In The Begining

On St. Patrick's Day 1971 my father (with me in tow) purchased a 14'6" aluminum row boat from a Starcraft dealership on Long Island New York. We put our 1960's 10 horse Evinrude motor on the transom, and we were on our way. We used the boat practically every weekend, and fished all over Long Island and New York City waterways. My father named the boat "Pile Driver" due to the pounding one took in the bow in rough seas. A few years into ownership, my father read an article in Long Island Fisherman Magazine by Ray Hendrickson. Mr. Hendrickson had modified his skiff by adding a steering console, live well, as well as other modifications. My father was so struck by the article that he began contemplating his modifications. He even contacted Mr. Hendrickson and we went to view his boat in person to get some ideas. The modifications my dad and I added to our aluminum row boat were; a steering console and storage cuddy in the bow. The modifications went so well that Mr. Hendrickson wrote a follow-up article and included our boat along with several pictures. Over time more modifications were added by my dad and myself such as a biminy top, console windshield, captain's chairs on the center seat, and I eventually replaced the original plywood seats with teak. The boat continued it's life on Long Island, and eventually Cooperstown NY (Lake Otsego) were my father and mother had a summer camp on the lake. The old 10 horse Evinrude was replaced first by a 20 Horse Johnson, and later a in 1985 by a 30 horse Johnson motor. This gave the boat a bit more power and speed, and was able to pull tubers and skiers. Once my dad had retired, he purchased a pontoon boat for Cooperstown and started going on friends boats or party boats to fish. The boat was rarely used for a period of 5 years or so. It was at this point that my father gifted the boat to myself and my wife (who had relocated to New Hampshire). We started off just visiting different waterways in our area and eventually fell in love with the Merrimack River. It was very close to our home, so very convenient. It also has a good stretch of river (13 miles) between Lowell Mass. and Merrimack NH that we traveled. There are four ramps for access, and it really suited both the boat and it's owners. In our third year we decided that we wanted to make a few modifications ourselves to suite our wants and needs. This time we were going for comfort as well as practicality, since we really don't do allot of fishing. The first thing I wanted to put in was a flat deck in the boat. It was always very difficult to navigate over the ribs in the hull (especially when in motion). I also wanted to create a cushioned bench seat with a back in the stern, as well as a trunk behind the bench seat for hidden storage & gas. Deb had a few ideas as well. She wanted to convert the bow seat in to a cushioned double wide sun seat, as she likes to kick back and soak up the rays. Deb also had an idea to convert the bow cuddy into a cooler (to eliminate a carry on cooler). Finally after 39 years as an army green rowboat, we wanted to give the boat a new color scheme. We decided on a navy blue and white two tone for the exterior hull, and white for the interior. Now that we knew what we wanted, it was time to actually do the work. The logical place to start was to disassemble the boat, and start sanding and restoring the original modification wood elements that my dad and I installed 30 years earlier. Since we weren't going to use the stern and bow teak rowboat seats anymore, I decided to utilize as much of that wood on our modification project as I could. The next step was to sand down the old paint on the exterior and interior. This was a long and difficult process. I ended up bringing the boat to my place of employment (which had a hoist lift), I rigged the boat and was able to lift it off the trailer, and suspend the hull in the air. This made it much easier to work on. Once sanded, we primed and painted the exterior hull. Once dry, it was back on the trailer, and back to the house for final painting. It sounds so simple when I write it, but this process was painful, tedious and time consuming. Adding a floor was a priority once we were painted. My dad had built cedar fence style sections, that fit between the seats, and laid them in the bottom of the deck years before. They were great for the fishing boat, but they had a tendency to bounce around and didn't give the finish look I was going for. I thought that I would use his panels and attach 3/4" Extira (a material used in ship building that doesn't rot or swell). We applied a good grade exterior carpet to that, and sealed the edges with clear silicon to prevent unraveling (Deb's idea again!). The added weight was enough to keep them from bouncing around and really gave the floor that finished look. Next was to modifying the seats. I used 3/4" marine plywood, made the back seat wider for comfort and added a back rest using stainless steel piano hinge. For the bow seat I cut two wider boards out of 3/4" marine plywood, added bracing for the double wide section and connected them again using the piano hinge. Since the bow seat was now double wide, it left an area under the seat for storage. We purchased two plastic bins with snap on covers that fit perfectly under the seat. In the end we had more storage than we had when we used the cuddy, and it was much easier to get at things. Now that the seats were installed (in mock up stage), I was able to focus on the trunk. I started with a piece of Di-bond. This is an 1/8" thick plastic composite with aluminum laminated on both sides. This kept it light and rigid. I decided to edge the lid with teak on the perimeter to dress it up. I mounted an aluminum square tube (which was pulled from the trash) behind the back rest of the stern seat, and mounted the trunk lid to that. Next was the console. The original console panel was 1/2" marine plywood. I wanted to replace it with teak, and put all of the instrumentation (speedometer and depth recorder) into the panel, along with the running and courtesy light switches. I also wanted to install a few ON/OFF toggle switches for future use. First I had to cut a piece of teak for the panel and have it planed down from 3/4" to 1/2". I used the old plywood console panel as a template to match the angle cuts (which were numerous & tough). Sanded it down, installed the components, and done. Now it was on to the cuddy (or now the cooler). This was a bit more difficult. I was concerned about water in a wood cooler. After much thought, Deb came up with using 3/8" rubber material in the form of Yoga mats. They were inexpensive and fit the bill. I cut the pieces to fit the walls of the cuddy and floor, and siliconed them in place. Sealed the seams with silicone, installed a drain tube (which dumped onto the deck. I also decided to replace the plywood door (which opened from top to bottom) with more 1/2" teak. This time I made it into a double door that opened in the traditional manner. As it happened, I had more teak left over than I thought I would. I decided to add a detail that I had considered at the concept stage, but didn't think I could pull off. I wanted to add a teak stripe down the center of the bow and trunk. I cut the 3/4" teak pieces into 1 3/4" wide x 1/8" thick strips, and applied them. This ended up being one of my most favorite visual details of the boat. I also cut 1" wide strips and used them to edge the bow and stern seats. This really pulled the whole look together. There was still one late addition that I wanted to add. Before we began the restoration/modification process, our 39 year old row boat use to take on a bit of water. I never liked having to bail the water out, and now with a trunk it was going to be even harder. I was able to get a hold of a brand new bilge pump that a friend had from when he use to own a boat, and installed it on our craft. I was glad I had installed extra switches, which now came in very handy. There was only one more thing to do. We wanted to give the boat a new name to go with our new look. I have to credit Deb with the name, Third Generation". This had a couple of different meanings. The first was that this was the third generation of the boats configuration (Factory, The modifications my dad and made, and the most recent by Deb and myself). The second meaning was that the boat was restored and modified so that my son Robert would be able to take ownership when he was ready. Since I work for a sign company I designed and cut vinyl graphics, and applied them to our new boat.
And that's it, for at least this season.