Hey, by the way, this Islander has a name too...
SNOWDAY BLESSING
The Building of a 1976 22? Starcraft Islander
I've been around canoes, kayaks, and boats all my life and have always loved the massive inland oceans our great state provides. There's nothing quite like catching the sunrise over the open freshwater seas.
In the fall of 2009 I started to look for a big aluminum boat that the family and I could enjoy out on the big water. Something new was financially out of the question and even a good used boat was tens of thousands of dollars. My budget was a few hundred bucks. So it was obvious this boat needed to be free, or just about free, and would likely need to be completely rebuilt, bow to stern. I've never rebuilt a boat before, I hope this works!
In my search I happened to find an old Islander on craigslist for cheap. I tried to contact the fella probably a dozen times to check it out, no response. So I gave up thinking it was sold or whatever. The search continued...
A month or two later, just on a whim I gave him a call one more time, he answered and said he actually still had it! Wouldn't you know it, the next day, we had a SNOWDAY! With a day off of school Ryan and I headed out to get a few random things done. I got a hold of the Islander owner again and he said "come check it out". So, I called Jennifer right away and asked her if we could go take a look. She was pretty reluctant to give me the green light. I said "Jen, I think I may end up buying this boat and I know it will be a big project to get it back on the water. I need you behind me and I gotta have your blessing on this, otherwise, I probably shouldn't do it." She said "OK, alllllright, you have my BLESSING, go ahead."
SNOWDAY - What in the world do snowdays and boats have in common? On January 7th and 8th we had a healthy Michigan mid winter blizzard with enough snow to shut down schools. While most folks are sleeping in, or watching movies and drinking hot chocolate, or going sledding on the local hills we instead decide to head out to a backwoods metal scrap yard in the middle of nowhere, to look at a boat??? What in the world?
Just about everything on this project has been random, unlikely, sideways, challenging, far fetched, or totally absurd. And it began with me standing knee deep in snow, eyeballing a boat from the mid 70's that another guy didn't think was worth anything, and threw it away. Ryan couldn't even make it through some of those snowdrifts that day, he was so confused about what we were doing there. On the return trip along 94/69 we were being passed by guys pulling trailers with snow machines on them, and there I was pulling a trailer with a big metal boat on it. I know they were looking at me like I was completely nuts.
The building of this boat was a stretch to be sure. It started with the OMC Stringer driveline that went the way of the dinosaurs and the project worked towards completion by chopping the top right off of this cabin boat. All through the rebuild of this old boat I used parts from dozens of other boats, parts that had really no business being on an old piece of garbage like this. The Mercruiser V6 came out of a Baja speed boat and then the replacement V8 came out of a Sea Ray from the late 80?s. The blower scoops came from a classic Chris Chraft, the fuel tanks came out of fiberglass boats that were destined for the dump, and the ships wheel came out of a gigantic Hatteras yacht worth way more than my house. And on an on...
Snowdays and boats? Unlikely pairing in any context. Not here, this old Islander was way out in left field right from the start. So let's call her
SNOWDAY.
BLESSING - I knew full well that I needed Jen's blessing to take this on. I knew it would be a long road, a big project, and would eat up time that could be spent doing other things. Sure, it would be a sacrifice on my part putting in the time to make it happen, but she would be sacrificing my time too. While this boat from the 70's has been rebuilt we still have a pea green bathroom from the 70's that is desperate for a rebuild.
Along the way, during the journey, this Islander project took a little different feel though. My work, my day job, seemed to really become quite stressful and difficult. Through that time there were expectations that were entirely unrealistic. I couldn't do what needed to be done, the work load and complexity involved simply wasn't possible. But, this old boat, while complex and certainly difficult, was fixable. It was possible. I couldn't sleep very well through that time and would wake up very early in the morning to work on it. I'd begin the day with even just a little bit of progress on it. I could see tangible, real results from putting something back together. Success, what a great way to start the day! As, I knew the rest of the day likely wouldn't be so successful.
In the fall of 2010 we found out that Ethan had a mass at the base of his brain. This was growing and causing him to struggle with his breathing. He needed surgery. Brain surgery basically. This time was easily the darkest days of my life. I was scared. Ethan needed help and I could not fix it. There wasn't a thing I could do. I remember vividly the day I held him in the operating room as he drifted off to sleep and I handed him over to the team of Docs at U of M. I think I probably aged 10 years in just those few moments of time. Round about this same time frame I also happened to be working on the engine that would be the heart of this Islander. Outside of a routine oil change I have never wrenched on anything engine related. Though here I was able to get the old Chevy V6 to come to life sitting on a pallet in my drive! I felt like a magician! I felt like I could fix anything! Though, I couldn't help Ethan in his time of need, I couldn't fix what he had broken inside of him. I'm forever thankful to the team at U of M that they could, E walked away from that surgery 100%! And the old boat has been a blessing all along. I was actually able to fix and rebuild things that it needed fixed and rebuilt.
Through the summer of 2011 mom was fighting with a very aggressive form of cancer. Dad took her to the best of the best in an effort to help her. While we thought there might have been some progress along the way, by late summer we knew time was short and the cancer would overtake our efforts. Through this time mom was an absolute rock. The rest of us were kind of a mess. All of us felt entirely inadequate and helpless. I'm sure even the Docs felt this way. I would often see the pain and fear in dad, Shea and Jen that they were losing their wife and mother. I really wished there was something I could do to ease mom's pain or take away my family's fear. I couldn't do it, I couldn't fix it. The old boat in the shop was about all I could fix at that time and for that I'm so glad. Sadly, my hands couldn't help the tragedy that was unfolding right in front of me. In the end it was Jesus who healed mom and took away her pain. He did what none of us could and took her Home, and that is to be celebrated! While watching the progress on the Islander mom would often say to me "I can't wait to go for a boat ride!" She was always up for an adventure! I am so sad I didn't get this boat on the water in time for her, but, I'm at peace knowing that someday we'll go for all the boat rides we want together on the other side of eternity.
A boat a blessing? Sure, tubing, boat rides, fishing and more will be a ton of fun for this family! But, this Islander has been way more that just that. This chunk of aluminum has helped me through the most difficult times in my life. By building her and fixing her and making her healthy again, I felt worth and value and able while in other areas of my world I felt entirely inadequate and quite helpless. What a blessing she has been along the way. So, let's call her
BLESSING, SNOWDAY BLESSING!
