Old boat and motor

[steveh]

Hey Guys,

Thought you might enjoy this…I spent the last 3 years restoring this roughly 1950 Arkansas Traveler UT-14.  I put a 1952 Johnson QD-12 on it that I mechanically restored about 15 years ago.  Here is the virgin voyage…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zSa7-NMYVyY

[JOSEPH BRINCAT]

Steve, congratulations on a really nice boat and motor combo. I love the wood trim , gunnels and seats.  Wood seats much nicer on the butt than aluminum on a hot sunny day.  So where will we be seeing you and that rig, where’s home.

Joe B , Great lakes Chapter

[steveh]

The boat is on Pelee Island Ontario…in the video we are at Scudder’s Marina.  We did run it around the bay on the north side of the island, but eventually the wind was roaring and we were into white caps and probably 1.5 ft waves.  The boat did great, as did the motor!

[steveh]

The back story is that my father-in-law was born and raised on Pelee Island.  My wife grew up there.  He ran a scrapping business and folks would bring scrap metal to him.  He will be 100 this November.  Anyhow, as he got older, the trips to the mainland to scrap the metal became fewer and fewer and eventually stopped all together.  But he never told people to stop bringing him scrap metal…

This boat was full of trash and completely rotten.  There were two other boats in the scrap pile…one was a Sea Nymph and I forget what the other one was.  I knew of Arkansas Traveler and figured the boat was worth saving.  So I bought a trailer and hauled the thing home…which is Cleveland Ohio.

As an aside, my wife is a dual US/Canadian citizen…

I brought the thing home in 2023.  2024 saw the thing sand blasted and painted.  2025 the transom (baltic birch) and seats (white oak) were done.  2026 did the trim…quarter-sawn white oak.

After 2 hours at customs…no there is no documentation…yes the boat came from Canada…I got the boat back on Pelee Island.

The motor is a 1952 Johnson QD-12 10HP.  I did a mechanical restoration on that motor, and refurbished the pressure tank about 15 years ago.  It has been a very strong runner…started on the second pull in the video.  Who knows?  Maybe that boat was run with that kind of motor in the past…

I guess the boat is about 1950, give or take a year or two.  There is one Arkansas Traveler with providence dating to about 1952…my serial number is quite a bit lower.

I wanted to put the boat in as near original configuration as I could…so wood trim and seats.  None of the rivets leaked.  So if you are going to be on Pelee Island, let me know!

[Tubs]

Great boat, great motor, great story. Need a longer video.

A "Boathouse Repair" is one thats done without having tools or the skills to do it properly.

[PM T2]

Cool story and cool boat. Nice work.

I’m on the southern Ontario mainland and I’ve often thought about the feasibility of running a rowboat motor out of Kingsville or Leamington over to Pelee Island.  I’ve done the Leamington to Scudder trip before, but that was running a Mark 55 and I ran flat out all the way there and back. Mark 55 took about 40 minutes to complete one crossing, a rowboat motor might take four hours one way, lol. I’d need a perfectly calm day and an escort boat if it was ever attempted.

PM T2

He's livin' in his own private Idaho..... I hope to go out quietly in my sleep, like my grand-dad did..... and not screaming, like the passengers in his car...

[steveh]

The boat as found.

[JOSEPH BRINCAT]

Steve, a great story and certainly worthy of a nice article for the “Antique Outboarder” magazine. That is the kind of story with family history connection that all of us really appreciate.

Joe B

[steveh]

Thanks Joseph. I have tried to post some photos but they don’t seem to load.

I could write an article for The Outboarder. I have previously been published there; The Story of a Lady, January 2016. Maybe I’ll tell the story of the motor and how he found his home on the Arkansas Traveler.

If anyone would like a few photos of before and after photos, either help me figure out how to post them, or pm me and I’ll send them.

Steve.

[Author]

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