Jason's 1956 Century Resorter

I have created this blog to track the progress of my new project: restoring a 16' 1956 wooden Century. All of my life I have admired the craftsmanship of all wooden boats. They are incredibly majestic and embody a tremendous amount of history and heritage. 6 years ago, in the summer just before my first son was born I decided that at some point in my life I wanted to restore a wooden boat.

On Wednesday August 6, 2008 my journey began. I found this boat online through a wooden boat website. After several phone calls to the owner the meet and greet was on. The boat was located in NJ about 3.5 hours from my house. I arrived around 730pm to meet the owner Tony. He is a great guy, and a little crazy just like me! He has restored over 15 boats as a hobby. We talked, I checked out the boat, looked good to me (really don't have any idea what i was looking at). Motor ran, sounded good. So i told him i would take it.

A look of shear surprise came over his face. I had cash, a plate for the trailer and a new set of lights just in case. Tony was shocked, and a little excited for the cash. We worked over the next 2 hours to make sure the trailer was road worthy and at least look legal. I headed out around 1030pm for home. Trip home was uneventful. Arrived at around 2am with my new project in tow.

Now the fun begins....

First Night:

My brother Jon and I spent the first Friday night taking inventory of all the parts and pieces. We took pictures of everything and noted where they came from. We were able to remove all the upholstery and chrome throughout the boat.

Next couple of weeks:

Progress is slow right now, still finishing the tear down. Trying to get ready to remove the motor. Had a ton of trouble releasing the shaft from the motor, finally a little leverage and some elbow grease and i had it off. Finished removing the steering and all components.

August 18, 2008 Motor Removal:

I have been waiting for this point! I had never removed a motor from anything, not even a lawn mower. My plan was simple, pull the boat out of the barn, lift the motor out with newly purchased motor lift, put boat back in barn, attach motor to dolly with casters (will build when needed) and wheel back into barn to be put away for the winter. Cousin Ian and I spent the whole day preparing, everything was in place. We removed all wires, cables and controls. Made sure everything was labeled and pictures were taken.

We had a bear of a time trying to lift the motor evenly. There was only one hook so we had to strap the other side of the motor. Finally its in the air!!

Only problem was we could not get it high enough to pass over the side of the boat...so close...after an hour of fooling around with our sling and testing the height and stability of the lift we were able to lift the motor high enough to clear the back of the boat! Hooray!! Moved the boat out of the way and started to move the motor lift with motor back to the barn. I forgot to mention that outside the barn is all grass, motor lift would not roll. So we had to "walk" it one step at a time back to the barn. Once we were inside the barn we set the motor down on a furniture dolly that i planned to take a part and use the casters for my motor stand. To our surprise the stand held the motor. It was now after 1030pm and Ian and I were beat from the days work. Since the furniture dolly was holding we decided to just push the motor out of the way for the night and build a sturdier mount tomorrow.......SNAP!!!!CRASH!!!!SH*T!!!!!!!!

Spent the next 3 hours in the ER. 600lbs motor had crushed my middle toe, shattering it into 3 pieces (they will never reattach) and severely bruising both toes on either side. Hurt like hell, but i am pretty luck it was only one toe. Chalked this experience up to a learning lesson.....I decided to take a few weeks off.

September 6, 2008 Beers, Brothers and the Boat

Uncle Jim and my brothers Rich and Jon were in town for the weekend to celebrate my sons 6th birthday. After the party on Saturday we decided to spend the evening in the barn building a cradle to put the boat on so we could remove the trailer. Not being prepared for the project we had to search for pieces and parts all over the barn for our new cradle. But first we have to lift the boat off the trailer. Well, there is a chain fall in the barn and i have a motor lift.......why not! Rich, our safety coordinator checked all the straps, chains and hoists. Next he made sure everyone had an escape route. Once everything was in place my father-in-law Dan made sure everyone had a full beer, and then we were off! Gently we lifted the boat off the trailer, we could not have been more graceful! Sweet!!! Took the trailer out back to the woods and then snapped a couple of shots

Left: Jonmo and Richmo Right Jonmo and Jasmo

Spent the next couple of hours fooling around trying to build the cradle. Note to self: beer caps DO NOT make good washers! Brothers have short attention span so they decided to ride the mini bike around in the rain until they broke it, repaired it and tested it over and over again.

By the end of the night we had a cradle, mini bike was working and boat was secure.

So, tonight i plan on getting back to work. First on the agenda: Rebuild the cradle...sober..........

Till next time......Jason