antique boat

[phil]

when I was about 13 my dad bought an old marina and with it it had several old boats. he brought one of them home and restored it at that time. we used it lots and when I was about 35 I brought it home. I didn't get to it and my dad took over the project and restored it a second time. he replaced most of the ribs and some of the planking. It all had to be steamed and bent to shape. As you can see nothing is square , every part is a special shape. its professionally built. I'm guessing it's over 100 years old. Its rare since most rotted away long ago but it is also very special to me because it brings good memories. It's full of hand made square nails.

It leaked and we didn't use it but it sat upside down in the sun for a few years. Now I just brought it home and want to restore the hull again. Its so nice to fish with just oars or to take the lady for a romantic ride, its easy to launch and handle. it will take a small motor but its nicer to just row it.

it is unsinkable. If this boat is flipped over in the water it simply flips back. my dad tried to sink it by loading it with steel to get the paint of once and it simply dumped the steel and righted itself like magic. The design is very traditional. some lifeboats share the design but are larger usually.

its about 13 feet, two people can easily lift it. I have never seen another boat so nice to row. It has a displacement hull which means it glides through the water but only up to a certain speed. you pull on the oars and wait it just glides a minute , then you go again.

I want to learn more and to restore it again. rather than epoxy there is a tar like substance ( oakum) that you pack between the planks. boats like this normally leak when dry but then swell and tighten up if kept in the water.
I took a pic of the inside, its still nice. there is a stain from a wasp nest in the photo.

He didn't' put the name back on it but her name is Joli, which is half his name and half my moms name and also means happy (or jolly? ) in french.

when he chose the paint for the hull, he was misled by a paint salesman. He was told it was epoxy but it wasn't a two part epoxy. I really want to find out what is the best way to treat it , some boards are a bit checked. Its cedar with oak ribs. im not sure what type of paint it should have but that's important here obviously.

[Manalto]

It's an elegant boat, Phil. It must be special to you with its family history. Your description of the design is a fascinating glimpse into the past of boat making and the ingenuity of its designers. I hope you will post photos of the restoration in progress.

[Lily left the valley]

Loved the story! Love the boat!

Pine Tar is a traditional wooden boat finish. Of course you'd have to strip off whatever epoxies were used over the years so it could really soak into the wood and do its thing.

Looking forward to updates about this.

[1918ColonialRevival]

That should be a fun project, especially with the family history behind it.

In the first few decades of the 1900s, rental row-boats were very popular in areas that had lakes, bays, or other areas with water that was usually calm. People would rent them by the hour or day. I would imagine this is what your boat started life as.

A quick search of the builder revealed that A.C. Benson Shipyard operated in Vancouver under that name between 1925 and 1938. A little more info can be found here:

http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/benson-shipyards-fonds

By the way - it looks like someone is also a Volvo collector.

[phil]

Thanks so much Lily !
that document sheds a lot of light on the products used.
I have a part can of oakum that dad was using. Im thinking about joining the wooden boat society as they should be able to provide some expertise and they might be interested in the history, or be able to shed more light on it's age and what to use that is available. .

It also sheds a little light on what we were talking about with comparisons of real turpentine to that of the modern day alternatives. a lot of us probably still have plumbing fittings that used oakum to seal the cast iron pipes. i just finished replacing the trap for my bathtub. i took it into a modern but large plumbing supplier and the guy behind the counter said he'd never seen a trap like that. I replaced it with plastic because it is just easier to deal with if it plugs, but the old cast is quiet.

