The Free Olympian

[Mr.Stuart]

I picked up a free 10 foot fiberglass tri-hull Olympian boat the other day, It's not to bad of a boat, and the price was certainly right, I got it because the little aluminum boat that I am/was restoring isn't going to be done before my son gets here for the summer from out of state, and I really would like to take the kid boating/fishing/camping, ect. so I went looking for something that was ready to go.

I took this boat out today, no motor, just oars, and rowed up the river and back to the dock, I was out for about 2 hours and it didn't take on so much as a drop of water, so I'm going to consider that a good sign.

It's rated for a 10 horse outboard, and I have one to run on it, but I haven't tried the motor on the boat yet, still waiting to get the title straightened out before I put a motor on it, that should be done this coming week.

I don't know anything about fiberglass boats, both of mine are aluminum, so this is a first for me, I did notice that the boat has various stress cracks in it here and there, (an example of one is circled in red in the last picture) but it doesn't leak at all, and I'm sure some sanding and epoxy, or resin work would take care of the cracks, although I don't know what's involved in fixing fiberglass, that may be a discussion for another thread, I guess my only concern at this point with this boat would be, do I need to be concerned about those cracks?

my plan is to use the boat while my son is here then pass it on to someone else when he leaves, I got it for nothing, so I figured once my son goes home, I could find someone that would like to have a boat but can't really afford one and give it to them. so I don't want to put a bunch of money into repairs or fixing it up or anything like that, I'll get the title for it, put some stripes on it put new registration numbers on it and call it good.

I was just a little concerned about the stress cracks, but maybe that's just a common thing on these little car topper boats? and nothing to worry about?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: The Free Olympian

where is the crack on the boat? looks like a nice little find.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: The Free Olympian

Nice little fishing platform for small waters. Get the outboard on that and tilt it up and lock it. Try pushing down on the motor leg. You're looking for no flex on the transom. If it passes that, then enjoy your nice find.

Minor gelcoat cracks? Unless it's leaking, pay them no mind.

Finally, if you put a 10hp on that, it'll fly.

 

[bhammer]

Re: The Free Olympian

Can someone ban this spammer; lkky00245

EDIT: Thanks for deleting it Mods.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: The Free Olympian

Small boats like these are made to be as light as possible and low in cost, so they can be fairly thin, resulting in stress cracks. The cracks are normally only a cosmetic issue, so unless you see more damage around them it's easier to just live with them. They won't leak or cause any other problems and can be difficult to fix because of the amount of work needed, plus they tend to come back if the repair is not over built.

 

[External Combustion]

Re: The Free Olympian

It looks like a good boat, a good plan and a sign of wisdom knowing that you have limited time with your son.

Worry not about the cracks, but about how you are going to take the photographs of the fish he catches.

May whoever you pass it on to be so wise in life.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

I took the boat over to my brothers today who is a pretty good fiberglass guy, he's done extensive work on Corvettes over the years and he looked at the cracks and said they were nothing, and pretty common and to not be concerned about them.

I had the boat inspected by the county police department today and it passed, so I now have all my paperwork complete to go get a title for it, and my son will be here tomorrow, so I think I'm about ready to go with it.

We?ll head to the car wash with it when he gets here and give it a real good cleaning, then we'll put new numbers on the side of it and put a nice stripe down the side, I'll let him pick out the colors, I think we're going to have a blast with it.

Sometime towards the end of August I'll be able to pass it on to someone else.

I should probably explain the paperwork involved with this, the boat is a prime example of what you go through when you end up with a boat that has no title, the guy that the boat was last registered to is now deceased, so I had to work my way through that stuff, but I now have all the paperwork I need to get a new title for it.

Oh and he's turning 8 at the end of the month, not 9, man did I feel like a dork when I talked to his mom today and didn't know how old he was.

 

[brc1981]

Re: The Free Olympian

I can't wait until my son a little older and can really go fishing. He'll be two in Aug. and I've had him out with me a few times and he has a blast, but it is terribly hard to fish when he's running around the boat and splashing in the water. We got him a small kids fishing pole and i tied the line and a small jig (no hook) on it so he thinks he fishing. then i tied the pole to the boat so when he throws it in we can pull it back out.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

I can't wait until my son a little older and can really go fishing. He'll be two in Aug. and I've had him out with me a few times and he has a blast, but it is terribly hard to fish when he's running around the boat and splashing in the water. We got him a small kids fishing pole and i tied the line and a small jig (no hook) on it so he thinks he fishing. then i tied the pole to the boat so when he throws it in we can pull it back out.

That?s neat, and kids that age are a blast, my son moved to Minnesota where he does a lot of fishing and boating with his grand dad and aunts uncles and cousins, heck, he's got a couple of cousins that are something like 13 or 14 and those kids have their own boats that their parents bought them, there nothing more then this little thing I just picked up, but when my son left, I had no boat at all, so this is going to be all new to him, at least where Dad is concerned, I haven?t seen him in over a year, so I'm both really nervous and excited all at the same time, and as I understand it, he's pretty nervous to, this is the first time he's ever been away from his mother, but to say much more then that would be out of the scope of this thread or forum so we'll leave that part of the story quiet, and we'll stick to this boating adventure that's about to happen with him.

