New here - 1961? MFG owner

Hey everyone! I found this forum a few days ago and I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm Sadie and I'm into classic boats and cars. I first got interested in boats as a kid when we had a wooden 1940s Peterborough utility boat wash up on the shore of our cottage. We never could figure out who owned it, so we kept it at the cottage as a play boat for my friends and me in the yard. At 15 years old, I bought my first vintage boat, a 1954 15.5' Lyman runabout. After five years of sanding and realization that wooden boats are a pain to maintain, I traded it for a vintage Cadillac ambulance.

My family also has a vintage 16 foot MFG boat. We bought it new in 1961 or 1962. It originally had an 80 or an 85 HP motor on it when we bought it from the dealership, but it now has a '70s 65 HP Mercury on it. From looking at pictures, I think it's a Westfield Deluxe, but I'm not completely sure. Perhaps some of you will know.

Our boat hasn't been in the water in about seven years, but we're looking to get her fixed up and back in the water. We're currently dealing with some logistic issues though. The marina that has been storing our boat hasn't been storing it indoors after all and seems to have lost our trailer. The storage place also says that the transom is rotted out. I haven't been able to verify this myself yet, but if it is, I'll be looking at repairing it with Seacast on my own.

If you'd like to see some pics of our boat, I have some online here. It would be great if some of you could help us confirm what model and year it is. Here's a link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandgirltalk/sets/72157630593540782/with/7523778938/

Here's a couple of old pics of it:

Island3 - 1970 by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr


Island - 1964 19 by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr

And last week:

our sad boat - 1961 MFG by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr

Hope to learn a lot from the forums!
Sadie

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Sadie,
It sure looks like a Westy to me.
First, there should be a plate up near the dash or the throttle controls with the hull #, date of Mfr., HP rating, and the Model.
Second; Try looking on this site: www.fiberglassics.com They have all of the MFG brochures going way back. It might help ID your model and year.
As to the transom: If you can drill a small hole through the fiberglass into the transom, if the wood that comes out on the drill is dry, your transom is probably fine. If it is pasty or mushy, it's rotted.
There are tons of rebuilds and restorations here. Most of us like pictures of what you are doing so we can help. or learn from you. So take copious amounts, and put em here.
Great group of folks on this site. Welcome!

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Yanks, thanks for your help. I checked out the brochures at Fiberglassics the other day and I didn't have much luck as they didn't have much for 1961 models. Once I get my boat back though, I'll start looking for the plate and see what I can find. We've replaced the throttle a couple of times, so hopefully the plate is still there.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Welcome Sadie ! Glad to see you gettin her back in shape . Is the floor deck solid ? I not sure but I think it may have all fiberglass deck and stringers That sure would be a plus.
Good luck and keep us posted !

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

sphelps said:

Welcome Sadie ! Glad to see you gettin her back in shape . Is the floor deck solid ? I not sure but I think it may have all fiberglass deck and stringers That sure would be a plus.
Good luck and keep us posted !

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I was wondering about the stringers actually. I'm really hoping that the floor is solid and so far I haven't heard otherwise from the marina. They just said that the transom is bad. They tried telling us to scrap the boat and buy something newer, but I love vintage glass boats and with this one having a family history, I really want to restore it instead of scrap it. Would the stringers ever have been made out of wood or are they usually metal?

It hasn't been in the water in about seven years and I haven't been in it since then. We should be getting it from the marina this week. Here's hoping all goes well and that we'll be set after the transom repair.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Hi Sadie .... drilling as Yanks suggested is an easy way to tell if the transom is rotted. Be sure and put some tape on the drill bit at about 3/4" from the tip so that you know how deep you have drilled. You want to drill from the inside of the boat and watch the tape so as not to drill all the way thru. If possible you don't want to drill or cut into the outer skin.

My boat is a 1960 and it has the aluminum stringers. I am not real sure what the Westfield had. Good luck on your project and be sure to post lots of pics.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

IslandGirl - I definitely vote for the restore! When you get compliments at the ramp or in-passing on the water it makes you feel great, and there are plenty of folks out there that turn their heads when an old fiberglassic goes by! Hope that your transom isn't rotted, but if it is and you repair it then at least you know it will be in good shape for a long time to come.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Another thing you can do to test the transom is use the motor clamps. Tighten them hard. Does the fiberglass crush in or distort? Mine did on my '61 Oxford and it was horribly rotten! You could also use C-clamps on the top edge and see if it seems solid.

Drilling is a good method. I did my drilling on the outside bottom about 1 inch in at the transom bottom. Within a minute or so water began dripping. I think I drilled three holes across the bottom.

See my Oxford repair thread to see how I repaired mine.

GOOD LUCK!

