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HI, I'm Scott McDade. My wife Fran and I have lived in La Conner since 1983. We are in our early 60s. I do corporate communications work for industrial clients (brochures, web sites, display ads); and I teach drama in the local middle and high school part time (an earlier career that got sidetracked). Fran volunteers in the schools and is finishing her degree at Skagit Valley College this spring. She cared for my folks for a couple years here in our home until they passed away last year, and she's still sort of winding down from that more-than-full-time job.
Over the years we did a fair amount of sailing on my folk's 29' Columbia, but it wasn't until last summer that we got bitten by the classic boat bug. We'd been introduced to Skagits by my childhood friend Doug Dow, who's restoring a Tyee down on Bainbridge Island. Then we got a closer look at several other Skagits at last summer's La Conner Classic show, where we met Bill Roberts and saw a couple of Clint Stroebel's boats. Two months later we were proud owners of a Skagit 20 Express that was in pretty good condition; took it out the first weekend we owned it and the ol' Merc 115 actually worked!
I should clarify: FRAN is the proud owner of the Skagit 20. She had been talking about her "picnic boat" for many long years, and the Skagit seemed like the answer. And hey, if your wife is insisting that you get a boat, what's a guy to do? Boating - and the whole business of restoring a classic boat - seems like a good way to head into retirement years. We enjoy working on stuff together, so it may be okay. Remember, it's HER boat.
Of course, it didn't take us long to discover that classic boats are a more infectious disease than we had realized. A couple months later I saw a Craigslist ad for a Skagit 25. I didn't know it at the time but it was one of the boats in Marty's Park-and-Hide lot. It was cheap. "HONEY, IT'S ONLY FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS! HOW CAN WE GO WRONG??" Yea, yea, I can hear you all laughing all the way up here in La Conner.
Of course, Fran's not exactly delighted that some of our precious little discretionary money and time has to fund MY boat project now. But Marty's shop is going to do all the hard stuff, right? Well, as my friends say about my various hair-brained projects, good luck with that. We'll keep you posted.
Oh, I started the process of restoration this weekend, tearing out the old fiberglass fuel tanks. Seems that the Moeller 24 gallon replacements may be too big. Should we get the 19 gallon versions instead? I'd love to hear from any of you who have done similar replacements.
We're planning to make the trip to Friday Harbor on June 6th. We'll be the smokey, stinky, noisy one with that beast of a Merc! But we'll get there. Looking forward to meeting you.
Over the years we did a fair amount of sailing on my folk's 29' Columbia, but it wasn't until last summer that we got bitten by the classic boat bug. We'd been introduced to Skagits by my childhood friend Doug Dow, who's restoring a Tyee down on Bainbridge Island. Then we got a closer look at several other Skagits at last summer's La Conner Classic show, where we met Bill Roberts and saw a couple of Clint Stroebel's boats. Two months later we were proud owners of a Skagit 20 Express that was in pretty good condition; took it out the first weekend we owned it and the ol' Merc 115 actually worked!
I should clarify: FRAN is the proud owner of the Skagit 20. She had been talking about her "picnic boat" for many long years, and the Skagit seemed like the answer. And hey, if your wife is insisting that you get a boat, what's a guy to do? Boating - and the whole business of restoring a classic boat - seems like a good way to head into retirement years. We enjoy working on stuff together, so it may be okay. Remember, it's HER boat.
Of course, it didn't take us long to discover that classic boats are a more infectious disease than we had realized. A couple months later I saw a Craigslist ad for a Skagit 25. I didn't know it at the time but it was one of the boats in Marty's Park-and-Hide lot. It was cheap. "HONEY, IT'S ONLY FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS! HOW CAN WE GO WRONG??" Yea, yea, I can hear you all laughing all the way up here in La Conner.
Of course, Fran's not exactly delighted that some of our precious little discretionary money and time has to fund MY boat project now. But Marty's shop is going to do all the hard stuff, right? Well, as my friends say about my various hair-brained projects, good luck with that. We'll keep you posted.
Oh, I started the process of restoration this weekend, tearing out the old fiberglass fuel tanks. Seems that the Moeller 24 gallon replacements may be too big. Should we get the 19 gallon versions instead? I'd love to hear from any of you who have done similar replacements.
We're planning to make the trip to Friday Harbor on June 6th. We'll be the smokey, stinky, noisy one with that beast of a Merc! But we'll get there. Looking forward to meeting you.
) My wife Cindy put up with the bikes for years, although the only thing she ever enjoyed about it was the occasional backroad cruise on the Electra Glide. And she worried every time I hit the road. But she LOVES the boat. 
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