The restoration 49 RPH

[willysross]

And so the boat has been in the yard since October and they are replacing some short planking that had been done over the years. What a beautiful boat someday it will be

[Max Simmons]

One of my favorites. Pics please.

[skipper2]

This looks like an Alaskan! They are great boats. Lets hear more about her!

[willysross]

Here is my letter to Bay Delta Yachtsman in December about my new purchase. No throwing stone's, we are all here for the same sickness. Some just have it worse than others!

I grew up boating and know all of the rules about purchasing a boat. Always get a survey, always do a sea trial and never but never buy a boat unseen. I also have some personal rules. Always need a flybridge and although I grew up on wood boats, I prefer a fiberglass boat.

Well I have been searching for my last boat in my career, a slower trawler that I could get at the right price and do a little work on, so when I retire it is ready to go. I plan to do the great loop the first year and a half and then head to parts unknown until I can't get around anymore then return and be a burden on my children. Fourteen months ago I sold my 32 Carver in search of my next project.

Well this all sounds very level-headed RIGHT? Well on a Sunday night while sitting in an apartment I have in New Orleans, with the help of Crown Royal at 11:30 p.m. I am surfing EBAY (in the boat section of course). I see a 49 Grand Banks Alaskan Raised Pilot House at an unbelievable low price with no reserve in British Columbia. (I guess the Crown Royal just drew me to Canada.)

I quickly ran down my checklist:

1 Flybridge: No

2 Survey: No

3 Fiberglass: No

4 Sea trial: No

5 Seen it: No

Perfect

Twenty seconds left I will throw a bid across the bow and see if it sticks.

I am now the proud owner with the task of getting it to the Delta and couldn't be happier. It is now in Washington and I am going to go up next week to start preparing it for the voyage south. Well, now I am really going to stay anonymous!

I will keep you up on the adventure. I thought you were supposed to get smarter when you get older. Oh, did I mention I am working in Texas and I am landlocked? What an idiot I am!

Name Withheld By Request(NWBR)

[Rsysol]

Wow, good luck! Sounds like a great challenge and opportunity.

[Donsan]

Originally Posted by willysross

Well this all sounds very level-headed RIGHT? Well on a Sunday night while sitting in an apartment I have in New Orleans, with the help of Crown Royal at 11:30 p.m. I am surfing EBAY (in the boat section of course). I see a 49 Grand Banks Alaskan Raised Pilot House at an unbelievable low price with no reserve in British Columbia. (I guess the Crown Royal just drew me to Canada.)

I quickly ran down my checklist:

1 Flybridge: No

2 Survey: No

3 Fiberglass: No

4 Sea trial: No

5 Seen it: No

Perfect

Twenty seconds left I will throw a bid across the bow and see if it sticks.

I am now the proud owner with the task of getting it to the Delta and couldn't be happier. It is now in Washington and I am going to go up next week to start preparing it for the voyage south. Well, now I am really going to stay anonymous!

I will keep you up on the adventure. I thought you were supposed to get smarter when you get older. Oh, did I mention I am working in Texas and I am landlocked? What an idiot I am!

Name Withheld By Request(NWBR)

I got my first boat on EBAY in a similar situation except the boat was close to where I lived and was fiberglass. And of course, I will never bid on EBAY for a boat again....or Craigslist....or any other online bid site. Didn't expect to win the boat as the pics looked REAL NICE...ha ha. The boat didn't turn out that bad though but I will always wonder why I made that stupid bid thinking no way in hell would the devil sell it to me for that amount. The compulsive gambler in me won the day and the devil got my money. There used to be a lot of road signs in Florida begging people to donate their boats to Boat Angels and the like. I suspect these (or their agents) are the folks who put these boats up for EBAY auction.

Rules were meant to be broken and breaking them does make life interesting....and expensive.

Good luck on your project.

[Pack Mule]

I love those Alaskans . There is one for sale about 150 miles from me . I'm afraid to go and look .

[CPseudonym]

I'm afraid to look at any more wooden boats because I love them. Two facts ring true for me.

