thanks and more

[gary cheadle]

thank you very much ric. i knew this would be worth saving. it currently is painted as a shark with large teeth and glitter stripes. the canvas is completely shot, inwales are blown out where the thwarts once joined them, middle thwart missing,1 broken seat, tips rotted, but no broken ribs and the planking is all good. even the rib ends at the gunwales are all solid. i've never seen the carrying handles. was that a special order as well? i am also not familiar with the HW term, can you explain? i am looking forward to the dissassembly( stripping off the shark skin to see the beauty that lies beneath) i've never delt with sponsons before and need to look into them. i do this for pleasure, to have boats to fish in, and take to a local wooden boat show at our historical museum. i will send in $ to the wcha and hope to become more involved as i can in the future. thanks again for your help. gary cheadle

 

[Ric Altfather]

Gary,

No! Thank you for wanting to support the WCHA. The wealth of knowlwedge from the members who have been done the road of restoration will be worth every penny, many times over. Depending on where you live, you could also get in touch with a local chapter for hands on advice and a lot of fun.

The grab handles seem to be a standard specification when you order the sponson option. If you look at the 2 pages I have included from the 1947 catalog, you will notice that the "HW" has none but the sponson has them. If I'm wrong on this (many times) then someone will chime in to correct this assumption. The "HW" stands for heavy water and is explained on the page 6 attachment. Basically for bigger bodies of water or moving water and able to carry heavy loads.

Many people do not replace the sponsons due to the weight aspect and they really are not needed in my opinion. If you want to restore to a original condition then you would want to leave them on. Choice is yours.

Good luck with your restoration and we hope to see your posts here in the future and include pic's.

All the best,

Ric Altfather