Wednesday, September 7, 2005

The boat had been parked (uncovered) where our camper is normally stored. I decided to cover it and move it a bit out of the way. (Long term storage is going to be an interesting question. One of the most attractive options is to get one of those surplus shipping containers of suitable size, and place it in the woods as a garage. Attractive in all but cost and appearance. Only the former is a current problem, as we have plenty of woods to hide things in!)

After cleaning out most of the pine needles and cones, I placed a 55-gallon drum in the middle of the boat, and spanned the boat with a couple of 2×4's. Then I put some scrap plywood over the larger gaps where a tarp would belly in, and tied a tarp over it. Then I moved the boat to one side, and used a camper jack to lift the trailer tongue up very high to help drainage.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Took off the remains of the tarp, threw out all the boards and the barrel, and cleaned out the pine needles. (Had to dodge more than a few wasps that weren't happy about the new arrangement.) I removed all the removables and threw the dead cushions and canvas back in that were stored in the shed. The face of the tachometer had popped off, the body split. Probably got water in it that froze and blew the housing in half. The movement seems OK, I'll check it out before repairing the damage. Needing a tach is far from the first thing on the list! While removing the tach from under the dash I found Dad's old Dymo label that he always stuck on new purchases of significance: 22JUN74. I guess that settles the boat's age!

We really need to get this project started, my boy has expressed some serious interest in going boating, I think we'd all like it. With luck, and a bunch of cash, we could be on the water by Labor Day. A local upholstery shop made a verbal guess over the phone as to $2500–3500 to put the upholstery and canvas right. Supposedly the motor only needs a new water pump, and the gas tank to be coated. (I think we'll use boat cans at first, I have two.) My brother says that the steering cable should be replaced.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

I finally found the paperwork. The original quote sheet was in there, from Dolphin Marina in Washougal, WA, and it's kind of interesting:

1974 18-1/2 Fiberform Surfrider Outboard
Full Top Set
Front Bow Cover
18 Gal. Gas Tank$2779.00
1974 70 Hp Evinrude$1438.00
1974 E-Z Loader Trailer$609.00
With Coast Guard Equipment$50.00
Total Package Price:$4876.00
 
Ask Salesman for Special Sale Price

It's going to cost us more than that to restore the boat, unless I am very much mistaken! (And to my knowledge the boat has always had the Mercury 850 on it [Serial #3869544], and never an Evinrude of any stripe. Dad liked Mercury motors, there was a Merc 500 on our prior boat.) The motor was half as much as the boat, and the trailer was half that. I wonder if those ratios hold true today?