Mid 60s Boston Whaler

[rbgarr]

Mine was exactly like this except for a 28 hp motor. A lot of memories....

http://tinyurl.com/2vdqb4

[bamamick]

Wow. Looks great.

I don't know about 'bullet proof', but I can attest to the fact that Whalers are yacht club proof. We've had our 'oink' at the Buccaneer YC since I started hanging around there in the early '70's. The woodwork has been replaced a couple of times and the motor has as well (the motor has been stolen off of her a couple of times but we always get back the boat), but the hull is basically the same old beat-to-hell Whaler we all have come to know and love. Great boats.

Mickey Lake

[Hwyl]

I'd have prefered it if they'd left the "washing line" steering in. I'm sick of replacing those steering cables.

http://newimages.yachtworld.com/1/8/6/6/6/1866674_5.jpg?1204911385000

[rbgarr]

Boy isn't that the truth! Those cables are an abortion. I know they're considered dangerous and even uninsurable but I much prefer the wire-reel steering (loose at is may be) to the teleflex.

The Whaler wasn't great in choppy water IMO, so they weren't all that. My younger brother jumped a wave once and his friends broke the middle thwart when they landed. Sore asses for a while.

[Gary Bergman]

Our 11'6 Whaler broke free during a Nor'easter last year..first it found a rock breakwater, then it made it over it, and spent the rest of the storm being eaten up and beaten up under a small pier...Wiped out the portside rail, a large hole mid hull, and munched up the transom...a bucket of epoxy,cloth. and gelcoat later, we'll be draggin' her a long this summer...Tough little bast*rds.....

[Hwyl]

The Whaler wasn't great in choppy water IMO,

The editions that came out after that, have a deeper center hull (Vaka) and swept back outer bows, it does something to counteract the pounding.

The greatest joy is when you have a kid driving, and watch the smile on their face when I shout "floor it".

I always have the dead man wire in my hand..

[Oldsalt]

The whalers with blue interiors absorb and hold water in their hull cores. It would be much better to find one with a tan interior introduced in the mid 1970s.

The 15-ft whaler is twice the boat (compared to the 13' and 17') with its relatively deeper V-bottom. Whaler dropped the 15' model for a while and now it's back and goofier looking in my opinion. I once toured the plant when they were located in Rockland, Mass.

[S.V. Airlie]

My family bought one in 1961. Number 4143... First one on Lake Otsego in Cooperstown.
Yup, a lot of memories.

[ucb4ume]

My uncle has a mid 60's model that he bought new. It flew off the trailer at 70 mph in the late 60's and beat it up pretty good. He patched it up with glass and polyester resin. He still has it and still uses it! He's worn out three motors and a trailer so far but the hull keeps going.

[webfoot]

http://i28.tinypic.com/2cfw9ch.jpg

Pounding is right, no fun coming home in a chop. Ours is an '82 and my girls use it to haul up their 6 lobster traps. I get out fishing.....the E-Tec pushes it right along:D

[BETTY-B]

Here's my 1966 Sakonnet. I rebuilt the Johnson GT100 to use it as a reliable, towable skiff behind BETTY-B. I have slowly been building all new interior to BW specs as well. The hull is in great shape. No water intrusion.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Bridgedeck/Betty001.jpg

This the 11' that I will probably be getting rid of. It fits on top of BETTY's aft house, but I've really had too many lifetimes worth of small dingies. They are fun for the kids and the flat calm joy rides though.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Bridgedeck/waterline056.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Bridgedeck/Betty-1.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Bridgedeck/ratisland020.jpg

[JAS]

from rbgarr
"Boy isn't that the truth! Those cables are an abortion. I know they're considered dangerous and even uninsurable but I much prefer the wire-reel steering (loose at is may be) to the teleflex."

