Our "Floating RV"

[Cate&Rob]

Cate&Rob, I appreciate the effort and workmanship you put in to restoring that beautiful boat. I also recognize a lot of the places you boated in the 1,000 Islands. I think I saw Waterson S.P and several other areas on the Canadian Channel. Brought back a lot of good memories boating the same general area from 1992 to 2000 out of Bonnie Castle in A-bay.

Bill - We are definitely talking about the same locations. I have been on this river for 60 years. In the early 70's, A-Bay (Alexandria Bay) was a wild place to be on a Saturday night! Back then, we went back and forth across the river without giving much thought to it being an international border . . . can't do that anymore! My father and my grandfather were "river rats" before me. Our family stories includes A-Bay, something called "prohibition", a fast boat that my grandfather and his brother built . . . and something about "rum running" .

Rob

 

[WhittleBurner]

Bill - We are definitely talking about the same locations. I have been on this river for 60 years. In the early 70's, A-Bay (Alexandria Bay) was a wild place to be on a Saturday night! Back then, we went back and forth across the river without giving much thought to it being an international border . . . can't do that anymore! My father and my grandfather were "river rats" before me. Our family stories includes A-Bay, something called "prohibition", a fast boat that my grandfather and his brother built . . . and something about "rum running" .

Rob

Now that's some stories that would be a lot of fun to hear.

 

[Bill Davey]

Rob - we have a lot of the same family history as well. My dad used to tell stories about bringing small boat loads of "pickle juice" in gallon containers across the river at night with no lights on the boat. Flashlights on shore would signal either OK, or run the other way. I too am sad that the border is not as open as it once was. My grandfather ran away from home in Odessa Ontario at age 13 and came to Watertown NY in 1900. So I'm only 1 generation removed from being Canadian myself.

 

[Tworude]

Being handy with tools and familiar with boats I must say I really respect what you have done with the boat, simply beautiful. I am amazed.

 

[bertschb]

Hi Rob

Just saw this thread for the first time. What an amazing boat and the work you've done on it over the years is fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

 

[GENESIS]

Hey Rob -

Came across this thread while doing a search that was about as far from this topic as you can get. Anyhow.....

I'd like to personally thank you for freeing up some much needed space in my garage/workshop. That's because after I saw your work, I promptly a) went and threw rocks at my restored pontoon boat and b) I threw away and/or sold all of my woodworking and other shop tools. Man....I didn't realize I had that much space and it's nice to get that monkey off my back.

Seriously....I'm not sure I can come up with the words that would express how impressed I am with your "work" and the finished project (are boat projects ever really finished??). I'm hoping that you'll feel sorry for me and tell me about at least one mistake you made. It would go along way to restore what's left of my woodworking/mechanic/fabrication/whatever skills.

Awesome job Rob. You win.

Tom

 

[Cate&Rob]

I'm hoping that you'll feel sorry for me and tell me about at least one mistake you made.

Hi Tom,

The "one mistake I made" was putting wood details all over a perfectly serviceable aluminum boat ?. Many years ago, my father-in-law (who had a very similar boat, that Cate grew up on) made the observation that I would one day regret all that wood trim. He was absolutely right!! Now my boating time seems to be filled with restoring the weathered bits and pieces that I built myself, a decade or two ago. To your point . . . a boat is never "finished"!

Rob

 

[GENESIS]

Hi Tom,

The "one mistake I made" was putting wood details all over a perfectly serviceable aluminum boat ��. Many years ago, my father-in-law (who had a very similar boat, that Cate grew up on) made the observation that I would one day regret all that wood trim. He was absolutely right!! Now my boating time seems to be filled with restoring the weathered bits and pieces that I built myself, a decade or two ago. To your point . . . a boat is never "finished"!

Rob

HA! I too have had experience with decorative wood on a boat. When I was around 10 Y/O, my Dad bought a early 60's Chris Craft Cavalier (30 footer). The gunwales from bow to stern were mahogany as were the assist railings along the top of the cabin. The stern of the boat had an overlay of?? You guessed it - mahogany. Every where you looked there was mahogany trim. And with all that mahogany under 4 coats of sanded spar varnish gleaming in the sunlight, the boat was a stunner. The boat was plywood hulled and powered by twin 283 Chevy blocks with 4 barrel carbs. This made for a pretty fast boat - relatively speaking. I absolutely loved when we'd take it out and Dad would firewall the throttles. BUT.....I soon learned to hate all that mahogany after a year of salt air and sun ravaging. Because, as you know, it was stripping, sanding, staining, painting, sanding, painting, etc. I think I once said to my Dad, "Why don't we paint all this white and be done with it?" It was very definition of a labor of love.

Tom

 

[TucsonJim]

Rob - You may regret those wood accents, but man it sure looks purdy...

Jim

 

[Philiprmcgovern]

OK, here’s my sea story. For the 8 years before we bought our fifth wheel (a SOB POS) 4 years ago, we spent all of our winters aboard our 36’ PDQ catamaran sailboat, sailing up and down the US east coast and both coasts of Florida, over to the Bahamas and, then, down to Cuba, the Yucatán, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. What a ride it was! Best wishes to all of you fellow boaters out there!
Phil

 

[Mini Mo TX]

VERY NICE.
We restored a 1967 35 ft. Drift R Cruise 15 years ago. I can really appreciate all you did to make her a real beauty. Job well done. I'm glad you shared it.

 

[jleonard]

We just sold our 40 FT 1983 Albin trawler 2 months ago and bought the travel trailer.
Having boated for 30 plus years it was time for a change to see some of the US not accessible by water.

 

[Boatlady]

Water to Wheels. We boated for over 30 years out of Mystic CT. We just sold our last boat a 40 Albin trawler. We traveled up to the Canadian Canals 2 years in a row after retirement in 2012 and 2013. Its so beautiful up there.
I loved and really miss boat life. We went from boat Attitude Adjustment to our Imagine 2600RB Land-a-tude Adjustment