Show Your Age

[mthieme]

When I was growing up in the 60's before fiberglass boats were the norm, springtime meant brand new barnacle scrapers for me and my brothers.
I don't recall dad ever buying bottom paint.
Thanks dad.

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Show Your Age

When I was growing up no one ever heard of fiberglass. LOL

 

[angus63]

Re: Show Your Age

Earliest memories of a ball of waxed twine, an iron and soft mallet, gallons of Woolsey's Red Lead and 8" horsehair brushes, and sore arms.​

 

[MikDee]

Re: Show Your Age

Oh Yeah, back in the 60's dad got a nice used 16' Thompson lapstrake boat with a 30hp big twin Evinrude, we painted the bottom red like everyone else, (But, Hey, what did we know?) and dropped it into a slip in the Great South Bay L.I. It ran great for about 2 weeks, then got slower, & slower, we didn't know why One day I happened to notice the bottom had greenish grass growing on it, so we decided to take it out of the water, and examine the bottom, Well then we found out what barnacles were, the bottom was covered with them
After much scraping, and investigating we found out we needed "copperbottom" paint, (which around 1960) was at an outrageous price of $7.50 a quart, or $22 a gallon! It looked like liquid copper metalflake, so we painted it on, and dropped it in the water again, in 2 weeks it turned to a nice copper patina green color but kept the bottom perfect!

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Show Your Age

Cool mikdee, our family name is Thompson and the old man just happened to also buy a 16' lapstrake runabout with a big ol Johnson that always started the first time. We left it in the canal behind the house and realized we could fish at the dock for all the sheepshead eating the barnacles off the bottom of the boat!
Looked like green shag carpet (remember that!) growing all over that bottom.
Anyway, after a bottom scrapin and paint, she ended up sinking after a hurricane came through and we didn't have time to get her out of the water.
Era, 1965.

 

[MikDee]

Re: Show Your Age

Looked like green shag carpet (remember that!) growing all over that bottom.

That's it exactly Rick! Those old Thompsons were great boats! one friend had a Cruisers, one a Grady White, one a Lyman, & one an Old Town, all similar to mine, but I liked the Thompson, Best of All. By the way, where did you grow up?

 

[angus63]

Re: Show Your Age

We had a 36' Novi double ender and a 28' Verity skiff and finally a 26' Freeporter (now Columbia). Spent nearly as much time under them on the hard then in them fishing!!!!

 

[INJUN]

Re: Show Your Age

My Dad loved working with wood.
The first 2 boats were made from a kit. The 2nd one was longer, by adding more ribs.
Then he moved uo to larger boats and always would get the worst fixer upper. When we got the the marina(s) to see a boat, we always looked for the worst one and that would be the one. Lots of burning/scraping old paint off and stuffing the cotton. He used the cheap bottom paint, but added red pepper to it and it worked fine. I could go on and on with those stories.

Ah, those childhood memories.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Show Your Age

My grandfather was born in March 1879

 

[mainexile]

Re: Show Your Age

Show your age?

My wife accuses me of being there to witness the animals being loaded 2 X 2.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Show Your Age

My job used to be to paint the bottom of my Dad's "Silhouette" 20ft sailing cruiser each season. Of course after doing all the scraping first !!!!