I have a '76 sport 13 with the original cable/pulley steering system . Is that something that should be replaced? This boat hasn't been used in approx. 20 years, and is in the process of being refinished. I used the boat in its former life without trouble and was wondering if the cable can just be replaced and if not suggested to do so, what are the problems with this type of steering ? Thanks

Jonathan

[Bill Lowe]

I have hade a Boston Whaler Squall for years rowed, sailed, motered, ran white water, used as our dingy while crusing arround the globe. Having some problems with the core breaking down and having deflections in the bottom but its been a great boat.

[rbgarr]

JAS,

I'd go ahead and replace the wire cable and check the pulleys to see if the sheves (plastic, probably) have cracked. A danger with the old system is that if the wire is slack and the engine turns easily, the boat can snapturn quickly at speed if the wheel isn't under control all the time. kids who had 40 hps on their whalers when I was young would get in trouble with that sometimes. Of courses there were no kill switches then either.

This is the small outboard boat we use now, a Hobie 13 at about half speed, v-bottom and self bailing on the mooring:
http://i28.tinypic.com/33mvrsy.jpg

[ishmael]

Brother had a mid-seventies Montauk. I believe the steering was hydraulic.

Able little boat, but man it would loosen your fillings in a chop.

Grand dad had a sort of ancestor, a Hickman(sp?) Sea Sled. I never knew that boat, but according to family lore he won a bunch of informal races with it. After the Sea Sled, all the boats were the Lyman and Chris inboard skiffs. A much easier ride into a chop.

My favorite was a mid-thirties Lyman hardtop. Maybe 23 ft, solid cedar planking. When I knew it, it had a Gray Fireball V-8. Man, that boat could scoot. Running that much power also lead to its demise, a broken keel maybe forty years after it was built.

Sorry, thread drift.

[J Rice]

I still have the 1958 13 that my grandparents bought from cousin Dick (Fisher). Sadly the original Evinrude 18 hp is gone and I have had to make do with its replacement a 1962 28 hp Speeditwin.

In 1978 a friend and I set to sea in Penobscot bay and powered down the coast and up the Piscatiqua river to Newington NH, where my father met us with a truck and trailer.

This scheme had been suggested by my uncle Bert who 20 years earlier had sailed his Dark Harbor 20 from Marblehead up to Penobscot Bay.

Memories!

Jon

[BETTY-B]

I still have the 1958 13 that my grandparents bought from cousin Dick (Fisher). Sadly the original Evinrude 18 hp is gone and I have had to make do with its replacement a 1962 28 hp Speeditwin.

In 1978 a friend and I set to sea in Penobscot bay and powered down the coast and up the Piscatiqua river to Newington NH, where my father met us with a truck and trailer.

This scheme had been suggested by my uncle Bert who 20 years earlier had sailed his Dark Harbor 20 from Marblehead up to Penobscot Bay.

Memories!

Jon

Amazing! That would have to be one of the first ones then right? What is the hull number? I would love to see some pics of that one...

Many a teenage kid have gone up into Canada, Whaler camping from here in Washington. And many parents have put an awful lot of trust in that boat too!

DAN

[Andrew]

http://newimages.yachtworld.com/1/8/6/6/6/1866674_5.jpg?1204911385000


The Whaler wasn't great in choppy water IMO, ....

My friend had a 13ft with a 35hp'rude when I lived in Puerto Rico. We'd go a few miles of shore to an island called Caja de Meurtos, which is amazing now as we were only 16 at the time. The sea could get particular ugly by the time we came back. I lived in fear of that forward seat/hatch cover as it was my job to go forward and reseat when it started to flop about. I was always afraid it would pop up and catch wind and fly into my face. Those were the days my friend.

Thanks for bringing back those memories.

[Figment]

For the life of me I will never understand why people think these boats are the cat's ass.

They're heavy. Then they soak up water.
They SUCK in anything other than flat water.
The freeboard is so low that everyone feels compelled to add awkward railings or those godawful gunwale extensions.
They don't even have that certain workmanlike aesthetic that could be called "beauty". They're just clunky.

And yet people talk about them like they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, so they're outrageously expensive.

Unsinkable? so friggin what? If you've found yourself in a situation that actually makes use of this attribute, you deserve to swim a few strokes IMHO.

