Re: where " R " all the Springbok boat guys
A - ha! The Springbok fraternity lives!
Here's mine - a '70 (I think) 14 footer that my Dad gave me when I was about 9 years old. I grew up in this thing, first using a Johnson 2 hp, then a 9.9 then finally the Merc 7.5 you see on it. We added side console steering when I was in my early teens. I spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours exploring the local lake with my buddies or just my dog. As Sasto says in his sig - Best Of All Times.....
By my mid teens I felt I had outgrown it (the stupidity of youth) and preferred to use my parents bigger runabout. It sat mouldering away for a good 30 years behind the garage at the lake, biding its time, waiting patiently for me to come to my senses (at least I wasn't dumb enough to sell it)
Well, fast forward a bunch o years, done with school, got a career, got a spouse and, whaddaya know, my own kid turned 10 last summer. I decided I would attempt to do some refurbishing work on the hull and motor, see if it could be made seaworthy again so I could give it to him. I loved the idea of seeing a third generation of the scoutabout clan take up where I left off in the very same boat.
She's awfully ratty now but we dragged it out from its overgrown, vine tangled resting place to take a look. My son went to town with the pressure washer, blasted all manner of dirt, moss, and other crud out of and off of it, we cleaned decades worth of leaves out too, and when I popped the back off the console to check the steering, cleaned a couple of nests out of the works, then we stood back and took stock.
She needed some holes fixed, I replaced the rotten transom insert, reinforced some fatigue cracks in the hull and got the old merc going again thanks to some doner motor parts and some help from a sympathetic mechanic (new stuff from merc, what little is available for this motor is stupid expensive)
She still needs some paintwork and rewiring and the merc isn't quite fettled yet, but here are a couple of pics from last summer. I swear, getting my little buddy behind the wheel to teach him some boat handling just like my dad did when I was his age was one one the best moments I've had in recent memory. He just loves it, warts and all. I know I've posted before about this but begging your indulgence, here I go again...
Unearthed into light of day once more...
She floats! Sorta...say, what's with the oil slick forming around the engine...? And my, doesn't this transom flex rather alarmingly...
New transom insert fabbed, varnished, and installed and rusted fasteners replaced; steering cable lubed, new old ignition bits installed along with new impeller and gearcase seals; rotted sections of fuel line replaced along with cracked primer bulb.
Sea Squirt rides again!!
The kid drops the hammer. We make maybe 12 knots....thanks to a following sea...
The face says it all...
EDIT - jeez, all my rambling almost qualifies as its own mini resto thread. Maybe I'll try to copy this post over...
Hay just wanted 2 know where all the Springbok owners are and if they could show some pic,s of their boats and how long U had it & please comment 