It's possible to make a fiberglass mold off a boat and to reproduce more from fiberglass. the boat in the background is sort of like that but the hull isn't the same shape. most modern boats were designed for fishing motors. i thought of repairing it the fibergalsss is a bit old and weakened and Im not sure its worth a lot of effort. Ive rowed aluminum boats and such and they are so much less efficient for rowing. most have flat bottoms.

we still have the property in the family. the wind there tends to pick up between late afternoon and evening, often its calm as glass in the morning. some think they will go out in canoes but they are very dangerous in rough water. it gets gusty. Ive had a few scary moments when we went sailing or boating and the motor died. the thin I like about this boat is that it is so little , it is easy to carry and launch and I can take it to local lakes or small lakes where motors are banned and so it is simpler and cheap to operate.

my dad also restored a wooden sailboat. it is 21 feet, with a cabin with cots to sleep in. it has three sails including the spinnaker It also has fallen under disrepair and needs love but it is a larger project. it also has a drop keel and a displacement hull. I could have it if I have the ambition to restore it. Its also quite old and rare with a whole lot of beautiful woodwork. we had some fun with it when it was in the water but it also takes some knowledge and experience to handle it in strong gusty winds. I had a few experiences where I was just scared.
I have a speedboat as well , from the early 80's with a 85 horse force engine. force was bought by mercury. it runs and I took it out a few times and it would run great for a mile and then die. I think its a problem with the ignition. the trailer has surge brakes and I rebuilt the brakes. I bought a few parts for the motor and hope to get it going more reliably. that one is 19 feet and quite stable , so long as the motor doesn't quit. paddling a speedboat is an exercise in frustration so its safer if you have someone to watch that you get home with the ability to tow you in or at least a strong fishing motor. the raccoons ate my seats but that shouldn't be too difficult. its got a glass windshield so it isn't all fogged like many of the older speedboats.
the old car in the background is my volvo 122. Ive owned it for about 35 years. I haven't driven it for a few years and it needs a new clutch cylinder which I obtained. i poured a whole lot of love into that car, it has some rust but its still funky and fun to drive. I did a lot to it to make it a bit more powerful without jeopardizing the originality too much. Now that I have the majority of my roof underway Im dying to give these things some love. I have a few volvo 740s in the background. Im trying to get some of those going too. parts became scarce so I bought a couple of them for parts. They aren't too fancy but reliable and I feel more comfortable working on them than the newer stuff. I also have a volvo 240 and it's a workhorse but I did rebuild the motor and put a lot of parts in so it's ugly and faded but still nice to drive. I owned a lot of 240's and had a lot of fun keeping them going. I liked them a lot because they made so many and didnt change things unnecessarily. once they got into the more proprietary and complicated cars and started breaking the mold each year I lost interest and I really havent found a newer car that I like working on so Im stuck in the 80's I have an old 80's ford van too and its also quite utilitarian.

I probably have a lifetime of projects saved up but at least I'm never going to be bored Ive never had a car loan or bought one that didn't need work and I've only taken it to a mechanic two or three times when I felt really stuck. I seem to have trouble staying on the same subject.. seems I've veered off from old houses. thought the boat might be of interest anyway as a lot are into antiques and other restorations as well.

[Lily left the valley]

Thanks so much Lily !

You are most welcome. I've been on a few different boats in salt and fresh water, but I don't think any rowboat I've been in had a fin like that. Seems like it would be a dream to tool around in, indeed.

My mom's mom's dad (my great grandpop Carlson though we just called him grandpop Carlson) emigrated to the U.S. from Sweden when he was 9 years old with his family. They were fishermen, and that's what they did once here, and that's what he did with all his boys on a larger commercial boat he later owned which my grandfather, a Philly fella that married the shore gal ended up working on as a result before he later joined the Marine Police (he retired, I think, before it became a division of the State Troopers).

Two of my grand uncles (? brothers of my grandmother--I'm so bad with family tree labels, but I do recall calling him just uncle though he was my Nana's brother,) swore they'd never go back out to sea after they almost died in a storm pretty much similar to the the one there's a book and so on about. One instead quit fishing and became an inventor, and made his living off some device that roiled up the ocean floor to make clams easier to catch and a few other inventions. The other went back on his word and later died at sea on a fishing boat in a different storm.

Every summer, we'd (grandkids of a certain age group) go fishing with Pop-pop often until we were old enough to get summer jobs and even then we might go on our day off. The first boat I barely remember was a wooden Kris Kraft. Later he replaced it with a fiberglas one, though I don't recall why the switch as I was still very young.

