Credits for this boat reconstruction project are due and I need to start where it all started, with Larry Gonyea from Wisconsin, who sold us this 1977 Melges for $1000 with trailer. This photo was from the boat’s first a-spin hoist in front of the War College on a gybe up the Potomac. Larry asked us to post a photo…so here it is. Great boat, Larry! Thank you.
What follows are my notes on this modification. I expect we will be modifying my modification, so its good to have a record of the repair for when I cannot remember.
It all started in late March when the starboard sidestay snapped and the whole sailplan blew into the water. Damn. It was my neighbor Ajit’s second time in the scow and he was marveling at the engineering of the boat…until our little mishap. We blew down river and right next to a race of Lasers. We were towed in by a race committee boat that was closing out their Frostbite series. Continue reading Spars need bars→
And this winter we got lots done. Here Karen is removing the old crumbling flotation from the 1977 Melges M20 that our friend Eric Hall converted to an I20. That styrofoam looks like it might be 30 years old! Karen had to crawl below deck to pull out the yukky stuff. And she went below again to install the newstuff…very brave!
Wow..that stuff was clogging up the bailers and the river!
Stew spent his time on windward sheeting cars for both I20s. Those sure work nice when dropping the traveler in a puff. Stay tuned for a shot of the new traveler support Stew bedded across the Melges cockpit. Nice!
The big unexpected job was late March and early April when a sidestay broke on Whistlebritches leaving us without a mast in the middle of the Potomac. New gooseneck, shrouds and a different mast hinge were all installed. The boom vang should work better with this new configuration.
There is a scowguy in Minnesota who is now building the most startlingly beautiful I20s.
Willie Crear's I20 is a thing of beauty
http://williecrear.com/ His name is Willie Crear and when he was in his 20s he worked for Johnson Boat Works. In fact…he rigged the 1974 M-16 we share at the Washington Sailing Marina. Read more if you want his recollection of this period in the boat building dynasty on White Bear Lake:
Lordy, this was a step back in time for me. I was at Johnson Boat Works from 1973-1975, and there is no doubt in my mind that I built the boat that you show in the pictures of the ‘scowsailing.com’ blog.
Let’s define what ‘built’ in the above sentence means:
In 1974, Johnson Boat Works first started building their own fiberglass hulls in-house. Before that, they had been using Forester Boats, in Wyoming, Minnesota, as a sub-contractor. The glass boats coming out of Wyoming were junk.
In 1974 (actually late 1973), Bob Parks and his sidekick Ed came out of Forester to Johnson Boat Works, and started laying up the glass hulls on-site in White Bear Lake. Chatting with him in 2010 (as we were laying up the new I-20 hull), he said he couldn’t believe how much money he was making…$6.50 per hour. He said that he didn’t know what to do with all of the extra money. On my last day at Johnson, New Year’s Eve 1975, I was making $4.50 per hour. Continue reading A bit of history …from the fella who built the boat→
