Fishing With Old Boats, and Vintage Gear...cheap fun? Or PITA

[weimedog]

 

[Husky Man]

BOTH

Define "Old Boats" and "Vintage Gear"

Plus many will define "Cheap" differently, and One Man's (or Woman's) Idea of PITA, may be another's Idea of "Fun"

Some actually ENJOY tinkering with old boat motors (Chainsaws too) not me, I buy a boat to use, not spend endless hours working on it, but still spend too much time doing just that

Our old boat is a 1982 Beechcraft, that has taken us on Many enjoyable Fishing, Crabbing, Camping and other Family Fun Days


Getting Ready for a Great Day on the Nehalem Bay



A Good Day on the Nehalem Bay for Husky Man



My Favorite Deckhand, with a Nice 7.5" Dungeness Crab

The First Mate with a Chinook out of Nehalem Bay

Even our Crab pots are starting to show their age, most our rods and reels are less than 10 years old, at least in the Salmon gear, but I do have a few old Penn 209 Reels kicking around that get used once in awhile, for old times sake


Doug

 

[Blue Oaks]

My dad's into antique cars. My mom says she's "never quite sure if it's a treat, or a treatment to ride in them."

 

[weimedog]

I'll leave the Checkmate out of this until later this year. It's gone thru a bit of a transformation, cleaned and waxed , new water pump, battery, etc. Had to get the mineral deposits off of and out of the lower unit...stuff like that.


SO to this point, two of my boats are at a camp 3 hours north, the other Aluminum Boat in my side yard and the Checkmate in the garage...BUT to answer the question:
OLD Boats =

 

[blades]

57 Mecury ( bought new by my dad) 20 hp & Thompson wood boat 12 ft- been in the family since I can remember some 69+ years. They haven't been in the water since the late 70's. trailer for same was made from model A parts- that disappeared somewhere along the line . I do not know if I can resurrect the motor or not and hate to take anywhere as they mostly over charge around here. going to need the pump impeller a tank and the line with proper connector fit the motor ( have no idea what happened to line- tank likely rusted out as I could not find it when I sold the folks place a few years back Used to repair the old Atwater , Kent , Elgin Merc and Johnson's back in 70's and 80's. I get home and there would be a note on the door about whatever someone had dropped off. all word of mouth. Had a 47 merc twin cylinder ( dad bought new back then) sold it a few years ago to a collector, 6 or 7 hp- tank on top, rope start, no recoil on those, no reverse. decals were in very good shape for the age. The motor went to bottom of Big Muskego lake, WI a couple times. I do not know the details on that but there is a repaired hole in the bow if the boat so that was likely one of them. Last Time the 57 Merc was used was for trolling Salmon on Lake Michigan in the late 70's.

 

[weimedog]

57 Mecury ( bought new by my dad) 20 hp & Thompson wood boat 12 ft- been in the family since I can remember some 69+ years. They haven't been in the water since the late 70's. trailer for same was made from model A parts- that disappeared somewhere along the line . I do not know if I can resurrect the motor or not and hate to take anywhere as they mostly over charge around here. going to need the pump impeller a tank and the line with proper connector fit the motor ( have no idea what happened to line- tank likely rusted out as I could not find it when I sold the folks place a few years back Used to repair the old Atwater , Kent , Elgin Merc and Johnson's back in 70's and 80's. I get home and there would be a note on the door about whatever someone had dropped off. all word of mouth. Had a 47 merc twin cylinder ( dad bought new back then) sold it a few years ago to a collector, 6 or 7 hp- tank on top, rope start, no recoil on those, no reverse. decals were in very good shape for the age. The motor went to bottom of Big Muskego lake, WI a couple times. I do not know the details on that but there is a repaired hole in the bow if the boat so that was likely one of them. Last Time the 57 Merc was used was for trolling Salmon on Lake Michigan in the late 70's.

LOVE those old mercury's!! I have all the shop tools for them, the 1950's era lower unit/water pump spanners, and a complete set of the ring compressors etc. A hobby for me years ago was building mk58a's ( or any other period four cylinder merc ) STILL have enough parts around including a NOS lower unit for one....and a mk55. I WISH I had the skills to work on the wooden boats. In my collection of very close friends, one has a 20 century is excellent condition. Needs a few cosmetic things but the boat is garaged and solid. HOPING to video it this summer as it will be a project and hoping it gets into the water for the first time in almost 10 years.. ( That task has been assigned to me. )

 

[blades]

back in the 60,s i picked up 6 Old Town cedar strip canoes from a closed camp . They were pretty bad shape - My dad and I rebuilt all six ( 17.5 ft long) sold 4 kept 2 and still have them . The first one we did got a little heavy fiber glass cloth was too heavy ( free) and the resin soaked right through the cloth and in to the cedar strips because they were so dry. That canoe is litterly impervious to anything ( at about 250 # it should be ) went to spun fiberglass mat for the rest, those turned out great. Could not get long enough Oak boards for the gunwales had to laminate for length needed and then steam and bend them in to position took some creative positioning of hydraulic jacks to do that. These were also set up for a sail and a rudder. From the same camp I also brought back 3, 12 ft sail boats don't remember the make but again all wood- rebuilt them and sold them also

 

[grizz55chev]

Never been fishing with this one, but I did make it operational again! it was locked up from having fallen off of whatever boat or canoe it was on long before I came into possession of it. 1937 Elto, 1.1 hp, found a used piston and cylinder from a guy named Doug Penn that has an seemingly endless supply of parts for old outboards!

 

[grizz55chev]

1978 Basstracker, 50hp Merc, 2 stroke, 1996 Chevy Silverado with 310 k on the clock, never had the valve covers off. We caught 20 nice trout that day, threw 10 back to be legal. We’ve had this boat for over 20 yrs, and done a LOT of work on it
,

 

[Duce]

Here is my collection of used boats in heated storage. Wife wants me to sell a couple.

 

[The Lorax]

I had a Ducati Outboard once, small 5hp unit. Parts are impossible to get.
A buddy of mine picked up a Warrenjet in a dumpster, got it working and gave it to a mate of mine.
Old stuff is nice as a hobby but for something like a boat that peoples lives depend on I like modern stuff or at least from the last decade.
Maybe different in a lake or somewhere that is not critical for failure.
Some old stuff is pretty cool in its simplicity, like the British Seagull outboard which looks very similar to the Elto above.

 

[JustPlainJeff]

Spent a boatload ( ) of money on this one, and it gives me as much trouble as any other cheaper boat I've had.

 

[blades]

As I have said before a boat is a hole in the water that one pours money. I have long and short steel tubes that can vaporize money at 1-3000 ft per second.

 

[Huskybill]

Jerry McKinnis the fisherman on the tv show the fishing hole many decades ago said he builds a new wooden row boat every year. This was a time when boats weren’t manufactured in numbers like they are today.

B.O.A.T.= break-out-another-thousand

Pro Bass fishing wouldn’t be where it is today without Jerry he started it all. He’s also in the bass fishing hall of fame. As a kid we watched Jerry and gadaboutgaddis with his float plane.

 

[Huskybill]

My very first income tax return I purchased a new D.A.M. Quick spinning reels and Garcia 5 star rods. That was 53 years ago I still have them. My point is I see my dam quick spinning reels in an antique shop for triple the cost I paid for them. That’s when you know your old when your fishing gear is antique.