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Well we managed to get the boat from the old storage place today. It's a complete mess and you can tell that it's been sitting outside for quite some time even though we've been paying for covered storage. Oh well. It will need lots of cleaning and though we haven't done any test drills to check the transom, it is really floppy. If you move the motor, the whole transom bends a lot and it is bowing out. I think I'll be investing in some Seacast soon. I'll keep everyone posted.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

IslandGirlTalk said:

it is really floppy. If you move the motor, the whole transom bends a lot and it is bowing out.

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I might be confusing different models cuz I am tired and brain dead at the moment but I believe the westfield had a curved transom a la wood runabout. While it may be floppy and needing to be replaced it probably is structurally sound enough to survice being repaired. Those curved transom boats usually rot from the splashwell down when they are left uncovered to endure the rain and snow. Which they obviously don't endure very well. Your boat was probably fine when it was sent for storage...

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Hello Island Girl ..

I removed my previous comment as I think I may have goofed. Looking at what little I can see your bow profile made me change my mind.

There are similarities to my boat for sure, but the bow profile will tell the story. If you have straight profile it is not an Oxford. If it rounded it may be ...

How about some more photos? That will help with identification.

ADD: I finally saw the side shot on Flickr ... definitely not an Oxford. Yanks21 says Westfield and I'm inclined to think he's right.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Thanks SteveMFG for providing these details on the model.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

By the way ... your ID plate/sticker is probably on the inside transom "hiding" under the splash tray as mine was.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Thanks to everyone with their help so far. Before saying goodbye to the boat for the winter, I did manage to look a bit more for an info plate. The closest I can find is this metal plate near the motor. I also found out a bit more from my mom about the purchase of the boat. It was a display model at the Cleveland Boat Show. My grandmother fell in love with it and insisted that they buy that exact boat immediately. She didn't want to wait until spring and buy one from a dealer, she wanted that exact display model. I don't know if that would give any explanation as to why there's no info plate near the throttle or not.

I ended up too busy this summer to do a Seacast transom, but the guy who runs the storage place where she is now, offered a good price on replacing the transom, so he worked on it this fall. We got a call from him a couple of weeks ago letting us know that it's done and that it looks great. I'm looking forward to working on her more myself this summer.

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

We used to have an old Edinboro like this one that my Dad bought new. Lots of happy memories in it. Those were great boats and well worth restoring:

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

I realized that it's been a while since I posted an update on my 1961 Westfield, so I thought I'd catch everyone up. This past summer was a pretty good one. We got the Westfield's transom redone over the past winter and it is so great to have that boat back. It had been close to a decade since we had it in the water and after having so much fun on it this summer, we're amazed that we let it sit in storage for so long. A couple times a week we'd take it for morning cruises around Parry Sound and we'd go for sunset cruises regularly too. We also took it on a few day trips too - including a 40 mile round trip visit out to Wreck Island in the Parry Sound area of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron). The new transom is strong and our 1972 Mercury 65hp engine is running wonderfully.

After an afternoon of scrubbing with Simple Green, the floor was looking great. I'm still trying to figure out a way to remove the rust stains that the gas cans left though. Any ideas?

As far as upgrades and additional projects, we are looking to get new seats for the Westfield before next summer and we need to do some repairs to the top. We are also planning on redoing our windshield because there are some cracks on one of the corners. After seeing some of sphelps' pics today though, I'm starting to think that a swim platform / ladder would be pretty awesome too.

Here are some pics of our Westfield on some day trips this past summer:

1961 MFG Westfield boat by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr


Untitled by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr


IMG_5158 by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr

These are the types of sunsets that we enjoy during our sunset cruises:

sunset boat ride by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr

Our dogs have been loving the boat:

best friends by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr

And I definitely have been too:

IMG_4644 by Island Girl Talk, on Flickr

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Glad you made it out on the water this year. The doggies are super cute too!

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Island Girl, Thanks for sharing. It brings back so many wonderful memories of or own MFG from so many years ago!

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

Glad to see ya back ! The Westfield looks great ! Nice job ! I would love to have a set of those MFG step pads ! :tongue1:
Btw . I spent about an hour last night looking through your Flickr photo's .. I must say you are quite the photographer .hoto:
There are some truly beautiful shots ! Wish I had your talent ! :hail:

Re: New here - 1961? MFG owner

kfa4303 said:

Glad you made it out on the water this year. The doggies are super cute too!

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Thanks! They definitely love the boat. We even catch them taking naps in it regularly when it's at the dock.

tazrig said:

Island Girl, Thanks for sharing. It brings back so many wonderful memories of or own MFG from so many years ago!

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No problem.

sphelps said:

Glad to see ya back ! The Westfield looks great ! Nice job ! I would love to have a set of those MFG step pads ! :tongue1:
Btw . I spent about an hour last night looking through your Flickr photo's .. I must say you are quite the photographer .hoto:
There are some truly beautiful shots ! Wish I had your talent ! :hail:

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Thanks for your kind words. Speaking of talent, I wish that I had your talent in terms of boat painting. If you ever want to paint my Westfield, I'll gladly take all of the pics that you want of your boat.