There is something very special about these little Feather Crafts. They are one of those designs that belong on a wall in a gallery. And of all of them, except of course the 1948 Feathercraft / Paragon Meteor which is INSANE, anyway I got a little lost there. The Rocket is about as close as
Yesterday the Boatress and her two partners Ryan Rogers and Mark Joyner of GoNNK Homes, had their annual client appreciation party. I was the clean it up crew, Which I like, working behind the scenes is my thing. I know seems strange, but parties and larger social gatherings have always been a challenge for me. This
Well, I thought the little tender could get restored. After a good cleaning, yikes, good god, its a bit swiss cheesy, and I could spend a year on it and have another boat I never use. Or want to to be bluntly honest. SO?
Here in the Mid Atlantic its been a little up and down with the temps and lots of wind. So it creates a okay lets go, oh wait mind set. I have B al ready to go into the drink. But I think, Okay, and then an excuse comes up, and then I pass. UGH.
It started as a simple clean up and refresh some paint on SLIM. The 1999 Tiffany Rowing skiff. Which I havve found I used 2 times last year. So not really sure what its future is. But it will be decorative if someone does drool all over it and want it. Or hang it or
I saw this on an ad on Facebook marketplace and then several other sites. With pricing from $9K-$11K and either way, it is bad ass cool. I know for many this may be coo coo for Woody Boater to make such a claim. BUT, DAMMMMMM!. The silver really works, and thats a color I am
Just about finished with SLIM’s varnish botox and facelift. But nothing really that exciting to do a story on, But sausage? Okay. A tid bit of bits that may make one story, or at least some good comment fodder.
A huge thanks to Uncle Joe for sharing this little treasure with me yesterday. It’s like a warm hug, telling me, it’s okay to be like me. And proof that maybe just maybe, WoodyBoater is a more accurate depiction of our little boating community than we all thought. Ya see, history can be too sanitized.
A Trumpy Tender. Okay, okay, the click bait header is for shock, it was Howard Hughs 1939 Trumpy “Elinor”, and this is the tender for her. NOT the Trumpy it’self. I am a fool, but well, thats an all you can eat buffet of foolishness. Left in a barn and now hauled over to the
The Indian River and entire inland area in Michigan is getting a deep soaking for sure. The Dam is back working and doing its thing, but mother nature still has something to say. As does the the Detroit News. If you are trying to visualize the area.
We got this scary note from Bob Murdock at Howe up in Michigan. YIKES. And even though we go through this yearly here at the railway, and now I kinda have stuff set up for it. Like living in Venice Italy. But up there this should be more controlled. And yikes. Read on. Bob, we
Thanks to Bob Kays we have a fun little snack of history. A Chris Craft plant table. No, not a table for plants, But the factory. Okay, wait, if I said factory table you would have thought it was a factory table, not a table at the factory. Which by the way should NOT be
Now that HQ is cleaned up, I can also clean up some of the back log of things I promised folks. I am kinda still a little coo coo from the entire WoodyFloater project. I didn’t really notice all the stuff I had ignored to make that happen. Between work, and the Floater, it really
One of our local Woody Boaters, Dennis C. who comes by from time to time was helping me install the fuel tank on B. Dennis is a great guy and a big time hydro racer from New Jersey. Sadly his Marina which was also a time capsule was wiped out during Sandy and he was
Well, this officially is one of the lamest milking stories of the year. But yesterday I featured some little tid bits of small stuff I am doing on B, and the hoist chain was in the engine area. WHY? Is the V8 here? Will there be a V8? Sorry, its far more simple. During the
Yesterday I decided to just kinda give the pollen a chance to get it over with. Yes I have succumb to it’s power. The good news is once…the dust has settled… it will be an easier job. I took the time to start adding and replacing parts to B. First was a search lite switch,
The Boatress is having a party at HQ in a couple weeks, and I have been trying to get the place cleaned up for it. And yes, I have cleaned up before, usually on Sundays in the summer, this one required a very deep clean. Not just a leaf blower like I did a could
Those magic words that signify the start of boating. “GET OUT THERE” Now to be clear, just working on your boat to get her going is considered boating. Okay okay okay, Just reading Woody Boater is kinda like boating.
We have all seen this image of EJ Mertaugh Boat Works, the first Chris Craft dealer in the country in 1925. Mertaugh is still in business up in Hessel Michigan and a fixture up in that area of Michigan, if not in the entire Northern part of the U.S. Now the above image was no doubt
This morning I found this comment from yesterdays story caught up in the filter that screens anything with a link. And was about to approve it, but thought. WAIT. This is gold, pure gold milk. Mike Green has a wonderful Youtube channel that features many Chris Craft factory tid bits, and is a boat restorer
During the flurry of B resto chaos, I did come across a little moment. I was so focused on any 99 details, that I missed the housebout. Until one day on Ebay, I saw THIS. A 1936 Houseboat ad from Chris Craft. Now the image above is 1930? 1931? Are there any still out there.
Well that was an interesting 4 months. For the past week I have been cleaning up the railway for this summer, and a party that the Boatress’s real estate team is having at the end of April. So it’s a deep clean, Like pull out tables and so on. So needless to say the amount
FOR SALE – WEFECTCHEM, the Sea Pro we kinda fixed up last year. I say kinda, because it really just needed some cleaning and lower unit to make it a great beater boat. I paid $4K for it, with the trailer and over the summer dropped another $3 K ish into it. Mostly on the
Hold on, this is going down a rabbit hole again. I so need a real boat ride. Or a comment.