We'd leave so very early, and go so far out in that little thing you couldn't see the shoreline and fish for flounders for hours. He had a CB radio he would use to let our Nana know when he'd be setting out and coming back. Lunch was a can of soda with ritz cracker sandwiches, but I alone only ate cheese ones because I am allergic to peanut butter which he always teased me about how I had to make things difficult and not eat PB. Sometimes we'd troll for blues on the way back in the channel. If we caught a small shark or a skate, he'd toss them in the cooler (usually after banging the sharks against the side of the boat "to stun it") then when he wanted, he'd pull out his portable cutting board with the big gripper teeth clamp to keep the fish in place on the board by their tail as the boat rocked with the waves to cut them up to use them for bait strips because their skin was hard for the fish to nibble off the hook without us noticing the differently bobbing, jerking rods. Normally we'd use minnows we had traps for at the dock, and we'd always have one of the plastic ones that could hold a decent amount of water inside the boat splashing when the boat slapped down crossing wave crests as we traveled, but the trap would go back in the water safely secured to a cleat when we stopped to fish. He'd often pair the minnows along with strips of squid he'd precut and stored in a reused glass jar stashed in the cooler when there was no shark or skate catch that day. All the extra bits after we'd go back and he'd clean that day's catch were used in the garden as fertilizer (they always had a big garden, a remnant of growing up in the Depression and war times.)

We caught enough flounder every summer we'd still be eating it at Lent. (They had a huge upright freezer for fish and veggies and all sorts of things.)

Good memories.

[phil]

That should be a fun project, especially with the family history behind it.

In the first few decades of the 1900s, rental row-boats were very popular in areas that had lakes, bays, or other areas with water that was usually calm. People would rent them by the hour or day. I would imagine this is what your boat started life as.

A quick search of the builder revealed that A.C. Benson Shipyard operated in Vancouver under that name between 1925 and 1938. A little more info can be found here:

http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/benson-shipyards-fonds

By the way - it looks like someone is also a Volvo collector.

Yes it did. It was formerly owned by a little fishing lodge and we do have many historical pictures from the early days. many were of tourists displaying their daily catch. The fish are a lot bigger than one would expect to catch today.
when we bought our place we found trunks of letters and a lot were in french.
the original site of the shipbuilder was on false creek , which was industrial land, it was used as the expo 86 site and now it's a busy downtown area full of high rise apartments.
I didn't actually get into pictures of the ships but there seem to be a lot of large vessels that were made locally by this company.
Perhaps more boats like this were used to get on and off the larger vessels or maybe it was a sideline for the shipbuilder to make tiny boats as well.

we have the trailer. It is like a little wooden box with a V cut so the boat drops on top. the wheels have metal spokes. I think there is even a spare wheel. we have another old trailer there, it had wooden wheels. we once had a grass fire and it got dangerously close to our buildings, it burned one of the wheels but then the wind changed direction and it blew itself out.
we originally had about 6 boats all very old and unusable.

[Gothichome]

Phill, I see a late 60’s p122. How often do you get that out on the road? Nice story on the row boat. Once you finish it, it will once again look grand and most definitely nostalgic on the water.

[phil]

yes it's a 1966 122s. it was made in Canada so it says"canadian " on the back. the P might be from your memories of the p1800 like in that show "the saint" it shares the mechanical components but it's lower, a sports car style. there is an older rounded body style called the 444 or 544 as well. the 122 and the p1800 had wagon versions and the there was a fairly rare one called a "duett" that is like a 544 but a panel wagon. between those models and the 240 they made the 140 series in 2 door, 4 door and wagon, not many of those got restored. the 140's shared the older push-rod engine, then they transformed over to the newer overhead cam aluminum head engines like the 240. these were all robust engines. Eventually with the 850 they went to a 5 cylinder and from there forward got more and more over-complicated. all those older engines were coined "redblocks" they were nice castings. earlier ones usually had dual SU's but later they went to fuel injection. lots of the 240's still survive as daily runners. many have over 400 K. they didnt retool every year back then, they just made updates where it made sense so I always liked the older models. They were easy to get parts for, easy to service and they made sense without over complication. My 122S has about 3 fuses. the wiring diagram for the seats alone in a newer volvo is more complicated.