I'll bet after fishing in the many lakes of Minnesota, that kid could probably teach me a thing or two, and as I understand it, they don't have fish back there near as big as what you can catch out here, so we'll see if we can land us a big one.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

As for the paperwork, there was a bit involved in getting a title to the little boat, first, I needed receipts going back to the original owner, or the executor of his estate, plus a receipt from the guy I got th4e boat from, and I just got that today, he made me up a receipt today saying he sold it to me for $50, although it was free, there still had to be something on paper, last week, I had to print up an application for lost title and transfer of ownership from the Oregon state marine board, and mail that to the deceased guy along with a note stating why my intentions were with the boat, I had to mail it out registered mail, with a return receipt, I mailed that out Monday and got the letter back on Friday of last week, then I had to take a trip to the county sheriff to get the boat inspected, and I got that done today, it doesn't seem like it's all that hard in Oregon to get a title to a boat.

The boat is a 1988 model, I found that out today after the inspection.

So far, I've spent $5.35 mailing out the letter, and that's all I have in the boat at this time.

I have two motors I was thinking of using on it, I have a good running 9.9 Evinrude, but although the boat is rated for a 10 horse, I almost think that's a little over kill, I also have a 1961 Evinrude 3 horse that looks almost new, that's the motor I'd like to use on the boat if I don't have a bunch of work to do to get it going, I haven't tried running it yet, so I don't know at this point if it's an ok motor or not.

I have the 9.9 horse to fall back on if the little 3 horse doesn't work out, so I'm ok either way where the motors concerned. I don't want to be doing a rush repair job on a motor when we could be out on the river enjoying our time together, so if the 3 horse doesn't work, we'll go with the 9.9

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

We did some cleaning on the boat today, Sollamon and I went out and he picked out a stripe he wanted on the boat, we cleaned up the side, layed out the reg numbers and letters then put on the stripe, we've only got one side done so far, but it went pretty easy so we should be able to get the other side finished up today.

Tomorrow is his birthday, and he wants to have his birthday on an island, so we'll load up the cake, a few presents, something to eat and drink, and go find us an island

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

we did our first camping trip with the boat this last weekend, it went off without a hitch, I only got 3 pictures because the camera battery's died, hopefully they are clear enough to see what we had.

I'm an amateur radio operator, and we brought along another amateur radio friend and he set up a remote radio station on the island, and called this camping trip our DXpedition, that's why you see a tower and antenna in the middle of the camp site.

next weekend, we're taking a canoe trip.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: The Free Olympian

why don't you cover the boat, and save it for him, as he gets a little older.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

We talked about that this weekend, I told him what my plans were with the boat after he went back to Minnesota and he got quite upset and said he didn't want me to get rid of it, soooo, I may be making a change in plans with it, it's to bad I couldn't figure out a cheap way to send it home with him when he left, but shipping that boat to Minnesota is just about out of the question.

We had a blast with it this past weekend, we did a 60 miles round trip with it from the mouth of the river to the falls and back, it's 30 miles one way, it took us all day Sunday to do the trip, on Monday, we explored some of the islands, hiked some trails, did some fishing, but didn't catch anything except some crawdads, but he thought that was fun.

I had beached the boat Sunday night, and when we woke up Monday morning, the tide had come in and floated the boat, and landed it on the rocks, but there was no damage to it, so all was good

There was three of us in the boat, and the bare minimum for camping gear, we had the boat loaded up to it's rated capacity and it did fine, but if you want to do some river camping I'd suggest a bigger boat, I think one this size would be fine if your going camping by your self with no one else coming along, but for 3 people we were pretty loaded with no room to spare.

 

[floatingwoody2006]

Re: The Free Olympian

your brave beaching that fiberglass boat on the rocks like that.. Looks to be a nice small craft.. Very seaworthty

edit: sorry.. didn't read the last post fully. Nice find.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

It?s a nice solid boat, I've had no issues with it at all, there was one bad spot on the keel, and I sanded it out, and fiber glassed it and haven't had a problem since, we did the 60 miles trip with it and it didn't take on a drop of water other then the occasional spray that came over the bow

I looked up the laws for boating and ages in Oregon and it looks like you can't operate a boat under the age of 12 here, and age 12 to 15 you have to have a boaters card, and be under the supervision of an adult that holds a boaters card, age 16 and older, you fall under the adult classification.

I have no idea what the laws are like in Minnesota, I know his cousins that aren?t much older then he is, have their own boats. So I don't know if it would do him any good or not to send the boat to Minnesota when he goes home.

 

[Pierutrus]

Re: The Free Olympian

Ok, as a far long lost Marine radio operator, who brought the dipole?
I see the guy lines and mast in the middle of camp!
What Cha Pick'in up?

 

[Pierutrus]

Re: The Free Olympian

You wouldn't be a "ham" would you?

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: The Free Olympian

Yup, we're hams, I'm KC7VPT, and the friend that came with us is part of the vision impaired community out here, he hadn't been camping in 30 years, so I brought him along with us, that was Frank, KA7CGG, he had a blast as well and wanted to know when we're going to do it again, he liked running the radio at camp at night, he made a lot of contacts. that is a 30-foot telescoping fiberglass pole with a ringo ranger on top for 2 meters. Frank comes with us on quite a few of our outings. The next one we do, we're going to bring some HF gear and a 12-volt battery and see what we can do with it.

We got a lot of strange looks and a few boaters pulled up to ask what we were doing with the antenna, even the coast guard slowed down to take a look as they were passing by, I got a good chuckle out of the whole thing.

The radio we used on this trip was a 5 watt Icom VX-170 hand held

 

[Pierutrus]

Re: The Free Olympian

The next one we do, we're going to bring some HF gear and a 12-volt battery and see what we can do with it.

Aw the memories......
HF goes around the world, so bring 2 maybe 3 batteries for trans.....(Your "AM" remember.)

Keep it 5 by 5 Mr. Stuart.