Toys for people with more money than brains.

[S.V. Airlie]

For the life of me I will never understand why people think these boats are the cat's ass.

They're heavy. Then they soak up water.
They SUCK in anything other than flat water.
The freeboard is so low that everyone feels compelled to add awkward railings or those godawful gunwale extensions.
They don't even have that certain workmanlike aesthetic that could be called "beauty". They're just clunky.

And yet people talk about them like they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, so they're outrageously expensive.

Unsinkable? so friggin what? If you've found yourself in a situation that actually makes use of this attribute, you deserve to swim a few strokes IMHO.

Toys for people with more money than brains.

Tend to agree with you figment. Of course we ( my parents ) bought the whaler for lake otsego.. another name for the lake was Glimmerglass. As the name implies, waves were not an issue a good portion of the time.
I must say that I used that whaler in my research on the Maine Coast. It was not ideal for Penobscot, Muscongus, Caso Bays and elsewhere. Beat the bloody heck out of it.

[rbgarr]

They were great for the shallows of Nantucket Sound when I was a kid, especially compared to what else was available at the time in fiberglass (MFGs?) Everything else had foredecks and stupid windshields and was slower. The low freeboard was perfect for climbing in and out when beaching or pushing across sandbars and we could beat the hell out of them. They'd carry a big crowd for the size and were easily cleaned out.

Haven't had need of one since, however....

[BETTY-B]

For the life of me I will never understand why people think these boats are the cat's ass.

They're heavy. Then they soak up water.
They SUCK in anything other than flat water.
The freeboard is so low that everyone feels compelled to add awkward railings or those godawful gunwale extensions.
They don't even have that certain workmanlike aesthetic that could be called "beauty". They're just clunky.

And yet people talk about them like they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, so they're outrageously expensive.

Unsinkable? so friggin what? If you've found yourself in a situation that actually makes use of this attribute, you deserve to swim a few strokes IMHO.

Toys for people with more money than brains.

Hmmm. Well there is certainly going to be no changing your mind in this matter. But I'll throw some stuff out there.

First of all, they dont soak up water unless there had been years of abuse. The closed cell foam needs to be beat so bad that the cells collapse. Then the hull needs to be damaged for a long time. Would you leave a hole in the bottom of your boat?

And they are not that heavy at all. My 17' is 550lbs without the engine. The 11' is half that with the ability to take two full grown men, a dog, two full coolers, two full backpacks and plenty of water and beer up on a plane for many miles with ease. That's the 11' in the San Juans. Outside the main protection of the islands at the bottom of Haro Strait. I dont think there is such a thing as flat calm out there. You just dont go slow...

They are extremely well built. The human will give up way before the boat. As a matter of fact they are used in punishing work environments all over the world. There's a guy out of Seattle who has been doing commercial Dungeness crab out of his 17' for at least ten years that I can remember. An ex-lobsterman out of Mass. actually.

Many people have fond memories as kids growing up with them. Myself included. When I think back to those times, I have a picture of myself with a gigantic smile on my face ripping along to the next place to be explored. No small part of my young life.

If cats ass means they have an incredible following, then yes, that's true. They are pretty much number one in resale value out there. Most people not wanting to sell. Buying another for the fleet instead. Look at me. I have two. And I really hate fiberglass boats. I mean, I have been terminally infected with wood boat disease pretty much my entire life. For a guy like me to have two, should say something.

I wont argue that the 38 bucks to my name right now might be more than the brains I have though....

DAN

[Bill Perkins]

My families was like this too . I remember that color so well,and the really deep nonskid molded into the hull . My younger brother and I had allot of fun exploring the marshes with it . Talk about pounding . That mooring bit put a permanent mark on his chin when he was laying around forward once . We also cracked the midship thwart with a bunch of kids on board years later .

I came away with the conviction that sharpening the forward end of a boat to a point ,although and old idea , is a sound one . Also that the v bottom is a Good thing .

http://newimages.yachtworld.com/1/8/6/6/6/1866674_2.jpg?1204911382000