I have been away from the boating scene for quite a while now as we were raising our kids, traveling the country, and enjoying life. With both kids about to be done with High School now, we left the big city to finally settle down. With that change, we lost (got rid of) the hustle-and-bustle and a lot of amenities. That meant I needed another hobby to occupy my free time. I told my wife I wanted another project boat, but this time I wanted one that I KNEW was going to be a project before I even looked at it (as opposed to buying a boat that we thought was sound only to find out otherwise). Being that this would now be my third boat restoration (second COMPLETE resto), I knew what I was getting in to.
My requirements were actually quite simple. I really love old 1980's era bass boats and Johnson engines, so that was the main requirement. I wanted something in the 16-20' range (for no particular reason other than it fits our needs). I wanted a deep V hull, but that wasn't a hard requirement either. It had to be cheap (to help justify the cost of the resto) and it had to be a complete project. This project is intended to keep me busy for a while, so I'm not looking for a quick fix nor am I in any sort of rush to work on it.
I wasn't in a hurry to find something, but while exploring the back roads around our new area, we spotted a potential project. Right at the tree line of a farmers field was an old bass boat that clearly was a project. It was one of those boats you hear about that has trees growing inside of it. Literally! We found the owner of the land and went to talk with them. An old farmer answered the door and we asked if they would be willing to get rid of that boat over there. You would have thought they had just won the lottery. With a resounding YES, they told us to please take it. They were tired of looking at it rot away. Story of the boat was that it belonged to their nephew. He had parked it there about 4 or 5 years ago and then found himself in prison (didn't ask the story on that one). He got out recently, but didn't want to mess with the boat anymore as nature tried to reclaim in. The old couple contacted him and he said $100 to locate the titles sounded fair. I headed back to the house for tools and got busy. I had to cut and remove brush from all around the boat. I had to dig out the axle (buried up to the hubs). Jack was broken so I had to use a floor jack to lift it high enough to hook up. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was in too much of a hurry. It was quite the chore to extract, but I got it out and almost literally drug it home (I was worried it wasn't going to make it in one piece and I had to stop every few miles to air up the tires).
So here I am now with the project I wanted. I mailed my $100 cheque to the nephew and got two clear titles back, so we're in business! The boat is an '81 Cajun. The title lists it at 16', but it's actually closer to 17'. The engine is an '87 Johnson 90HP V4. What we REALLY like about this hull is that it's a fish-and-ski. We definitely see potential. The drive home blew a lot of the leaves, etc off the hull, but there were wasps nests and shed snake skins in the hull, so the first thing I did was blast it was the water hose for an initial "cleanup". Here's what I had on my hands at this point.
My requirements were actually quite simple. I really love old 1980's era bass boats and Johnson engines, so that was the main requirement. I wanted something in the 16-20' range (for no particular reason other than it fits our needs). I wanted a deep V hull, but that wasn't a hard requirement either. It had to be cheap (to help justify the cost of the resto) and it had to be a complete project. This project is intended to keep me busy for a while, so I'm not looking for a quick fix nor am I in any sort of rush to work on it.
I wasn't in a hurry to find something, but while exploring the back roads around our new area, we spotted a potential project. Right at the tree line of a farmers field was an old bass boat that clearly was a project. It was one of those boats you hear about that has trees growing inside of it. Literally! We found the owner of the land and went to talk with them. An old farmer answered the door and we asked if they would be willing to get rid of that boat over there. You would have thought they had just won the lottery. With a resounding YES, they told us to please take it. They were tired of looking at it rot away. Story of the boat was that it belonged to their nephew. He had parked it there about 4 or 5 years ago and then found himself in prison (didn't ask the story on that one). He got out recently, but didn't want to mess with the boat anymore as nature tried to reclaim in. The old couple contacted him and he said $100 to locate the titles sounded fair. I headed back to the house for tools and got busy. I had to cut and remove brush from all around the boat. I had to dig out the axle (buried up to the hubs). Jack was broken so I had to use a floor jack to lift it high enough to hook up. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was in too much of a hurry. It was quite the chore to extract, but I got it out and almost literally drug it home (I was worried it wasn't going to make it in one piece and I had to stop every few miles to air up the tires).
So here I am now with the project I wanted. I mailed my $100 cheque to the nephew and got two clear titles back, so we're in business! The boat is an '81 Cajun. The title lists it at 16', but it's actually closer to 17'. The engine is an '87 Johnson 90HP V4. What we REALLY like about this hull is that it's a fish-and-ski. We definitely see potential. The drive home blew a lot of the leaves, etc off the hull, but there were wasps nests and shed snake skins in the hull, so the first thing I did was blast it was the water hose for an initial "cleanup". Here's what I had on my hands at this point.
Looking forward to another restoration with all of you iBoaters!