I learned something huge over last week, that driving the B engine is a sweet, nice, simple endeavor. Words like innocent, kind, romantic, joy, everyone that got behind the wheel felt it and had a smile on their face. But that wasn’t the lesson I discovered. And here it is. You can not appreciate any
Today we feature Atlas, and the Mullers. Bo and Kathy Muller as you may know are also working on a restoration of a model 99. It’s a stark contrast to the last three ish months of Woody Floater fodder. This is another way, and far nicer than my way. It takes time, skill, and knowledge,
Today is the one day you can admit to doing really dumb stuff and or at least look dumb doing normal stuff. Hey, it’s a twist on the April Fools Day gag thing which now at the age of getting old is kinda a yawn. Anyway, I was going to do a story on The
We got this wonderful note from John Mears from Port Clinton, Ohio while we were in the throws of the Floater challenge so it got put in the freezer for when I got back. We also have some other cool stuff from the freezer, so stay tuned. Here is John’s kind and touching note –
No really, nothing comes to mind. Just a blankness of a truly fulfilled man. Let the countdown start over. 365 Days til Dora again.
Whats a bot show without some dock shots. Captured in the early AM before the Thongs…throng.. a people show up. This years show was a success, in many ways, but not the usual crowds expected. The weather was, is perfect, and the docs were full. But for some odd reason , less people showed up
Another flawless weather day here on Lake Dora. And starting the day I got to take a very slow and wonderful sunrise ride to the show. But had to wash all the Midgies off the boat, the tent, the shirts, the everything. Perfection has a price. But well worth it. The crowd at the show
Yesterday it was in the 70’s here, no humid air, puffy clouds and flat water. A day that just makes you want to say, I aint do’n nuth’n but boat’n today. I shortened all those words so I could have more time to boat. And boat we did. With a wonderful group ride to Ski
Yesterday was supposed me a kinda crappy day. Oh was that wrong. Perfect, light breeze and 70, wow! We scrambled to get B in the drink and she performed like a little champ. But, do not have 4 people in it. 11 mph is full speed. 1 person, maybe 23. Maybe, But she is a
Well we made it here around 2PM and are in the Dora HQ and LOVING IT. Shannon and Scott have made up an amazing place to stay on the Lake, and it’s like a large family compound here. The park where the show is, kinda setting up, and there are boat rides planned. Large rides,
We are half way there and in Santee SC, and very little battery left on the old computer machine. The good news is I risked all our lives for a quick photo, and thats all I got, I do have an tease of an Atlas Update which is a sobering reminder of how this all
Go ahead, guess? Now I graded on a curve. So there is that. But the much delayed and anticipated water test took place at 2:30 PM The day before we leave for Dora, Like in 4 hrs from now. Yikes. Okay, here is where she is at. Engine started and ran like a sewing machine.
Yesterday was a full day of smaller details to get B ready for the water test. Its amazing how all the little things can take more time than the bigger jobs. And more helping hands. AND, the torture chamber known as the bilge and area under the dash. The area under the dash has already
We have updates from some of the Floaters. Knot Jeff is pulling all nighters putting the Lyman together, and since he is a production designer I have zero fear that this won’t happen. The engine is all done, also thanks to Dave Matthews, and a new pal, Victor the carpenter who was suggested by the
Okay, I may be speechless, but not wordless… today we are going to get rather zen, or deep into the real joy I find in this process. And I mean its gonna be deep. So get out your boots, I am more than fine, I love this SHIP. Are you ready. The tone of this
We have some fantastic news to share between the Woody Floater Challenge and Dora coverage. Here is the note from Bjorn. Maybe he is trying to tell me something? Maybe the WoodyFloater project has been like a catalyst? “OH GOD, is WoodyBoater teaching people how to restore a boat “THAT WAY”. We better let people
Well… here we are. The Final stretch. And right on cue, things are starting to get a little “interesting.” Not full-blown disasters this isn’t one of those stories (yet) but the kind of stuff that makes you stop, stare at it for a minute, and say F ME! Things I was feeling pretty good about
Yesterday was a cray cray weather/work day and when I was able to get over to HQ, Wayne and Dave were working away getting all the electrical going. Which turned out to be rather complex. Mostly ground wire issues. The cool part of the railway is there are parts everyplace. And you can go searching
I had planned on installing a blanket bar in the rear cockpit, but had not dug into it too deep. I “assumed ” it be any sort of period bar. And I do have some old stuff to kinda make one. BUT, the more I dug, the clearer it became that this in fact a
The crew was in full force yesterday with Dave Matthews looking over our work, And fixing it. YA, things were in place, but needed an adult. The good news is the engine and prop are aligned like perfect. In fact the prop is on! The steering had to be tightened down on the rudder. The
Yesterday we had a sliver of a chance to get some stuff done before the wind and cold took over. Wayne Bomb was able to test some parts we repaired and some of them just failed, so a scurry to fix that. And the search for what we thought would be simple. A 2 1/4
Yesterday I had a full day at the office, no breaks, so I headed over to HQ before light to get some stuff done. It was around 72 degrees, and man oh man am I happy I did that. Cause around noon, it was in the 30’s here with snow. BTW, it does this EVERY
It’s been a cray cray week, and in between meetings and very early in the morning, Wayne and I have been doing small jobs on B to getter done! The varnish repair is a little frustrating because the wet varnish kinda cramps our style and inevitably is in the way. But having to do build