I've owned it since 1985. It hasn't' run in 3 years but it will. The only issue is that the clutch master cylinder leaked its fluid. Historically I had a lot of issues with the rubber seals in the slave cylinder leaking but then I switched to silicone fluid and it lasted for like 20 years. I switched the brakes to silicone too. I have those clutch parts ready to go. It has a few rust issues but it's a solid old car.
in my younger years I did a lot to it. Ive rebuilt the engine, bored it to 2 litres, balanced it , polished the ports. put on a head from a fuel injected one with bigger valves, hotter cam. I added overdrive so it can do 120K, there is a highway up to our summer place and the speeds are higher so 140 K is a common speed.. the inner fenders were rusted , I made new inner fenders, some of the trunk and floors were rusty and I replaced most of that or lapped new parts over the old with bolts. I replaced the wheel arches and painted it long ago and it's coming back but it's still fun. I bought a couple of spare parts cars and used a lot of the parts. I put rear axle gears like a 123GT so it is geared more appropriately. I replaced all the bearings in the rear axle. I made some new suspension parts, had new coil springs made, a wee bit stiffer. i made new pistons out of stainless for the front calipers, the back are drum brakes. . I had a upholsterer do some work on the upholstery and it's pretty stock looking inside. It will never really be one of the cars that is super sought after or win any marque events for originality because there are others with more money. and mine is a 4 door but I like it. they made more 4 door versions but now there are more 2 door models left.

I've done all the brakes and most of the other stuff you dont really think about like door hinges and things. It could use a bit more work on the body and a new paint job but its fun to drive. it has dual SU carbs. i used a 2 into 1 manifold from 1967. i have the overrider bar on the front bumper that was from an earlier version. I put larger jets because it's now a 2 liter. the wiring is very basic. no computer parts. I put lighter rods from one engine and heavier crank from another and balanced it , the thing will really rev up and sounds cool. I still have the origional "peashooter" exhaust. I put a cutout in it and if I open that up it will really go but then it gets loud. I would like to get a larger exhaust made up. i experimented at adding a steel ball and a spring so if it had higher back pressure it would open but at idle it sounds like a sewing machine. it worked but it sort of rattled so I closed it off.
I have a Volvo 240 that I had sitting for a long time. last weekend i gave it a good wash, fired it up and we went on the highway , put about 500 K on it and it was fine. I rebuilt the engine in that years ago and it still runs great but it looks quite old and faded.
with the 122 I tried my best to keep as much as i could looking original. it's kind of a sleeper because it really does go.
I didn't lighten the flywheel , I shift slowly as it takes time for the revs to drop. its a lot different to drive than a muscle car, It just never had serious power, like it wont light up the tires without serious abuse, but if I doubleclutch down and mat it it will really take off, even while pulling a heavy trailer! Its a bit like a tractor too. you can drop the clutch and then step on the gas, or you can start in 3rd. most modern cars would just stall if you tried things like that. . Its got a really wide power band I guess. it will happily motor along at about 100 MPH all day long so it's nice for long drives. I sort of got to feeling like I want to drive like crazy in it so I mostly just keep it in my car tent and every now and then take it to the summer place for a longer highway drive. these cars used to be used in rallys and things and there is some good footage of old rally driving. It sort of leans with an attitude and then you can basically drift through corners. Often old Volvos were referred to as Swedish bricks because they sort of handle like you are driving a brick and the 240's and 740's were pretty square looking.

Ive got three volvo 740's one is a wagon and I was running that then it had starting issues. I bought the two blue ones for parts the 240 and the 740 share a lot of parts, same engines etc. so I sort of stick with that era.

here is a little ad that was put out by volvo. I think that one is about a 1964. its quite humorous but Ive subjected it to a lot of hard driving like that and it really did take it. Cheaper than psychiatry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXyW6fWE5I8