TOPIC: Huge Boat and Motor Auction - Dec. 1-2

Since my Dad passed away in June, we have been sorting through the family items and are now getting to the huge collection of vintage boats, motors, and related boating and fishing collectibles. We had one auction last weekend for the house contents, which included his 25 toy outboards, toy boats, and hundred of vintage reels and lures.

Now we will be working overtime in the next few months planning for the big sale on December 1-2. Two days to sell off as much as possible of the hundreds of motors and more than 50 boats being stored in 14 metal buildings. Plan to be in Wichita Falls, Texas, the first weekend of December as we sell the boats, motors, and lots of boat hardware, gas tanks, parts, tools, vintage fishing gear, minnow buckets, etc.

Here is a link to a few pics I have taken in the last few weeks, and a link the the auction site that will be updated in the next month or so. Most of these motors have been collecting dust for many years and we will try to get them dusted off and sorted out. Some are parts motors and many are complete.

www.flickr.com//photos/scrambler/sets/72157631734502184/show/

www.choateauction.com

Slide Show

Holy cow what a stash.

Obviously your Dad was blessed by being able to stay busy and enjoy what he was doing. Hooray for him !!!!!

Teriyaki,

Condolences on the loss of your dad & also WELCOME to the forum.

NICE stash.

yours, satx

WOW! That is just unbelievable. I have never seen that many outboards in one place ever.There are boats there I have been seaching for for years. Now I know why I couldn't find them.

Thanks to all that have responded. Yes, my Dad was truly blessed that he had the time and means to collect and use what he loved. He worked hard with his welding business and met a lot of people who helped him find these many treasured motors.

Dad's main interest was the Mercury motors, especially the Hurricane, Rocket, and Lightning. Of course he collected them all, and anything with the Mercury name, including a couple of those 2-man chain saws.

I have spent the last 2 months mostly clearing brush and weeds just to get to some of the buildings and get the big doors opened. I have also had a few people who are members of the AOMCI and the Wood Boat Association of Texas there to see the goodies. They were amazed and loved the surprises in store as we opened each building and literally climbed over the tops of boats motors with flashlights to try and see what was there.

I thought I knew a little bit about the motors and boats, but quickly found out the many subtle differences that can make a motor more collectible, such as the H at the end of the KG7 Hurricanes.

Hope to see some of you in December, as I know many bargains will be had, since their is just too much for one person to handle.

Teriyaki, sorry about your loss. Your dad left a great collection and he obviously taught you right that you are trying to place everything with people who will appreciate them. It's probably good that I'm 2000 miles away or I would leave with a souvenir or two. Oh Mr. Gibson, there is two Aqua Loops in the auction. Look at the end of the flickr presentation.

I posted the auction on the FG calendar for you Teriyaki, hope it helps. (Threads have a way of getting shuffled down if not kept active.) Best of luck with it, and please accept my condolences on the loss of your father. "Good on ya" for keeping his spirit alive!

Thanks for the reply and notice of the Aqua Loops. Some upholstery work was just completed on those. They were in progress when Dad passed and I had to pick them up when the upholstery shop completed the new seats and custom canvas covers. He also had new plexiglass windshields and the wrist strap kill switches put on them. They look pretty good.

MarkS wrote:

I posted the auction on the FG calendar for you Teriyaki, hope it helps. (Threads have a way of getting shuffled down if not kept active.) Best of luck with it, and please accept my condolences on the loss of your father. "Good on ya" for keeping his spirit alive!

Thank you sir for posting this so it will get more notice. I live a little over 2 hours away from the location of all the motors and boats, so I am only there working from Friday evening to Sunday evening most weekends.

I don't know a lot about all the items, but enough to be a little dangerous, since I grew up around these things and fishing and hunting with Dad most of time. Working on those old motors teaches you a lot, and has helped me tweak 2-stoke motorcycles my son races.

If anyone has questions or requests for other pictures, I will try my best to get what you need on the weekends. There are several boats not pictured, either because they are surrounded by other things in buildings, hanging form the rafters, or at some place for repair or restoration. I would like to mention that we have three wood hydroplanes probably dating to the 50's. They are covered and hanging up in the buildings, and look to be in good shape.
Thanks again to all for you kind words

Dear Teriyaki,
I am extremly sorry to hear about your father passing away. And everyone has already said this but I will repeat it. Wow he left alot of beautys. Is there any fleetform boats there? Or is there any Scott McCullough motors? I hope that you get ALOT of collectors at the auction because there are some boats that I would love to see restored!!!
Sincerely Chance

I too send condolences for your loss, I remember it was hard to deal with my grandparents departing and deciding what to keep. I am only 5 hours away, so I will want to try to attend. We will see what happends the first tuesday in Nov to see what I can spend (hope the free economy lives). Plus it will give me a chance to drive down old route 66 again. I'm in the Mo Ozarks. Hope to see you.

Chance wrote:

Dear Teriyaki,
I am extremly sorry to hear about your father passing away. And everyone has already said this but I will repeat it. Wow he left alot of beautys. Is there any fleetform boats there? Or is there any Scott McCullough motors? I hope that you get ALOT of collectors at the auction because there are some boats that I would love to see restored!!!
Sincerely Chance

Well, I will have to keep my eyes out for any Fleetform. I never heard of this brand, but that does not mean a lot. I did some quick research and see they were made in Fort Worth, so it is possible. Their is a line of about 7 or 8 boats along the back fence that are sitting on old tires. Basically I have not even looked at those, and just concentrated on the ones on trailers, primarily the Feather Craft, Lone Star, and Duracraft. Dad liked the boats made in Texas, mostly the Lone Star, and I think there are 3 Yellow Jackets. I also found a Stainless Steel boat, but unknown make.

