both. I grew up in a boat yard my father had. Then it was all wooden boats, so it was cauling yearly, replanking and then a lot of the boats had car engines in them we would replace pretty often. Fiberglass was just catching on as he sold the marina in the mid 70's. Then most of the smaller fishing boats, were wooden/plywood, GreyDwhites, Thomapson, PenYan, Lyman, Luhrs. bigger stuff at our yard were Egg Harbors, American Foundrys, Grand Banks, Fiberglass Bertrams, and Cobia, Weldcrafts were the nicer glass boats then and still out. My buddy has a Blackfinn, he fishes off Montauck LI with a lot, but its rought on fuel....A night of tuna is 300 gallons of fuel, fishing out to 60 miles or in the Gulf Stream.
I really enjoyed the boats. I lived at the boat yard on and old 46 foot Sloop. Also wooden that someone dumped on us because the could not pay the haul bill on it. We had it there for about 7 years then sold it to another guy who used it for a cottage also. We sold new boats also for fishing and lobstering or dragging. We had them build in Eastport, Maine. Down Easters. shallow draft, easy moving hulls, beautiful lines on them, but again, wooden, plank hulls, even planked keels. Very stable boat. We kept one in Eastport as we went there once a month to bring boat hulls back on a 45 foot trailer so while there loading we did a lot of Cod and Pollack, fishing in the Bay of Fundy....Tricky place to learn the waters with the big tide drops.
I enjoy seeing your fishing pictures and catches and the different boats. Bring back some great memories just like these now. We sold Johson Outboards then...Prices sure have changed.
Then I think the biggest were 125 HP. Most of our draggers were diesel, the lobsters boats were gas then, either car engines, or Chrysler Marine engines.
I knowback then the few alumium boats they had were having problems with paint sticking....Then made changes alot and I'm not sure what ever finally worked.
OH yeah, our boat yard, was the test center in Connecticut for the Boston Whaler. We had a booth at the New York boat show and met the guy who owned the Boston Whaler and he sent us 3 of them per year to beat on, then they would pick them up in the fal and and cut them up looking for problems.... I had a nice little 16 footer for a summer with a 60HP on it, I beat to death, Actually it beat me to death as it was a hard ridding sucker. I would fish Race Rock with it...Very nasty piece of water. We would go for blue fish and strippers every day, I came off one wave so hard I broke the outboard motor mount that clamps on the transom. I see they have gotten much larger also with twin big outboards on them.....
Yamaha is a pretty nice engine...I see alot of them here and in the Keys....At my buddys in the Keys, they need to get up fast because of the shallow water then run it around there....Seems like they all have twin yamahas on them. I know the water cops do and they fly around there.
Does he have any living quarters on that or just sleeping quarters? All the bigger work boats we had just had trunk cabins on them and say 4 bunks stuffed in the bow and a head. Even the cookstove was wood on one of them...I still have it here..... Did design the cabin and hull or was it build from a set of plans by another builder?
Swampy
450 horses!
