Tarp Find Cobra Episode 4 – With A Special Appearance By Micheal Jackson’s Nose

She stopped by Antique Boat America on the way home. Thanks Andy Hoffman and Mark Krzyzanowski for all the hard work

The Tarp find Cobra is officially in the U.S.A and will be in New Jersey on Friday so the Katz’s Team can do an autopsy! Every detail will be torn apart and inspected. We can report from crime scene investigations, its cloth wiring. Which indicates a very early Cobra since Chris Craft changed from cloth in the 1955 year.

Blue prints from the Mariners Museum

We have the technology

1955

EEEEYIKES

If you look closely. Okay, if you are 100 miles away she has a serious nose issue. But that doesn’t really stop the Tarp Find from being a potential star this year on Woody Boater. After all?

What nose job?

Currently in the shop at Katzs Marina. Finishing one up while another is about to arrive

Oh ya!

31 replies
  1. m-fine
    m-fine says:

    While I can certainly understand the desire to give a Cobra a nose job, it looks like they took that one to a real hack of a surgeon!

    Speaking of noses, I wonder if Barbara Streisand will show up to defend this boat, telling us its sexual needs were its sexual needs and the little boats it shared its boathouse with were not really molested because they were thrilled to be there.

  2. Bob Kays
    Bob Kays says:

    Maybe it was owned by Norman Thayer III and he hit that same rock coming home on a foggy night.

  3. Myles M
    Myles M says:

    Is there more of a back story? Was this boat in Canada by chance, in the Muskoka Lakes? It’s a really big job, it’s so great to see it come back from the brink. I’ll be watching…..

  4. John Rothert
    John Rothert says:

    and then there is that trailer. Down from Canada in a rig I would not tow across the street!
    Nice work. lots more to do…..

    John in Va.

    • MK
      MK says:

      It was given new tires, bearings, lights, and safety chains for the trip. Safety third!

  5. Jim V
    Jim V says:

    Only a flesh wound!!!! Sure looks like it’s been driven up on the rocks. Happened to some friends and when the action stopped they stepped out of their boat they were that far up on shore. Man if that boat could talk. I hope they towed it with a rat rod to blend in.

  6. John Rothert
    John Rothert says:

    Looking at the photo…which is in itself painful to do….I wonder if that is not the result of a tow vehicle crash wherein the trailer ate the bottom and the tow vehicle the nose??? Hard to believe the boat hit something in all those locations. Wonder if the owner survived?……Hope so….then we can berate the s–t out of him for the tarp fate. ooops! maybe it was a she….you know those woman drivers…..
    John in Va.

  7. Tom
    Tom says:

    Little known fact that when the Cobra gets to Katz it will be reunited with Miss Step for the first time since 1984 when they were both stored together out back of a boat shop in Canada.

    • MK
      MK says:

      We have the pictures to prove it too. There are also some other familiar boats in the background that are still around today.

  8. Briant
    Briant says:

    Excuse my French,… those tires and chains on the trailer in the photo in front of ABA are not new….

    Someone towed some fancy firewood on a trailer that can best be described at “Pre Colombian Art.”

  9. floyd r turbo
    floyd r turbo says:

    I’ve never seen a boat in Canada rot at that level and I doubt that is physical damage as I remember a 193? triple CC running into a fiberglass boat racing at speed at the Antique Boat Museum years ago that cut into a fairly good size cruiser with little more than a smashed cutwater and some gouges from shredded fiberglass Even the scene from On Golden Pond had to be faked for damage when running up on the rocks showing a busted stem and planks. Furthermore, you need moisture, oxygen, and warmth to create rot and we all know it doesn’t get over 40 degrees F in Canada so what gives?

    • Wilson
      Wilson says:

      I remember being there that day.. It was the very first raceboat regatta.I thought the Museum and others would surely end up in a law suit.

    • m-fine
      m-fine says:

      Good point! Canadian fenders rule out crash damage, and the year round sub zero Canadian temperatures rule out rot and insect damage. I think the trailering accident may have merit and there is always the scorned lover with an axe to grind/swing at your boat theory.

  10. Randy
    Randy says:

    … nice that another piece of rare runabout history is being saved, but is it going to be costing $140K to make a $100K boat?

    Sometimes sentimental value is worth several hundred thousand $$$’s!

  11. Jimbo
    Jimbo says:

    I’ve always been interested in wood boats but I don’t own a boat so please forgive me as I’m just a “lurker” on this site. My confusion is this
    …At what point does an effort like this become the manufacture of a new boat & no longer a “restoration” ? I mean if all you have is a Cobra windshield & you build a boat around it is it still considered a restored Cobra ?

    • m-fine
      m-fine says:

      If you can tie it back to an original hull number it is “restored” if not it is a “replica” and if you have most of the original wood intact then it is “preserved.”

    • tom
      tom says:

      Ditto.I said in the first installment of this story that it looks like the ultimate pattern boat.But I’d still do it,They are cool looking boats.

  12. Captain Nemo
    Captain Nemo says:

    I’ll bet it left quite a trail of debris on the highway. Not much holding her together.

  13. Briant
    Briant says:

    Hey Jimbo, watch this…

    I’d agree with the most of the wood then it is preserved bit…but IMO I don’t give a Mongoose’s butt about that restored bit….you replace 100% of the wood and slap on the windscreen and the stupid hull card…it ain’t the same boat.

    If I go out and wreck Carroll Shelby’s personal favourite Cobra and it burns to the dirt, but I slap on the Reg plate and a plastic turn indicator lens on a different shell etc….it ain’t the same car, and I’d have no business calling it his “restored” Cobra.

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