first time boat owner in Portland Oregon

[daderaide]

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to jump into this wonderful community. Here are some photos, background and questions from a first time boat owner

My wife and I just bought our first house and the previous owner had this 1964 Tollycraft Sportabout in the garage when we went to view it with our realtor. I instantly fell in love with it! I almost wanted the boat more than the house! After some negotiation, I was able to get the boat added to the contract and once we closed last month, she was ours.
The info I got from the previous owner was that he was too old to go boating anymore and just hadn't used it in years and was happy to see it with someone who was excited to get it back on the water. He hadn't had it out of the garage since 1996!
I've spent the last few weeks cleaning decades of garage grime from the vinyl and researching everything I can on the boat and engine. I have a background in auto mechanics and hobby woodworking, but have never dealt with vintage wooden boats before. I feel very comfortable getting the Ford Y-block 312 refreshed and running again (PO said it ran great when stored). Getting the hull ready for the water is a different matter though.
A friend of a friend has taken a quick look at it and had recommended that all I really need for this year is a fresh coat of bottom paint, a maintenance coat of varnish, and some caulk and I'll be ready to go. He said I'll want to do a full refinish this winter though. What do you all think? I'd LOVE to get it out on the water this season if possible, but as a new homeowner as well, I don't have infinite time or funds to put into it. Some tips from other forum and facebook posts have also suggested that I repack the flax shaft seals for the prop and rudder.

This past weekend I've been working on cleaning out the fuel tank. 23 year old gas is quite the mess!

[Kelly]

Wow, great find! I don't have a lot of wood boar experience but if you don't get any help here check out ACBS, local chapter. They're experts!
Good luck!

[Helmar]

Nice Find for sure !!!. Yes, that wood can get away from you Way to fast if not cared for properly. I have lost the local Portland ACBS folks but they would be able to give you several opinions on what to do on her.
The thing about forming a opinion is, you need at least 3 other opinions to form your own .
the TollyCraft that I worked on was a larger one, wood hull but fiberglass cabin.

I can't think off the top of my head of any good wood boat forums for restoration, but its Maintenance for the most part. Its still a boat, wood or fiberglass.

In one of your pictures, it seemed like I seen fiberglass cloth over wood ?? Did I see that ?

They have a Lot of new procedures to help protect wood from going bad. If if some of it Is going bad, you can stop the process. Me, I would be checking her out inside. . I would be poking at the frames right up and down keel for starters.

In the older days were I learned the wood boat process, its just Many Many coats of Varnish. Now they have a product which is a two part epoxy sealer that will soak into even rotten wood. I had to play with that on my back porch first. Had one punky board that was rotting so drilled some super tiny holes and poured that stuff in and let it soak though the wood and Wow, impressed me for sure.

So, my opinion would be to protect her to lengthen her life. Seal up the bottom if needed, get some bottom paint on her and like your friend said get a good couple of coats of varnish on her and get her out in the water. Make sure you have a good fresh bulge pump in her as the prop shaft packing has Had to dry up being out of the water that long. Don't be surprised if she starts taking water on right away around the prop shaft. Me, I would find a small lake or somewhere I could back her into the water and not be hurried to pull the trailer from under her. At Island Boat Shop, we did a couple of sail boats that needed replanked and it took three bulge pumps to keep pumping her out while the wood swelled back up to seal her up. I mean it took three days watching her at the dock like a hawk to make sure the pumps didn't fail. You might not have any problems like that but just the packing around the prop shaft and rudder.

Another thing that is real common to be used on these old girls are 3M-5200 for the caulking of the seams. Dig the grim out so that stuff will stick in the seams. They make it as Slow and Fast Cure, always use the Fast cure I have found. Another one is Sikaflex that is used on them.

Also the engine in her, looks to me like early Ford V8 and for 1964 should be the 312ci with the flame thrower carb system..

One more question. Has she been in the Salt water that you know of ??

She is sure going to Sound as good as she looks too .


Helmar

[John Nelson]

my experience is with work boats. Soak gap between the swim step and guard with clear wood preservative, after it dries fill it with seam or bedding compound, then stain and varnish. You will have to remove all trim in contact with wood and bed it down. where the wood is stripped you can use a longer screw or thru bolt it. You will want to scotch brite the gloss off all the varnish and apply two or three light coats of varnish to save the stain job that old varnish won't hold up in the sun at all. The gap where the trim isn't touching the vinyl is unfortunate. try filling it with latex calk.

[John Nelson]

Below water line remove the tabs fill holes with wood filler. Determine if any of the fiberglass on the bottom is loose, if it is you will have to remove all of it, inspect for rot, then decide if you want to replace it or not. that will envolve replacing the keel and chine stakes because the glass likely extends under them. If the glass is good glue a wood pug in the starboard strake. Soak the strakes with green wood preservative. Remove the trim from the keel. Plane it flat If damaged or loose replace it . If not preserve it and bed new trim on it. Check that the strut and rudder bolts so they aren't loose. Sand the moss off the old bottom paint, fill all the gaps and seams with seam compound and paint with bottom paint. You also have a wonderful example of a home built trailer. There appears to be too much weight supported by the rollers. you will have to find a way to replace and adjust them. Boats are floated onto bunk trailers not pulled onto them. Even with the original cover it will still need to be stored indoors. Don't let me bum you out look at the price of a new ski boat.