Once again, in the mid-60's it was time to up size on boats. In 1965 my grandfather built Boat #3. He used the plans for the Glen-L Sea Knight. Built from white oak and douglas fir marine plywood (just as his previous two boats were) this was the first boat my grandfather fiberglassed. Instead of finishing off this boat with a cabin (which the plans call for) he left it as an open cockpit runabout. He powered it with the 1961 75 HP Evinrude "Starflite III" that he used on the previous boat.
This is the first of my grandfathers boats that actually remained in the family long enough for ME to have a memory of it. In 1973, once again, my grandfather decided to up size and build yet a bigger boat. As he finished his fourth boat, he sold "Boat #3" to his son-in-law (AKA...my Uncle Ed). In 1974, Ed decided to re-power the boat with a brand-spakin-new Evinrude 115 "Starflite".
Now if you fast forward a little bit...i am born in 1982. Some of my absolute earliest memories that I can still conjure up in my head are camping along the Clarion river, and running around on Georgian bay in and around "Boat #3" and "Boat #4". As a small child (maybe 5, 6 or 7) I have only the vaguest memories of Boat #3 being used. SO, to be honest, I don't really know what makes this particular boat so special to me.
Somewhere around the early 90's my uncle simply stopped using the boat. I was never really sure why. He also, despite the fact that he had a garage, for some reason began to store the boat outside under a tarp. So roughly, from 1991 to the late 90's the boat sat unused and unmaintained under a heavy green tarp out in the yard. The cold, snowy winters of Western PA and the hot summers took their toll on the boat which was now around 20 plus years old.
I can remember desperately wanting someone to take possession of the boat because I can remember how I knew, that someday...when I was old enough, i wanted to own this boat. In the late 90's, another uncle of mine (the builders son Luke) was able to get Ed to part with the boat. The boat was left in a garage to dry out for several months, before the windshield was removed and the boat was lifted in to the second story of my families Cabinet Shop. Everyone knew that this boat was in need of serious repairs and restoration after its hiatus.
After the boat was up in the second floor of the shop, the analysis of the dry-rot could now be fully assessed. I wasn't there to actually see it, but i have been told that the boat was too far beyond repair. Almost every frame member including the chine-logs and keel were split and cracked. There were certain places where plate aluminum had been bolted to the boat years before where wood fatigue was setting in. The transom was so rotted that the only thing holding it together was a thin veneer of fiberglass on the outside. My grandfather and my uncle Luke concluded that it would be easier and make more sense to just build a new boat then to try to repair this one. My uncle stripped the boat of any components that could be used and the boat was cut up and thrown out. A sad and bitter-end to what I would consider to be my favorite boat of all time. It just goes to show you what poor maintenance and upkeep on a home-built boat can do. That was the late 90's (i believe around 1998 or so). Of course...that's the end of Boat #3 in one sense. That boat inspired me to "re-create" it using many of the same components. That story comes later.
If you jump back to 1973, my grandfather had sold this boat to Ed and built Boat #4.
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