I've had a few inquiries as to whether I'd be willing to sell the boat. I am conflicted about this because the boat is part of my DNA: I have been in this boat since I was eight. At the same time, I am the only person in my family that knows how to run it, repair it, and deal with it, and I live 2,000 miles from where the boat is kept, so it really isn't practical anymore.
Here is some more information about this boat.
I have the original bill of sale, and many other documents. My father bought it on 8/14/1961 and took delivery the following day. He paid $2,788.67, including $260 for the trailer.
The boat saw a lot of service in the first eight years until my brother, sister and I all went off to college. Most of the time it was used on Lake Geneva, with some excursions on the Fox River in Illinois, Golden Lake, WI (where it now resides), and also Lake Michigan. It has been on a few other lakes in northern Wisconsin, but 98% of its use was on those four bodies of water I just named.
During the first two decades, we did all the maintenance ourselves, including servicing the engine and painting and varnishing the hull. Starting in the late 1970s, dad found mechanics on the south side of Chicago ("Bikes & Boats," I think was the name) who did a much better job tuning and repairing the engine than we could. It spent winters in my dad's airplane hanger.
Since the early 1990s most service has been done by a really great guy named Rick at Dave's Turf and Marine in Watertown, WI. If I still had a vehicle with a trailer hitch, I would have towed it there two weeks ago to have this current minor (fuel line) problem repaired, but since my parents died in 2004, and we sold their old station wagon that had a hitch, no one in my family owns a car with a hitch.
Here's a quick rundown of past and then present problems and issues with this boat:
The only major engine problem we had was after the first season when dad didn't know about the drain cock at the bottom of the oil filter. The oil filter housing expanded when the water froze, and the engine leaked oil for several seasons after that. When a mechanic finally diagnosed the problem, we were able to get that completely and totally fixed, and the engine never used oil in the forty-five years after that, and still didn't the last time it was in service in 2003.
The hull and transom are in excellent shape. I found a letter dad wrote ten years ago where he summarized for "Dockside" the history of the boat, and in that letter he says that some of the ribs were replaced about fifteen years ago, something I didn't realize he had done. I am not aware of any current structural issues with the wood, but since it has been in storage for a long time, anything is possible. However, casual inspection did not reveal any problems. The paint is good and probably won't need to be done for several seasons, unless it is outdoors and in the water the entire time. The varnish on most vertical surfaces is in very good shape, but as I indicated in my posts above, the varnish on the top of the engine cover and on the top of the seat lockers has turned somewhat dull.
There are no major scrapes or gouges that I am aware of. A long, long time ago, the boat got beat up pretty badly when moored at a dock at Lake Geneva. The large waves caused the front of the deck to come down hard on top of a pier post, and this lifted and cracked the two railings at the top of deck. This was around 1968. We were able to steam mahogany, bend it, and then stain and finish it so it matches perfectly. There has been no problem with that in over forty years. If I hadn't told you about this, I doubt you would be able to tell that there was any problem.
Current problems that I am aware of start with the fuel line, which of course is what prompted me to start this thread. This is a two-minute fix once the proper part is found or fabricated, so I consider it to be extremely minor. There is a short fuel line made of the same material that connects to the copper fuel line that comes from the fuel tank in the bow (which, BTW, was replaced about fifteen years ago with a larger 20 gallon tank; the original was 16 gallons). It should probably be replaced, since it is the same age as the flexible fuel line that failed. Dad added a second fuel filter directly after the first fuel filter because the carburetor jets kept clogging. Since he added that back in the 1960s, we have never again had that problem.
This engine uses remarkably little fuel, even when water skiing, and with 20 gallons we generally go for many, many days between re-fueling.
The fuel in the tank is seven years old, and although I added the required amount of Stabil, I don't know if the fuel is going to be any good. I changed the engine oil before I last winterized it in 2003, but even though this oil has zero hours of actual use, I'd still change it before putting it back into service. I did not change the rear unit lubrication in 2003 because it was fairly new oil, and there are no combustion products to foul that oil. Obviously that should be replaced before running it for any length of time.
The rear flag mast got lost years ago and dad had one made to match the original. It is slightly less than the original diameter, but otherwise matches perfectly and looks great.
