I've been a long time lurker here, but finally joined up as I'm about to start on a complete resto/repair. So that being said, I'm a "noobie" so take it easy on me!
Hey KC, does this look familiar??
My father, who retired from GE after 40 years went into a marina on Lake St. Claire here in lower Michigan in the summer of 1989 and bought this boat brand new. He had worked his entire adult life never doing anything for or buying anything for himself. He always put his family before himself. When he retired, my mother insisted he do something for himself as a reward for all of his hard work and this is what he chose.
We fished this boat hard on the Great Lakes, fishing the scum line on Lake Michigan for Skamania steelhead and kings sometimes 20+ miles offshore. We fished the spring kings on Lake Huron, summer walleyes in Saginaw Bay and Lake Erie. As the years passed, my fathers health started to fail and it became impossible for him to handle the boat both physically and financially. Through the years I had spent a fair amount of money in fuel, upkeep and repairs so when the time came my father simply gave the boat to me. We continued to fish until he became so ill that he could no longer go. The picture you see was from 8+ years ago, when it made it's last trip on the water on Lake Erie. After that trip, we discovered that the boats stringers and transom were rotten.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I'd finally resolved myself to do what I had to and finally get rid of it by stripping in down and chain sawing it up and hauling it off to the dump. I took my saw, fueled it up and walked out to the boat. It's a terrible mess compared to what you see in that picture, but I'll get into that in my own thread later. Anyway, as I looked upon it, my mind was flooded with visions of the past and of my father and I and the incredible adventures we'd shared and I wept. You see, my father passed away a year and a half ago and I miss him terribly, so standing there with a chain saw in my hand thinking of sawing up one of the biggest joys of my life and my fathers dream broke me down and I sobbed like a child. Something changed in me at that moment, and I knew what I had to do. I put the saw away, and I'm now going to make this boat 10x better than it was new. I joined this site, and on the first day saw your journey and felt compelled to jump in and tell you my story. I look forward to watching you realize your goals and can't wait to see it get splashed!!
Sorry everyone for the novel, but it just kept pouring out of me! :embarassed:
Marc
So yesterday when I got home in the morn...I grinded out the transom area where the old deck drains were. As I said real crappy no access area and the both were sealed with silicone to the liner. So here's a note to yap about. The liner comes on the insides hull. They are integral to the outside as well as your flat area that holds the rods for lack of a better word...oh yea yea...gunnels. The floor rests on that portion inside the boat. There is a gap along the entire perimeter of the floor where the liner comes down to meet. So look at it as a floating floor made stable by the ply deck.
