said that the boat
was just fine, sitting behind his garage and in great
shape. Hmmm.... this is wierd. So I asked him to describe
it to me -- he said it was a solid blue hull, white deck,
wood trim, and was an oday 19 mariner. Ah HA! Then it
became clear, someone had seen his boat and just put the
same TX numbers on the bow of the hull I wanted so they
didn't have to register it properly. I then described
the hull I was trying to get, and some of my plans for
it, and he proceeded to tell me that I was a luzer, my
ideas woudln't work, and I wasn't a real sailor. A bit
of a snot, but before I could thank him for his help,
he hung up on me.
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Back
to the boat, I found the hull hull number and ran it at
TX parks, and they showed that it was last registered in
Texas in 1990 to "Lakewoodyacht Club"
I was just about to call them, but before I did that, I
saw a ghost of an image for Louisana numbers that were on
the hull. So I called LA Parks, and they showed the hull
last registered there in 1999, to the Boy Scouts !! HA!
So I got a copy of their registration, and with a bill of
sale from the boyscouts, and a pencil tracing of the hull
number, I was able to get her registered here in Texas.
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I showed pictures of her to a few of my friends, one of
them who was building a 16' Michalak boat just got his hull
3D, and commented that I was very brave to take on this
project. I joked that my hull was actually further along
than his. :) Brings up a good point, I enjoy boat building,
and bring a hull like this back to life is sort of a good
half way point between building from scratch, and buying
a complete boat. I can have all the joy of putting together
a boat, but start with a complete hull. |
Ironically,
I had a picture of an oday 19 on my pocket cruiser guide
for years, listed as a mystery boat and was searching for
what it was.
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A friend of mine had a power boat trailer sitting in his
yard for a while and wanted to part with it. |
It is an intersting design, you move the axle forward or
back to adjust the tongue weight, and carry the boat properly.
You do this by simply loosening 4 of U bolts that holds
the axle assembly to the frame. |
The bunks were all wrong & rusted, so I started by cutting
the boards off first. |
Then
I took my circular saw with a metal cutting blade, and cut
thru the U bolts. With a small POP, the bolts sprung apart
as I cut thru them. |
I took basic measurements of the bottom while in the field
and used them to setup my bunks. Here is a more detailed
sketch that I took later after the hull was on the trailer.
NOTE: The distance from the bow eye to the axle is not correct,
that will produce a very heavy tongue weight. I am currently
trying to find a better distance, am looking for only about
100 lbs of tongue weight. |
Here
is what she looks like after on the trailer. |
Deomstrating
his great strength by holding up the trailer with a single
finger, is my friend Tim who helped me get the boat up on
the trailer.
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1350
lb boat, and still had a lot of water in her. There are
a number of ways to get a boat up onto a trailer, the method
I used was to run a 3/8" nylon line around the entire
boat, criss cross it loosely thru the bow eye, and then
crank her on with the winch. |
I started cranking, and cranking, and got to the point that
I had to use every ounce of energy to make the winch turn.
I would put both hands on handle, push will all my might,
and it would turn the bottom 1/4 of the way. Then get under,
push upward with both hands, and make it go another 1/4
turn. Wow that was a lot of work, and to get an idea of
how much tension was on the line, look at the distance between
the bow eye and the winch line hook, and then compare it
to the previous picture. The rope stretched about 4' while
trying to get the first few inches onto the trailer.
Something has to be wrong, so Tim started poking around
with the 2x4 and with a little lever action, the boat
jumped forward about 6". We then discovered that
the keel had made it's own form fitting hole in dirt,
and just needed a little lift to get it started on the
bunks.
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After that the cranking was a lot easier, and a combination
of cranking & nudging around with the 2x4, we were able
to get the hull up on the trailer. |
Just
after this picture, I was able to pull the tongue down on
the trailer and walk it over to the car. Next I pulled forward
and slammed on the brakes, with Tim watching and coaching
me to how far it needed to go. Couple more slams of the
brake, and we were snugged up and heading home.
Took a little foliage with us, a lot of bugs, 2 geckos,
1 angry wasp nest, small colony of big black carpenter
ants, and 4 new pets.....
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I
shoveled out everything that I could, power washed her,
and still she was the most dirty and disgusting looking
boat I have ever brought home. So I broke out the elbow
grease and started to eat the proverbial elephant. With
a scrubby pad meant for dishes (not the metal SOS pads,
but the plastic version of those), and with 25% bleach /
water + some dish soap, I started on the stern and worked
up the starboard side.
This picture was taken after the first hour of hand scrubbing.
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With
a little of the outside done, I cleaned a path to get inside
and work on that a bit. I installed a stern drain for the
interior of the hull, and wanted to prop up the bow while
I hose the inside.
Cranked up the dolley jack as high as it would go, and
use a step ladder to hold it up temporarily.
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Next
I put a car jack under the wheel pivot, and cranked her
up some more. |
Using
the ladder again to rest on, she was just steep enough to
drain most of the water out as I hosed inside. |
NOTE:
I had the wheels well blocked, to keep the boat from rolling
down the driveway. Having it propped up like this is very
dangerous, it could fall down at any time.
So in I went, and after the first day of scrubbing inside,
I was cleaning up the driveway afterwards and found 4
new pets for the kids that had fallen out the stern drain....
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Right
out the stern drain fell 4 tadpoles. I scooped them up and
put them into an old pickle jar.
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My
girls really like them, one has even developed legs.
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I
don't know much about frogs, but found a lot of neat info
at AllAboutFrogs.org
Reading there, it seems that to raise tadpoles, you feed
them lettuce that has been boiled, and then frozen. So we
did that and they like muching away at it. Time will tell
how long they last, hopefully we will be able to grow them
to maturity. |