Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Another Old Gal

Here's a really interesting boat I found in Salem last summer. She is an early 60s Rapid Robert built by Boat Specialties. Roger looked at this boat before i got out there to get it and came up with the possibility that it was built by John Ostrem for John Henney. Henney was the owner/builder of Boat Specialties. It has been really hard to come up with info about them since the company didn't build very long.She was stored outside. Varnished exterior.About 5 layers of wonderful paint on most of the interior. The middle seat was not original and added by the previous owner. He used the boat as a gold dredger and mounted the pump on that seat. Very interesting.The previous owner found all the floor boards and the transom insert under some junk in her backyard. For as old as she is and how she was stored, it was in fantastic shape. A partical board "shoe" was attached to the bottom. Removed that and the crap that didn't hold it on. The bottom was on it's way to rot city. Chine caps, rub rails, and all trim was removed. Took the bottom down to bare wood and added a 1/4 in. shoe that is not removable. 17 oz. biaxial and epoxy. I'm very partial to glass and painted exterior.maintenance friendly. But I couldn't bring myself to cover the 50 years worth of use and that fir plywood.Pretty standard from there. Inside was scraped to wood. outside got 3.5 oz glass and clear finished. I was able to salvage the Rub Rails. New chine caps and outside shear rail. That piece was damaged when they lifted the boat with a crane to store it. Why?Yesterday was the first day we've seen sun in seems like 6 months. The project took about 130 hours to complete. I was so excited to take this boat to the Oregon show as you don't see many of these style boats any more.

Roger, I hope you like the old gal in her original form.

Dutch.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Anderson on October 9, 2012 at 5:31am

Thanks for the comments guys (got your comment on my other post Roger, thanks). I'm a school teacher so I can't over to get the boat until later in the week. I'm pretty excited to potentially own that beautiful, and functional old bit of local history.

I'll keep you posted.

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Permalink Reply by Adam "Dutch" Gottschling on October 18, 2012 at 9:26pm

Roger. Your not making me feel any better about not making it to the show. I'm making it a commitment for the spring. The boat will be in tow. Just to let you know she's being used well. People that ride in her can't believe she's older then them. She rows so nice and drafts nothing. Very cool boat.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on October 22, 2012 at 7:40pm

Looks sweet!

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Permalink Reply by jeremiah stymer on November 13, 2013 at 10:02pm

Hey this looks great, like mine. Couple of questions, I stripped off the botom on mine, Can't put the plastic bottom back on cause it's too cracked, The shoe, is this just a piece of plywood or something similar you added to the bottom/ How did you get it to stay with the curve of the boat? use a lot of clampswith board over the bottom or top since it was upside down. The epoxy. can you use the west epoxy. how thick do you layer it. wehre are you located? my boat doesnt have the side boards near the bottom, what are they for, can i just put on a thicker latyer of wood for the shoe and epoxy it to the bottom with a fiberglass nose. i want to leave the interior pretty close to natural. how can i clean up the inside and how would you coat it? epoxy again? thanks or any help you can give, i am very new to this, can take a car apart and put it back together blindfolded. the wood thing with the elements is a new one. tried to poly a seasaw for my daughter. faded and peeled in a month. you boat looks great. 360-865-1814. i'd love to pick your brain, text me if you'd like. thanks.