TOPIC: Arkansas Traveler twin cockpit boat

Hello, I picked up Arkansas Traveler twin cockpit boat last fall shortly before winter I plan to restore it .. I will be replacing the seat wood, gunwales, and transom wood.. its a pretty neat old boat from around 1954.. I think.. it was originally rear steer and will be again when done.. I plan to strip it completely and polish it.. I'm thinking of wrap around seating for both cockpits and have a 1957 Mercury Mark 30 for power..

Hi John, Glad to see another one like mine. I could some idea's on the steering placement. I put mine together about 5 years back and traded emails with a club member who had owned one. Here are a couple photos, one of them is touched up a bit. I'm not sure but I think another member, Dan, has a couple A/T boats and may have one of these also. He does super metal polish and paint, not just painted like mine.
Hugh

Hello Hugh ! thanks for your reply !! yours looks great with the short windshield !! there seems to not be many of these around.. I could only find one other one on the internet its a all original one here are a couple photos of it.. I have the same windshield stanchions as this boat has.. John T.

It will be easy to make an original windshield with those stanchions. I come across a photo here and there but not many of them in use. Probably quite a few sitting in back yards in Ark. Another member I talked to about 6 years back had one someone had restored. It had rear steering and a MK58 on it. He had problems getting the nose down and problems seeing. Also got wet a lot. Told me it was good my steering was forward and 4 passengers really hurt the performance. Just wanted to pass that on for what it's worth.
The boat is built strong plus adding the center and back decks makes it even more so. Another member had a friend who ran a MK 75 on one for years and beat it hard. I just finished a MK 30 tiller motor and my buddy has it on a welded Gregor, it flies. If you are balanced out good, it should do you good. I also learned the value of small trim tabs on my 14' Klamath with 45 hp merc. That can help a lot with keeping the nose down

mine is a bit different but similar overall hull shape

Looking at it closely, I think it is just like mine. Here are a couple photos when I finished the base color. I like the boat because it is different. It gets attention at the lake and nobody has one like it.

hi hugh- they are not the same. i have no decking around the motor area. mine is a more basic boat. it's a 1954 "sportsman" utility. the chin is 2/3 of an i-beam- "cushion aire" and all that. a big deal made of that features by Ark Trave- you could have dumjped those early I-beam chined boats ten stories and not dented them. mine also is not original front decking. two seat utility designed to be tiller steered. i'm thinkful someone fashioned a fore deck extension to get the steering wheel back to where it could be reached by the front seat.

so very close to if not identical hull shape but yours is far more optioned

O K I see what you are saying. Some of the info I have lists the center deck as an option to the utility boat. Have also seen boat with center deck but without the rear deck. Mine is listed as a 1957 but the guy from AK that I bought it from said it was a 1956 sold in 1957. Will never know for sure.
Good luck with it. I know it will be sharp when you get it done.

Hugh Long wrote: O K I see what you are saying. Some of the info I have lists the center deck as an option to the utility boat. Have also seen boat with center deck but without the rear deck. Mine is listed as a 1957 but the guy from AK that I bought it from said it was a 1956 sold in 1957. Will never know for sure.
Good luck with it. I know it will be sharp when you get it done.

Have you checked The Library ? <--- Link

A wealth of information in there. Kudos to whoever maintains it. I found out all sorts of information about my '59 Dorsett Catalina in there, including that the original Dorsett plant was TWO BLOCKS away from the plant in Bremen, IN. where they make Beck Spyders now, and where mine went for a year for "refurbishments."

Great looking boat, excited to follow your progress. I just joined but have an original Arkansas Traveler with front steer. Mines a bit different without the rear deck and walk through bench seat. Unfortunately it was one step away from the scrap yard, so no paperwork on it.