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Years ago, I started a slow-but-steady campaign to convince my buddy Tom Richards that he needed to someday sell me--or trade to me--what he considered to be the crown jewel of his large boat collection...a super rare 1939 Lyman 21-foot Deluxe Runabout.
If you're familiar with Lymans, you know that virtually all "classic" Lymans were built in the late 1950s through the late 1960s. There's a large and enthusiastic Lyman cult, mostly centered back East where the lapstrake inboard and outboard boats were built, but very few Lymans exist from the 1930s or earlier.
In any case, my long-running campaign of water torture finally paid off recently, when Tom called and allowed that maybe, just maybe, we could work out some kind of deal for the '39 Lyman, since he'd concluded--facing a formidable list of other projects--that he might never get around to restoration of the big, old Lyman sedan.
As usual, I was boat rich but dollar poor and couldn't begin to entertain buying the Lyman, so after some discussion Tom agreed to give me two boats--the '39 Lyman and a 1932 Chris-Craft Model 300 (15-1/2-foot inboard project boat, which he'd purchased from me several years ago), in trade for our '58 Skagit inboard runabout.
I hated to see the Skagit go since it was clean and functional, but being hopeless addicted to unique projects I was thrilled to end up with a boat as rare and original as the Lyman 21-footer. As far as Tom knows, there is only one other Lyman 21-foot Deluxe runabout from the late 1930s in all of North America, and it's owned by a guy Back East. None of the early Lyman 21's have ever been spotted in the West, and it's extremely unlikely that another one exists as intact as the one I horse-traded for with Tom.
So, even though I've generally been shedding projects and I'm down a net of about a dozen boats compared to a few years ago, I was happy to adopt the genteel old Lyman, and take back the cute little 1932 Chris-Craft runabout.
I won't have time to throw myself headlong into the Lyman project for awhile (customers come first, as always), but I'll peck away at it and hope to have the boat in the water by the summer or 2012. Fortunately, it's mostly a big refinish project, with not that many structural issues to deal with. The only mechanical challenge will be engine-related, since the boat currently has a Chrysler 318 marine engine with V-drive...a strange arrangement for this particular hull, which orginally had a straight-shaft Gray Marine six-cylinder flathead (125 hp, 33 mph according to Lyman literature). So I'll probably put a vintage flathead six back in the boat...either a Gray Marine or maybe a Chrysler Crown. (Anybody know of a good-running old flathead?)
The disease continues to run amok, unabated and only occasionally treated.
Below, to the left, is a 1939 Lyman factory photo of the 21-foot Deluxe Runabout. Other photos show Tom's Lyman on Spanaway Lake about 10 years ago, and today under one of my larger canopies.
Let the games begin...
- Marty
If you're familiar with Lymans, you know that virtually all "classic" Lymans were built in the late 1950s through the late 1960s. There's a large and enthusiastic Lyman cult, mostly centered back East where the lapstrake inboard and outboard boats were built, but very few Lymans exist from the 1930s or earlier.
In any case, my long-running campaign of water torture finally paid off recently, when Tom called and allowed that maybe, just maybe, we could work out some kind of deal for the '39 Lyman, since he'd concluded--facing a formidable list of other projects--that he might never get around to restoration of the big, old Lyman sedan.
As usual, I was boat rich but dollar poor and couldn't begin to entertain buying the Lyman, so after some discussion Tom agreed to give me two boats--the '39 Lyman and a 1932 Chris-Craft Model 300 (15-1/2-foot inboard project boat, which he'd purchased from me several years ago), in trade for our '58 Skagit inboard runabout.
I hated to see the Skagit go since it was clean and functional, but being hopeless addicted to unique projects I was thrilled to end up with a boat as rare and original as the Lyman 21-footer. As far as Tom knows, there is only one other Lyman 21-foot Deluxe runabout from the late 1930s in all of North America, and it's owned by a guy Back East. None of the early Lyman 21's have ever been spotted in the West, and it's extremely unlikely that another one exists as intact as the one I horse-traded for with Tom.
So, even though I've generally been shedding projects and I'm down a net of about a dozen boats compared to a few years ago, I was happy to adopt the genteel old Lyman, and take back the cute little 1932 Chris-Craft runabout.
I won't have time to throw myself headlong into the Lyman project for awhile (customers come first, as always), but I'll peck away at it and hope to have the boat in the water by the summer or 2012. Fortunately, it's mostly a big refinish project, with not that many structural issues to deal with. The only mechanical challenge will be engine-related, since the boat currently has a Chrysler 318 marine engine with V-drive...a strange arrangement for this particular hull, which orginally had a straight-shaft Gray Marine six-cylinder flathead (125 hp, 33 mph according to Lyman literature). So I'll probably put a vintage flathead six back in the boat...either a Gray Marine or maybe a Chrysler Crown. (Anybody know of a good-running old flathead?)
The disease continues to run amok, unabated and only occasionally treated.
Below, to the left, is a 1939 Lyman factory photo of the 21-foot Deluxe Runabout. Other photos show Tom's Lyman on Spanaway Lake about 10 years ago, and today under one of my larger canopies.
Let the games begin...
- Marty
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