This rowboat came
to us from a gentleman in Oklahoma who bought it on ebay. He has
childhood memories of one like it and will be using it at his
cottage in Silver Lake, MI.
The
first 6 pictures are those seen on ebay and we would like to thank
the photographer for sharing them with us. The first picture has a
12' Penn Yan Cartopper resting on it. As you can see, the boat is in
rough shape with bad paint and varnish, gouges in the wood and even
a hole in the bottom. These planks will be replaced.
The deck and side
rails will need replacing, too, due to rot. The transom will need at
least one new plank to replace the one with the hole in it.
The interior needs to be entirely stripped to bare wood to remove
the old varnish which at best is flaky, or no longer there.
Views of the
interior of the Thompson before work begins. The aft seat has a
great feature for the fisherman waiting for a nibble. A hinged
rounded plank flips up to form a backrest in the perfect position to
put one's feet up on the seat and lean back.
The silver
Thompson Bros. tag indicates this is a rowboat from the 1950's. In
the 1940's a brass one was used.
The Thompson logo has indeed seen
better days and will also need replacing.
The seats have been removed and the loose dirt and
varnish scraped and vacuumed out. The long and somewhat tedious
process of stripping out the old
varnish begins.
Our quality
control inspector, Tater, checks the project out. She keeps a close
eye on things - especially her bones and balls.
