2 days Ago
The author found his latest passion project — this 1984 Sea Ray — for sale in the small central Illinois town of El Paso. To subscribe, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here.
To pitch a ‘My Turn’ guest column, email [email protected] . Since I was a small boy, I’ve had a bit of an obsession with boats.
Those who know me well know that my passion for the past several years has been in rebuilding, repairing and restoring old boats. I don’t know why I love old boats, but I also love old houses, old cars and old airplanes. I built my first boat in my 30s, and by the time I finished it, it was too heavy to unload from the back of the truck and launch.
I needed four helpers to get the 10-foot homemade boat in the water. Something about restoring, or bringing back to life and worth, an old house or boat that has been neglected for many years gives me joy. I also just love the work.
I was working on a couple of old boats during my brief retirement when I was asked to come to Champaign and try to do the same thing with this wonderful old newspaper. It has been the professional work of my career. It wasn’t long after I arrived here that I began to miss the restoration work and started looking for a project boat.
My biggest problem, of course, was where to enjoy it when I did finish it. The cozy interior of the publisher's boat. My home in upstate New York is called the Finger Lakes region for a reason.
Many large lakes, most in the shape of long fingers, are easily accessible within 30 minutes of my home. The lake I live on is almost 40 miles long and about 3 miles wide. It’s also about 640 feet deep, with Geneva, N.
Y., on one end and Watkins Glen on the other. Racing enthusiasts know Watkins for its serpentine racecourse.
After about a year of casual searching, I found the boat. It was in small central Illinois city of El Paso — a 1984 Sea Ray in good shape in need of cosmetic work and a new home. It was about 40 years old at the time I bought it, with a fiberglass hull and lots of teak and mahogany in the cabin.
And it was a Sea Ray, one of the finer-built small boats over the years. This 26-footer was no exception. With “good bones,” as they say, it was perfect for my quest.
I found a slip at the new marinas being built on Lake Decatur and set about refinishing all the old teak in the cabin. I replaced some damaged pieces and cleaned the boat thoroughly. I continued the restoration work in the cockpit, where much of the original woodwork was faded.
That was most of the work I did that spring. I wanted to get the boat out on the water and get a feel for other repairs or renovations I might want to do. Last year, I decided to redo the cockpit, taking out the two seats that were perched on built-in storage compartments.
I don’t need the storage, so my next project is to take those and the seats out and replace them with pedestal seats and new flooring. I plan to do that work this spring. I’ll take it home when I leave Champaign, but that doesn’t look like anytime soon.
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