So I was poking around and found this project of a wooden boat restoration.
Check it out here-
Sheer Folly, Madness, and a Little Bit of Lust
Let’s hope they see it through.
For reference- Huge Mistake
Lazy Daizy Restoration Updates
Chickity Check It-Another Wooden Boat Project
Good Morning Gloucester 
Joey,
Many do, but not all boat building/restoration projects end in tragedy. My uncle, Leland Parsons, took 29 years to build the Frank Edmund, a 65 foot schooner, from the ground up, exterior and interior. He got it into the water in 2005. He is in Half Moon Bay, CA outside of San Fran. I have been out there to visit twice, and I can promise you that the pictures of this schooner could never do it justice. Here is a youtube slideshow with some pictures throughout the process, and there are a several articles when you google his name if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44UkermDPSQ&feature=related
Rob
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God Bless em if they have the time and patience.
The link to this particular project looks managable as it’s not a huge boat, but for those huge ones most times it seems more prudent to buy someone else’s mistake that they have dumped ALL the money into.
I guess that’s the whole point though, that someone has a dream and may or may not see it through. My advice would be to start out with a manageable project on the same scale as the one the couple in the Sheer Folly have picked out.
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I think that you are right on the problems with huge boat projects. Just look at how long it took my uncle to finish, 29 years! He became a grandfather many times over since he started that 65 foot schooner, but he did finish it in the end. And after being on it with him, and sailing with him, you can see it in his eyes that it was worth it. But, he is a boat builder at heart, having started up another rehab project in Half Moon Bay, an old wooden fishing boat, the Irene.
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I’m the victim of the blog in question…therefore I’d offer a few thoughts…should you be interested.
We bought the boat from a freind as stated. He had taken great pains to let it breathe year around, so it was extrodinarily “tight” with no major problems. Yes we are taking some “artistic liberties” in it’s restoration, but it is progressing nicely. We putting finish coats of varnish on today, but I haven’t update my blog as of yet.
While my dream would have been a Chris Craft, etc, finacially it make no sense for us. “US” is defined as me, my wonderful wife, and our dog “Bear”. Geographically we have a lot of oportunities to use the boat on various rivers and lakes around Ohio and Michigan, and it will fit in our garage.
I love woodworking and have a fairly well equiped shop to manufacture parts if needed. I also love working with my hands and the ideal of being a “steward” of a piece of history.
I did at one point upon making an estimate of the projects cost appeal to my wife that we could buy a nice lightly used fiberglass boat for the same or less money, but we both knew we would not be happy with that. Fiberglass has no appeal for us. Not that there is anything wrong with them, but old wooden boats have “style”.
Many say they are a lot of work to maintain, but so is a garden, or my model railroad, or the street rod my neighbor owns. To each his own I suppose. Anything good in life require work…doesn’t it?
That said, I’m grateful we didn’t buy anything too much larger. This is a nice starter project/boat. Maybe some day we’ll retire it and buy the Chris Craft, but I think this will serve us well for now. It’s a managable project.
Some of the websites I’ve seen where people replace darn near everything amaze me. Why bother? Passion I guess.
Thanks for the intrest gang. Now for my afternoon nap…and nightmare of pushing the thing off the trailer only to have it sink.
Greg
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Greg, thanks so much for commenting. If you could, please comer back and offer us periodical updates. I’d love to keep up on the progress right here on these pages and yours. At the very least send me a note when you update with a progress report so we can highlight it here.
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New post on the project here:
http://conductorjonz.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/our-thompson-brothers-runabout-part-3/
I still want to do a bit more work on the deck. Then finish cleaning the inside and putting everything back together.
See ya!
Greg
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Well I’m not sure I was motivated by the blog so much as love.
Here’s the thing. My wife fell in love with the boat when she saw it. Me…not so much. It needed a lot of work. Having done a fair amount of woodwoorking, I knew we could get in trouble fast.
She also insited we get it in the water THIS YEAR. I refused to prep the hull and slap paint on it just to go and undo my “doings” over the winter, while trying to get varnish to adhere in freezing weather.
The point being…I have no choice. I love my wife and want to get in the water this year. She also is celebrating a victory over cancer in September…the 5 year mark…a day we will be in the water experiencing FREEDOM of sorts if I can.
This boat will be finished. I have no choice. The vessel keeps telling me what needs to be done. I know this sounds weird, but I tried to control projecs such as this, and at some point the tables turn, and the project starts to dictate to me how it will conclude. I stopped trying to fight this as I was usually wrong anyway.
I just go along for the ride. while I’m not a “NUT”, I do occassionally talk to the boat before leaving the shop for the night. LOL!
Greg
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I’m so glad I found your project and could share it with the people that dig GMG.
You are an inspiration Greg.
Thank you so much for keeping us up to date with your project of love.
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Still working on it. Finished the varnish on the hull, and plan to work on the interior this weekend.
Also have bought new control cables for the throttle and reverser. Also I am finishing varnish on the bench seats and reassembly of them.
Today I made a sales call, and as I said before, all projects take a life of their own at some point. I will be updating that story later this week. I haven’t had time to update the blog due to working two fulltime jobs this week.
Hope all is well! Stay tuned!
Greg
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Many of us will resonate with Greg’s point about “taking artistic liberties” with boat restoration; it is just too costly to repair everything with a mint condition standard.
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New post at link below.
http://conductorjonz.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/our-thompson-brothers-runabout-part-4/
As to artistic liberties, yes to much $$ to do everything perfect. But moreover, I had a very definite vision of what I wanted in a boat. Well a Chris Craft or Garwood for instance.
Not being a wealthy person, the Thompson will be a “baby Chris Craft”. I may get flack for not restoring it to its Sea mist green or som other “original” color, but since I’m paying for it, I want it to be a reflection of my creativity and dreams.
On my model railroad, I sometime have older cars than what would actually have been in service during the time period I model, but we have a saying in the model railroad hobby. IT’S MY RAILROAD, AND I’LL RUN WHATEVER I PLEASE!
I’m just applying this to the boat as well. Also 90 to 95% perfect is fanatical enough for me. Anything more is simply not going to be noticed by the average person.
Thanks for checking in!
Greg
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