My wife and I are notorious for doing things that would outwardly seem to make no sense at the time. But, life is short as they say, therefore we’d just assume enjoy it now while we can.
We recently purchased a 1950 Thompson TVT cedar strip runabout. They say a boat is just a hole in the water for money…and THEY are right. One day I will get to meet “THEY”, and hopefully in the course of conversation become a little wiser.
I digress!
Our boat was brought to Ohio by a musician friend of mine who moved back to Ohio to care for his mother. He decided restoring it would not be in the cards for him, and so it sat in his garage. He cared for it by opening the garage up in all seasons to let the wood “breathe”. In doing so the boat stayed in excellent condition…I am told by those who are wiser than I with respect to such boat related issues.
Below are a few pictures to tell the tell. I will attempt to update the progress as we go through the restoration of this old girl, and maybe include a few thoughts as well.
Here is how the boat looked upon our visit to see if we even liked the vessel. I thought it was cute, but it was certainly not a Chris Craft. However, as I looked the boat over she really grew on me. All the parts were there except a motor and trailer.
From the rear she had classic lines and the interior showed very little wear. I had my reservations about the less-than-wonderful paint job. I also had fears upon closer inspection of rot so common to old wooden boats. What would await us under the paint? Let face it…this would be a total restoration…not a slap-some paint-on-and-lets-go-to-the-beach-and-launch-this-thing job!!!
I looked at my wife, and she knew exactly what I knew. Buying this boat and restoring it would be expensive, time consuming, hard work, and none of that mattered. We were going to do it any way!
On June 23rd 2003, we began a fateful trip on a long, long tour. We tentitively agreed to purchase the boat from its owner.
What lay ahead we had no ideal. Below are a few more photos.
Well as bad as the last photo looks, we found the boat was pretty sound and while I wondered if this was rot, I was pleased to find out it was a stain. More to come…
Would like to hear your further progress on the 14′ Thompson runabout. I am have just acquired a 10′ Thompson runabout of similar age and construction and am trying to locate pictures and insight into similar Thompson runabouts from the 30’s and 40’s
Would appreciate any further pictures/insight that you could share
Thanks
Vin McMaster
Dallas
Hi Vin!
The Thompson has been done and its progress is on my blog in multiple parts. It’s a great boat! Very solid and fun to operate!
Last weekend, as usual, some jet skis were jumping in my wake, but the Thompson’s will turn on a dime…so I began to chase them. They had a ball watching this little boat make every move they could make except jump out of the water.
You may want to check our http://www.thompsondockside.com/ where they have a forum that can assist in your restoration. Also please feel free to contact me if you need to. I’m no expert, but I may be able to help here and there.
Take your time, do the work once…right…and enjoy the boat when it’s done.
Thanks for checking in!
Greg