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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on December 4, 2012 at 8:13am

Ross, that's a cool find. Keep us informed on the progress. He must be the guy that Howard Miller Park is named after. Wasn't he the fellow that was influential in steelhead recovery and such on the Sky and Deer Creek?

How did the auction on the boat go. You sure did a nice job on it. Good luck with the restoration.

Rick Newman

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Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on December 5, 2012 at 5:20pm

Looks cool. What hp is on that boat? Overall dimensions?

Thanks for sharing!

Jason

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Permalink Reply by Ross Duncan on July 3, 2013 at 7:19am

Some of you may know I purchased Howard Miller's wood sled from his daughter last winter. They had been trying to sell it for some time, but most people just saw an old wood boat. I believe Kerry alerted me to the Craigslist post, and I immediately started getting excited about the project. There was a small bidding war with Salmo as he wanted the motor. I again apologize and thank you for letting me get the boat and motor. I owe you a trip or two when she's done.

I got tired of working on the prams, even though not quite complete, they are ready to customize so I set them outside under the shed.

Had one of my buddies help me get the boat off the trailer and flipped on a roller cart, and deconstruction began. It was really an adventure in wondering what happened as I uncovered several repairs that had been made over it's life. There a couple in the bow area and one large section of plywood replaced in the middle. The frame is good and I really only found one small area of rot, that will be easy to repair. Maybe some day I will get a chance to sit and talk to some of Howards fishing buddies and find out more about the accidents and repairs.

In a coffee can (Folgers), stuffed down in one of the storage lockers, was all the original title and registration for the boat along with the original warranty card for the motor. I found the original title for a '52 Home Made Boat. There is no description or length on the application other than 300 lbs. I find it very hard to believe this boat is actually 61 years old. A simple description of the boat is an 18 foot long open jet sled. I think it was a bit ahead of it's time with the design. If you look at all the modern aluminum jet sleds, this old guy was their grand daddy.

They were lucky back then, because you could get 20 foot long sheets of plywood. The sides are full length and except for the repairs the bottom is two pieces joined long wise on a keel. It appears the glue used was Resorcinol. Some of the patches are put in with this glue and some with what appears to be 3m 5200. The bottom is 5 ply fir plywood. I just cut off the chine battens which were white oak and glued on with resorcinol which leads me to believe they were original. The starboard side chine batten was beat to death and had been patched with many small pieces of what ever was around and nailed without glue using 8p galvanized nails. Farm boy fixes?

There were 3 rub strips (1x6 VG Fir) nailed to the bottom. Some of the patches are directly under the rub strips so I am going to guess these were early added improvements, as evidenced by the use of galvanized nails. I need to confirm but it appears the original builder used brass or bronze nails to secure the plywood.

Over time, it appears a steel bracket was added to support the transom and one in the bow for an anchor release and trailer cable connection. All of this is mild steel and crudely welded. More farm boy fixes?

I have some new 6mm BS1088 ply coming in to skin the bottom and will be putting on a larger profile white oak chine batten. I am also thinking of milling new rub strips for the bottom. Rather that just 3 1x6's I think I will go with 7 pieces 5/4 x 2 1/2". Since the frame is only 1x3's I want to provide some additional stiffness to the boat. I also plan to replace the fasteners in the frame joint at the chine and add some gussets to improve torsional rigidity. As many of you know I am not a fan of fiberglass over wood, but in this case, I think it is a must.

As always the shop is open to visitors.

I will periodically provide progress updates.

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