Earlier this year, when I was launching my boat in Gig Harbor, I glanced over and saw another T-Bird in the yard. “Cool”, I thought, but I’d seen other T-Birds here. Then I took a second look, and realized that this was NOT a T-Bird.
The 40′ Diosa was built by Ed Hoppen, builder of the first Thunderbirds, at Eddon Boatyard in Gig Harbor. His son, the current owner, was in the yard that day, and I got to talk with him for a bit.
He told me a story about his dad being visited by Sir Tom Clark while the hull was still upside-down. Clark offered to buy the boat, but Hoppen turned him down, and offered to build a second for Clark. That wasn’t good enough for him, so inspired by the hull design he saw there, went home to Austrailia and commissioned John Spencer to design Infidel, a plywood race boat later renamed Ragtime, and was one of the fastest yachts of the 70s.
Hoppen claims that due to the flatter aft section of Diosa compared with a Thunderbird, it can plane in a good downwind breeze.
I had a busy day planned today since my wife was out of town visiting her parents, so I got up, made a cup of coffee and locked myself out of my house.
Once I finally got back in and had my keys, I took my motorcycle out to orting and picked up the battens for the mainsail. The guy who gave me the boat texted me earlier in the week to tell me that he’d found the “Mainsail shrouds”. I knew what he was talking about.
Once I got home, I traded my bike for my pickup, loaded up everything to do some epoxy work, got just about to the bridge, turned around and went back home and got the rest of the stuff needed for epoxy work.I had to make a couple stops in Gig Harbor for a couple things that I didn’t have on hand, like poly sheeting, some thin ply, wood to cut into battens to hold the ply up, and a notched epoxy spreader that Fisheries was out of when I placed my order a couple weeks ago. Once I was at the boat, I spent most of my time trying to get one last stubborn chunk of wet core out of the bow. It started raining later in the day, so no epoxy work today.
Brent was there to help today, and he sanded a good portion of the hull. We talked about motors and moorage. I think it’s time to get a slip out at Tyee.
I’m pretty excited for daylight savings time, and more daylight to work on the boat.
Our boat partners got us a good place to park the boat while we’re working on it, so Saturday, we got to work. We emptied the house of everything. Radio, cushions, sucked out water.
I didn’t notice the first two times I looked at the boat, but there was a soft spot on the deck. Woops. If I were paying $15k + for a boat, that’s what a marine survey would have been for. But this one didn’t cost that much. So we started going to town.
We started with an oscillating mulit-tool from the underside, leaving enough space to feather in new glass. Fiberglass boats are usually constructed with a sandwich of polyester resin and fiberglass, a balsa or foam core, and another layer of resin and fiberglass.
What came out of the bow was a big wet mushy mess. Over the next few weeks, almost the entire deck core would have to come out. I’ve been out to work on the a couple of week days each week since we started, cutting, grinding and sanding fiberglass. Even with a Tyvek suit, respirator and goggles, it’s a messy business.
I just picked up one of the most anti-braaap thing. A 1981 Thunderbird 26 foot sailboat.
I’ve sailed since I was 12, and owning a sailboat is something that I’ve dreamt about ever since. In the last few years, that dream has wandered closer to reality, and last weekend it finally came true. I’ve been looking a various boats for a while, and I keep coming back to the Thunderbird. Last spring, after finding one for sale in Port Townsend, I contacted the Gig Harbor Boathouse, which houses two historic T-Birds, and they put me in touch a couple of local experts. One in particular has been a great help, and has been forwarding me listings as he finds local boats for sale.
Early last week, he sent me and ad for a boat in Lake Union that he’d gone to look at. I’d seen it too, but hadn’t replied since I maybe wasn’t quite ready to get a boat. However, since he’d seen it and thought it was a nice boat, I contacted the guy. I finally got through to the guy after two days, tried to set up an appointment, didn’t hear back again, and then it was sold.
