TOPIC: Vintage outboards & boat parts needing good homes

Little boat goodies will go to bed homeless tonight, unless you help.

As I posted a little while ago in response to a particular thread on these boards regarding '58-'59 Cutters:


I'm not a classic boats guy myself -- well, rather, I wasn't one until relatively recently, of which more in a minute -- but I've been playing and collecting vintage basses and guitars and tube amps for the past 35 years, and what I'm seeing in forums like this and the AOMCI boards and so on is definitely analogous to what I'm used to seeing in that end of things. Very cool.

The reason I got intrigued enough in the classic-outboards side of things to be reading & now posting here is that my friend Melanie asked me to come help sort through all her late father's stuff when he passed away shortly before Christmas.

And I do mean *all* his stuff -- he was an inveterate collector of all things mechanical and fascinating, to the point of being a hard-core packrat (and, in his later years, at least, what I guess they're calling a 'hoarder' nowadays.) Oh, yeah, and Mel tells me that he was also president of the Tri-State area APBA racing chapter back in the '50's, too...

So it's no surprise that among the many wonderful artifacts that he collected in his younger days are, as it turns out, at least 25 vintage outboard motors. I say "at least" because it's not impossible I may yet find one or two more. I thought I was all done with the discovery phase of this particular archaeological excavation, but a couple of weeks ago I moved aside a pile of stuff I'd been kinda working my way around and came across, carefully shrouded in canvas and set to the side on one of those old cast-iron Kiekhaefer motor stands, a 90+%, restoration-quality 1934 Evinrude LightFour!

And that was just lagniappe by then, because what originally started me digging into what I have now gotten deeply seeped in, the whole fascinating culture of post-WWII personal pleasure boating in America, was the first dozen motors I found in the basement and garage, all carefully racked away on their stands waiting to be called back into service at some unknown later date: those nice, sexy green-cowled 20-cc-and-under high-rpm Mercury outboards from back in the day. Yum!

In any event, I found this particular thread because one of the various things I recently found tucked away in a box with many other random things was a cherry-condition Vollrath stainless steel bow light, just like the one that you guys just helped John score for his Cutter. As soon as I saw the red & green lenses I knew it had to be a bow light, and I could tell from the racy styling that it was a totally Sputnik-age, fins-on-the-stern kind of thing. But I wasn't sure just what boat it had originally belonged to until I found this & related threads here on FiberGlassics.

Needless to say, now that I've seen the pics from the rest of the set, I'll be keeping my eyes out for the matching cleats and such to go with it. They're probably here somewhere, ahem. I don't much guess I'll also come across the kind of extra-special Vollrath steering wheel that you guys have been drooling over in these particular Cutter-oriented threads, but ya never know. I've already found one or two other wheels from that same era, so anything is possible.

If I do find anything interesting, I'll be sure to let y'all know. And if there's anything in particular you're questing for, just ping me via the email link here. If I haven't found it already, I still might before all is said and done. I've only just now finished totally excavating the garage, and I've really only scratched the surface of the much larger basement below. Who knows what other juicy goodies might still be lurking down there, just waiting for the chance to go to a good home...

Mloutre
Welcome to the FG family.
Sounds as though you have been finding some treasures.
If you post them here in the Glassifieds under the parts section, I am sure they will all go to there new happy homes. Put in lots of pictures.
Neil

Yeah, I'm sure that NOTHING will go homeless! There will be plenty of interest here.

Out of curiosity, What part of the country is this 'stash' located in??

-Andrew

It's in Erie, PA, a small city on the edge of a great lake. It's located on what is probably the best natural harbor on the North Coast, roughly equidistant from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo. So none of this stuff has ever seen or tasted salt water.

(I grew up in Erie, and had only returned here to deal with the tail end of my own father's final illness not too long ago. So I've loved the water, and by extension boats & boating, ever since I was a little kid. I just never had this much direct contact with the vintage small craft end of it until now that I'm helping Mel deal with hers.)