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Recruit
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2011
- Messages
- 4
1994. I had returned to Texas and settled on The Hideout after several years of difficult recovery from financial ruin. I needed a boat and had little money to spend, but I knew I wanted a Boston Whaler. That Boston Whaler turned out to be Heidi Yawl.
She was a 1975 Sport 13 with a hole in her bottom exterior hull and all interior except the console and anchor locker cover gone. The PO had placed an enormous sheet of 1/4" aluminum plate in her sole, to which he had bolted 4 pedestal seats. Don't be sorry that I don't have photos, because they would make you weep.
My first priority was the hole in the outer hull. The OP had been using the boat and, because she didn't try to sink, ignored it. There was a lot of water inside, between the inner and outer hulls. A couple months on sawhorses drained her pretty well and 6 or 7 layers of glass and epoxy closed the hole. Some careful sanding and application of gel coat finished that part of the project.
She had a Johnson 50HP twin outboard on the transom. I knew that the boat was rated for 40HP, Max, so I easily swapped it for a really nice 1985 Johnny 25 complete with controls. I would have liked to have PT&T, but it was not available for the 25. I had driven a 13 with a PT&T 40HP before and didn't like the handling with that much weight on the stern. The 25 turned out to be the perfect power plant for her and for me.
Next to return her to stock interior rigging. Three planks of mahogany provided the thwart seats and the side rails that secured them. Those seats, the console and the locker cover all got refinished to a furniture shine.
The final step in the project was to add a front pedestal seat as used on the Boston Whaler Bass Boats and Stripers.
The kit bolts a mount through the stern wall of the anchor locker. It provides seating for a bow fisherman who can also operate the foot controlled troller/positioner motor.
I took her over to Possum Kingdom Lake for trial runs and was quite satisfied with 25mph top speed and excellent handling. . .as long as the water stayed relatively flat. Where there was a chop or wakes to cross she did what Boston Whalers of that size do... she pounded! That didn't bother me; I knew she couldn't sink and I liked the nimble feel of her. Slowing down and quartering the waves worked very well.
We had been going to Leech Lake in MN for a few days each summer but not having a lot of luck. I conferred with my son and we decided that another few hundred miles to get to the Northwest Angle of Lake Of The Woods should be worth the time and effort. I made us reservations at Angle Outpost Resort at Angle Inlet, MN. It was a three day drive from The Hideout.
Heidi Yawl took me, my son and his son walleye fishing and then musky fishing. She eased along rock bars, drop offs and windy points that first year and a few years afterward. We were pretty successful. I think the key to our success was that we went with a guide a couple of days before we took her out, so we knew how to find the fish and how to fish for them.
Heidi Yawl's last trip was 1998. It was just me and my son that year. We went out on a very windy day and fished protected waters, but when we started back to the camp we faced a 3 mile run up Angle Inlet directly into the 25 knot wind and into 3-5 foot waves. It was rough. I slowed to displacement speed and zig zagged, quartering the crests. We still got a lot of spray that hit us like hailstones. It took about 2 hours to get to the marina.
Given my experience with Sunshine, my 1966 Boston Whaler Sakonnet 16, in the Atlantic I was not the least worried, just uncomfortable. My son never admitted to being worried, but he was pretty uncomfortable, too, and quite convincing when he said he would never go out on LOTW in that boat again.
Heidi Yawl was soon replaced by Sunshine III. Meet her next month.
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(JB Cornwell writes from "The Hideout" in Whitt, TX, and is also an expert moderator, instructor, and fountain-of-knowledge in the iboats.com Boating Forums, where he may occasionally share a yarn of his own.)