I am only slightly familiar with the Scott-Attwater, along with Firestone and Champion, and then the McCulough buyout. I will do a little research to know what I am looking for in the McCullough motors. Luckily I love to read and research the technical aspect of things.

I have seen a few of the odd names such as Seagull and Water Witch and have been reading through the Peter Hunn book and other reference books Dad had.

Sorry for your family's loss. Apparently, your dad had a 'boat' problem with a side of outboard addiction ;

His collection is amazing, it is great that he deemed so many incredible boats & motors worthy of not being lost. Truly amazing.

Wish I were closer, if only to see the vastness in person. It probably seemed like a daunting task. Thank you for posting this info, with so much advance notice, many will be able to travel from afar to attend. I have shared this thread w/ other forums I frequent.

I hope they all find excellent homes & are returned to active use soon. I thoroughly enjoyed the slide show. I did manage to not drool on my computer, but just barely.

Sorry again for your loss & thank you for sharing your dad's passion(s) with me(us).

That looks like an auction to attend just for the entertainment value alone... I did see one Power Cat in the photos, could not tell for sure if it was a 16c or 18c but I have advised our Power Cat owners group of the auction, so some of them may show up.
Regards,
Danny Leger
Austin, Texas

Wow, I'd love to go play there for awhile. Hey John Gibson, look at the Aqua Loops.

Teriyaki,
I'm very sorry to hear about Norman. He was an old and dear friend. Each time he was onto an old boat somewhere, he'd be just like a kid, so much enthusiasm, so much joy. Whatever he was doing, he was enjoying it. He was always happy, always on the hunt for the next one. He brought his Roby-Hutton to the first fiberglassics.com meet in Illinois, man, that was a long time ago. Good luck with the auction, it took him a long time to gather this collection, it will be sad to see it split so quickly. But the good thing is that he has taken care of it, put it all into one place, and now it is time to get it back into circulation. Because he cared about it, others will once again be able to use it. Best wishes to you and yours.

Lee

lee wangstad wrote:

Teriyaki,
I'm very sorry to hear about Norman. He was an old and dear friend. Each time he was onto an old boat somewhere, he'd be just like a kid, so much enthusiasm, so much joy. Whatever he was doing, he was enjoying it. He was always happy, always on the hunt for the next one. He brought his Roby-Hutton to the first fiberglassics.com meet in Illinois, man, that was a long time ago. Good luck with the auction, it took him a long time to gather this collection, it will be sad to see it split so quickly. But the good thing is that he has taken care of it, put it all into one place, and now it is time to get it back into circulation. Because he cared about it, others will once again be able to use it. Best wishes to you and yours.

Lee

Lee,
Thanks for the kind words. Always glad to here from people who knew my Dad. My name is actually Terry York, and the Teriyaki was a nickname given to me by some friends I met on one of many trips to Japan. They thought my name sounded like Teriyaki, and it stuck.

I suddenly had a weekend schedule change and was able to drive to Wichita Falls for the weekend to continue the task of sorting things out. I actually found another boat in one of the buildings I had been looking for, so it was a good trip. A brand new never rigged little fiberglass 2-seater.

But, late on Saturday afternoon, it started raining and got harder and harder. My wife thought it wasn't safe to be in those metal buildings, so she headed to town. I stuck it out and watched it continue to pour. After 2 hours of continuous heavy rain, I was in the midst of a lake. It was as if Dad had his own private lake on the back of his property, and most of those boats look like they were floating. In fact, an old Jet Ski did float around and drifted away.
Check out the picture of the property behind all the buildings.

I'm seriously thinking of attending and pull a trailer down there. My only concern is: Here in MO we have to title boats, motors, and trailers. And since TX is a title state I would have to have a title signed over and a bill of sale for anything I buy there.

Wow! that's not an estate, that's a museum. It would be great if someone could preserve that collection.

Hi,and,not to sound like so many others that have replied,WOW!

There is not much of a way I can get by your place and I don't know if you even have any of that left, although I can't imagine moving that much stuff in just the few months that have gone by, but there are some items I'm in need of that I figure you might have. Maybe I can arrange for shipping. I just got through repairing the bow cap on my 52 Duracraft sportsman and thought in the beginning how nice it would be if I could find a whole uncut cap that someone took off another boat to change it from a runabout to a fishing boat, and low and behold looking through your photos, there one is! Of course, this comes after I have already finished repairing the one I have, LOL, that's just how it works. Anyway I hope to hear back from you and see what you might still have that I need.
Also like many others on here that have commented, I'm sorry to hear about your Dad.

Well guys, here is a little update on the boats. Still working with TPWD on getting the titles cleared up. It is taking longer than I expected, just because it is more than I expected in confirming serial numbers,, registrations numbers and matching up paperwork. We had over 90 documented boats, but we have narrowed that list down to 55 boats we plan to title and sell. We will also sell the hydro racers, but they have no registration or title, they will just have a bill of sale.

We hooping to have the auction in the spring, but it is looking more like early summer, and maybe June. I created a smaller file of the boats with just the basic info and deleted all the registration and title information, and hope it shows up in this post to give you guys an idea of what we have. I also attempted to attach a PDF file as well.

I'm going to try my dead level best to be there! As soon as you can come up with a solid date let us know.

Will there be any place to park a RV overnight

TallTexan wrote:

Will there be any place to park a RV overnight

No space for any RV's. Their is a WalMart within about 4 miles that might allow parking, and Coyote Ranch Resort is about 8 miles away on Highway 287

The actual address of the shop where the auction will take place is:

1182 US Highway 281
Wichita Falls, TX 76310

is there anything left, last time i checked i have a few bucks,

and no one to tell me how to spend my money. LOL