1. I'm a skilled fabricator not a carpenter.

2. My carpentry skills display fact 1 gloriously.

Now I just have to convince myself not to fabricate a steel trawler in my backyard from plans.

Good luck with the DeFever, looking forward to seeing it when it's here in the Delta.

[Nsail]

DeFever?

And, when he said he was planning to do the Great Loop, I thought he was talking about the Mississippi Delta. Now I'm curious. Let us know Willysross.

[willysross]

49 Alaskan 1973 built by American Marine in Hong Kong #41 the same yard as Grand Banks. The last year of the Alaskan. American Marine couldn't afford to change all their boats to Fiberglass so they kept Grand Banks and the Alaskan went away. Art Defever started building the boat in Fiberglass under the Defever name since he designed it originally.

[willysross]

Originally Posted by Nsail

DeFever?

And, when he said he was planning to do the Great Loop, I thought he was talking about the Mississippi Delta. Now I'm curious. Let us know Willysross.

The Delta I will move it to is the California Delta. I grew up in the Alameda and spent my childhood on the delta and lived in Disco bay for 15 years.
The loop I was talking about is the one from Stuart florida up the hudson into the great lakes then down the Mississippi back around to Stuart.I lived in Stuart for a while on the Oceechobee waterway and watched the trawlers go by. Six years is my target. I plan to take at least a year and half to complete

[willysross]

Originally Posted by Donsan

I got my first boat on EBAY in a similar situation except the boat was close to where I lived and was fiberglass. And of course, I will never bid on EBAY for a boat again....or Craigslist....or any other online bid site. Didn't expect to win the boat as the pics looked REAL NICE...ha ha. The boat didn't turn out that bad though but I will always wonder why I made that stupid bid thinking no way in hell would the devil sell it to me for that amount. The compulsive gambler in me won the day and the devil got my money. There used to be a lot of road signs in Florida begging people to donate their boats to Boat Angels and the like. I suspect these (or their agents) are the folks who put these boats up for EBAY auction.

Rules were meant to be broken and breaking them does make life interesting....and expensive.

Good luck on your project.

I would give you my long reply on all the boats I have bought on Ebay and done just fine but there is a boat going off in 5 minutes and I think I will throw a bid at it

[Pack Mule]

Originally Posted by CPseudonym

I'm afraid to look at any more wooden boats because I love them. Two facts ring true for me.

1. I'm a skilled fabricator not a carpenter.

2. My carpentry skills display fact 1 gloriously.

Now I just have to convince myself not to fabricate a steel trawler in my backyard from plans.

Good luck with the DeFever, looking forward to seeing it when it's here in the Delta.

CP ,I'm sure that you have checked out the Michael Kasten web sight and drooled over some of his designs . Come on man just go for it .

[Nsail]

Thanks for clarifying my DeFever and delta questions!

CPseudonym was right!

[Marin]

Willysross-- if all goes well you could end up with something that looks like this. This is an Alaskan 49 in flawless condition. When I saw the boat in Ganges, BC I was half-convinced the hull was fiberglass even though I knew it wasn't.

[Ted]

Zildjan ?

Ted

[O C Diver]

Well look at the bright side, at least you were drinking Crown Royal. Who knows had bad the boat could have been if it were Southern Comfort.

Ted

[dhmeissner]

Well here is a 46 Alaskan selling for a pretty penny.

1970 46' American Marine/Grand Banks Alaskan 46

Keep me away from the Crown Royal please...

[CPseudonym]

nsail Sorry, meant to type DeFever "design" but my fat head and fingers got in the way. Beautiful example of which Marin posted a photo of.

Originally Posted by Pack Mule

CP ,I'm sure that you have checked out the Michael Kasten web sight and drooled over some of his designs . Come on man just go for it .

I've picked one out already but am nowhere near committed to taking on the build so have not bothered purchasing the plans.

[siestakey]

Originally Posted by willysross

And so the boat has been in the yard since October and they are replacing some short planking that had been done over the years. What a beautiful boat someday it will beAttachment 37878

More pics as you move along on your project and best of luck