BOO!
Right at ya!
How many times have you heard someone say, “I love wood boats, but they scare me”? This past two weeks of Sweet Pea painting I think I heard that once a day. Really? Whats there to be afraid of? paint? repair? ending up owning a railway? Well, okay, maybe there is some truth in all that. BUT, and here is the big Birtha But Boogie BUT!
Once you meet some other foolish boaters like yourself, not being alone helps. Because in each of us has a tad bit of useless information but together may actually have a good one. And if you want to take it to another level, join your local ACBS chapter? Or start one in your area. That way you have other idiots around when you do something dumb, and here is the best part. You have someone else to blame. And here is the even better part. Its just a wood boat and you can repair it.
Sitting pretty
Swim platform is back on and repaired
Wayne Bomb in BW in a timeless image
And if none of this scars you off, here’s what will. You think that Pontoon boat or Plastic piece of Ship will be around 100 years from now? You think there will be folks passionate about them? Ya! NO!
The hand coming out of the grave BOO!
Nice work Mark! Already for next year’s boating season. Love the green and black combo.
You nailed it Matt! Congrats from a fellow idiot.
No play on your Boo Hill graveyard? Sweet Pea looks great especially with swim platform back on…
Happy Halloween
I love this community and all the crazy nuts I have met here, but if you really think for a second that there are not people out there who are just a passionate about there Fiberglassics think again.
All you have to do is go to the Fiberglassics web site or the FB page “Classic Offshore Boat Restoration” where you will see things like this and even some greats posts from our own Kent O Smith Jr.
Yes Virginia, there is passion for plastic boats!!!!!!!!!
“Plastic piece of Ship will be around 100 years from now? You think there will be folks passionate about them? Ya! NO!”
Matt, Matt, Matt. Rise a above the haters. I’m hopeful your fingers were faster than your true feelings. Having the privilege of currently owning two classic Avery Commanders plus one that I sold that is still being lovingly cared for I can say the amount of work never ends. Nor do the compliments for these 50 year old boats. Just like a wood boat.
Troy, thanks for sticking up for us and your lovely Tolly.
Troy,
I see the same at FB pages for vintage skiboats. Young watersports enthusiasts are buying & repairing Correct Crafts, Malibus, Master Crafts, Supras, etc. from the 80’s & early ’90s. They realize the old boats provide a great tow, without the insane prices of today’s models.
When I was towing my young daughters and their friends every weekend I bought a very clean one owner 1985 Ski Nautique “2001” from a friend. I kept it as clean as my wood boats. When that era ended about ten years later I sold it to a young man from Toledo. He told me he had been looking for one for a year and gave me $1K less than I paid for it.
Yes, there is passion in the vintage glass ski boat world!
Photo
Nice boat, Greg!
Great color choices Matt!
“Sweet Pea” looks just right. The colors, the transom, the not overdone swim platform, all of it. SP has the look!!!!
While I can appreciate ‘glass and all that it entails, (yes, I have Donzi’s, Whalers, an Excalibur and a Predator), I just don’t get that warm, fuzzy feeling that I do when I’m around a wood boat. Mahogany dust seems to be crack to an old guy like me and yes, like you, it made me do stupid things like buy an old marina. Maybe we should bottle that dust……..
As a kid, I went on a business trip with my Dad that by chance had us visit one of the early fiberglass production boat shops. To fill the molds, they used what was then called a “chopper gun” where the liquid ‘glass would come out looking like congealed snot. It stunk, it was sticky and it got everywhere. Early on, not even Haz-Mat Tyvek suits were used, so these guys looked like mummies at the end of the day. Even then I thought, not for me. Even now, inside the hull of a forty year old glass boat I can still smell that stink.
Will they be around a hundred years from now? They sure will because they don’t melt into the ground like an old wood cruiser.
Maybe that’s our new woody tag line?
“Earth to earth. dust to dust,
save an old wood boat
you absolutely must!”
Cheers from your northern MI final fling before Boot Hill boatyard!!!!
Sweet Pea looks amazing, Matt. That dark green is so smooth & shiny! Your painstaking prep work really shows.
yeah…that’s it…earth to earth..dust to dust….perfectly stated.
and, as noted : you CAN repair them…a for me that is half the fun.
get he off the raiway and get a treat out of that trick.
John in Va.
Matt, I bow down(or in this case up) to you and your crew, awesome job. And yes this is ART!!!
Salter (now age 15-1/2) and I are into year 4 as live-aboards on my amazing, fiberglass, 85,000 lb piece of ship.
It’s been like 10 years of living compressed into 3.
Wood, plastic, steel, aluminum…. It’s all about what you do with them that matters.
52 year old hand laid fiberglass CC Ski Boat.
45 year old 1977 CC Supersport.
53 year old CC Commander SS
Yeah baby!
One last homage to the end of the real CC era. One of the last 47’s made.
50 year old AristoCraft 9-teen. Gotta love a sliding hard top!
The funny thing is that we all know Matt is really an all inclusive guy, but he likes to put up comments like
“You think that Pontoon boat or Plastic piece of Ship will be around 100 years from now? You think there will be folks passionate about them? Ya! NO!” just to get the comment section hopping!
Click Bait!!
Matt, next time you want to say something that is going to just offend the Holy Hell out of anyone who likes plastic boats, let me say it so that I can do my job of pissing WBers off, and you can rest easy.
51 Year Old Dan Arena Custom
Looks like a Bertram Baron! Getr done!