The bilge pump was replaced years ago, and the replacement one works much better than the original. However, it is sometimes a little balky at the beginning of a new season. As soon as it starts turning, it works fine for the rest of the season. However, given how long it has been, that may be a small question mark. Usually all it needs is to get the motor to turn over once to overcome any residual gunk or crust, and it then works just fine.
The prop is in pretty good shape, but is probably due for a minor dressing at some point. We haven't had to deal with the prop much since we started operating exclusively at Golden Lake about twenty-five years ago. It is a mud bottom lake, and you really have to work at it to ding the prop. By contrast, at Lake Geneva with its rock bottom, the prop took a pretty bad beating each year. The prop has a pitch that was recommended for water skiing. When run flat out, the engine turns at about 4,200 rpm with this prop (red line is 4,500).
The trailer didn't work well for the first ten years we owned the boat, but we finally found someone who understood how to set it up, and you can now drive the trailer into the water until the hubs on the trailer almost hit the water and then tilt it up and the boat rolls in. (Dad never liked to get the wheel hubs wet, especially when hot, because he was afraid that the bearings would shed grease and might seize up. Turns out he was right, and it happened to me in 1969 when I was returning to Illinois from Lake Geneva with my girlfriend. Quite an adventure on a deserted Wisconsin road with no way to communicate.)
I'm probably leaving a few things out, but the bottom line is that the boat is in very good condition and the engine has been performing flawlessly for the past twenty years, with a little help from Rich at Dave's Turf & Marine every few years. The big caveat is that it has been sitting in a garage for the past seven years. I was very pleased with how it looked when I had someone take it out and put it in our driveway. Except for a few mice droppings, everything looked great. The canvas top which covers it did not have any holes or rodent damage, and the custom seat cushions (we had them specially made to match the originals) looked to be in excellent condition. I didn't put up the canvas cover that covers the front part of the boat to see if it had any holes. I seem to remember that there were a few small holes the last time I had it up. We still have the original zip-in side curtains for that, but unfortunately lost the back end to that when we left it in the boat while towing and it blew out. However, the full-length cover that dad had custom made many years ago is better than any cover that came with the boat. He even had the cover designer put a reinforced hole in the center, and purchased an adjustable pole to put in that hole. When moored overnight, you put the cover on, erect this pole in the center, and even in a downpour, the water drains down to the outside of the boat. Without the pole, the canvas would crater in front of the engine cover, and the water would eventually find its way into the inside of the boat. If you look carefully at the fifth picture in the linked photo album (below) you'll see what it looks like and how it works.
The horn hasn't worked for years. It is an airhorn and none of us ever bothered to try to find a can of air with the right fittings.
Finally, there is the issue of price. I honestly don't know what is fair. This is not a vintage Chris Craft, which sometimes fetch fantastic prices, but it is nonetheless one of the better-preserved Thompson wood boats from this era that you are likely to come across. My general sense is that somewhere around $4,000 is probably the right number. This is based on various eBay listings, as well as the occasional listing on Thompson Dockside. Here are eBay listings that recently expired:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1959-Tho ... Motorboats
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1964-Tho ... erQ5fBoats
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1960-Tho ... Motorboats
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Thompson ... iesQ5fGear
The third item listed above is probably the closest to my boat in that, while it has a outboard engine, it is a vintage engine. Unlike the other auctions listed above, this auction had a huge amount of activity. I'm not sure why it attracted 27 bids, whereas the others had none. Perhaps it is in a more desirable location for the seller. However, it didn't sell because the seller had a reserve that was higher than the $3,350 final bid.
I hope this is useful. Feel free to ask as many questions as you like. I'm sure I have left out details that may be important.
John Meyer
P.S. Here is a link to several photos of the boat. The first five show the boat two weeks ago (when I originally posted, I didn't know these existed because my sister took them). You saw two of these in my postings above. The remaining three show the boat the last time it was in the water in 2003. The picture of it on the Shorestation at the pier is meant to show you how it is stored when on the lake. In the past twenty-five years, it has never been on the lake for more than three weeks a season and has spent 98% of that time up on the Shorestation. So, after a lot of use in the first decade, it has seen very light use in its later years.
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