But now I was ready. Two days later, my phone buzzed with an Craigslist search. It was scant on details, but I replied immediately, and an hour later, I got a call. He told me where it was, I said I’d take a look, and told him that I’d let him know what I thought. I immediately called my boat advisor, and he it sounded like a good deal. I called my friend who I’ve been looking for boats with, and they said I can park it at their dad’s house. I talked to Anne, and she said that if everyone else said it was ok, then it was ok. So I called the guy back and told him I’d take it.
Then I went to look at the boat.
So Friday, I met with the seller to signed over the paperwork. The seller lives 70 miles from where the boat was moored. He said that he thought that his Harley friends would want to ride their motorcycles up with him to go sailing. It seems like he also thought his kids would sail. Somehow, moorage didn’t get paid, and the marina hauled it out. He filled out a Loss of title/release of interest, tried to pay for the licensing fees, and when I wouldn’t let him, gave me $125 for un-stepping the mast. After I was done there, I called the marina and scheduled an appointment with the travel lift for Saturday.
On Friday, I went to pick up the trailer. The trailer itself was solid, but the tires, not so much. I’m sure they were as old as the boat itself. This was not going to make it from Everett to Oak Harbor. I started calling around for tires, and a local shop said that they could get some from Lacey and Centralia. $980, and they’d send a courier to get them. Ugh. Bust Out Another Thousand.
I tried to find them cheaper anywhere else on Saturday morning. Time was tight. My friends were going to run to Everett for the mast unstepping appointment, but I needed to be there with the trailer by 3pm. I called back my tire source, and they made some calls. A half hour later, they called me back with the news that all the tires that were in their inventory were spoken for, and there weren’t any others within 3 hours. On a whim, I decided to call a shop in the same chain in Everett. They didn’t have them, but they found some 20 minutes north. Ok. The trailer will make it there without a boat. I just have to get new tires in time for the travel lift appointment.
Then I got a call from the marina. They didn’t realize that my mast was a deck-stepped mast, and couldn’t pull it with their crane while it was on land, and they didn’t have anymore time on their schedule to put it in the water, pull the mast, and pull it back out to put on the trailer. That would have to wait until Monday. Deep breath. I had more time.
So we used that time to have a more leisurely day in Everett. We hauled the trailer up to get new tires, came back to Everett to get a good look at the boat in daylight, and have a beer and lunch at Scuttlebutt Brewery. It still looked pretty good.
Pickup Day
I called out from work on Monday and headed back up to Everett. I had an 11am appointment with the travel lift, and I had to prepare the boat. I got the cover off, took the boom off and prepared some lines. At 11 they came to pick up my boat.
She Floats
They dropped her in the water, and an hour later came back to pull the mast. They got the mast laid on the deck, pulled her back out, and got her on the trailer and off to home.
This engine is gross. I don’t even know what all this stuff is. Doesn’t look like rust. Might be clutch material or something. Nothing looks pitted so far. The clutch basket looks hairy, but it all seems to wipe off. There was so much varnish from old oil that the shift mechanism was stuck. After soaking it over night in PB Blaster, it came free and I was able to unscrew the top (reverse threaded) with a modified 11mm wrench. The gears were also glued in place. I got them spinning first, then was able to get them out one by one, then I got the whole shaft out with some head and a hammer.
I went ahead and ordered all new bearings along with a new cruciform, castellated nut and washers. Once I get things cleaned up, I’ll measure the transmission shaft to make sure there’s not too much wear there. That and the connecting rod big end are the only things that I think could be concerning.
Some of these nuts require special tools too, so those were in the last order. The nut on the clutch basket is a special castellated thing, requiring a special tool, and I think is reverse threaded. Same goes for the output shaft bearing which is reverse threaded and requires a special 9 pin tool. I’ll be popping some of this in the parts washer today.
The Allstate Super Cruisaire was private label Vespa made by Piaggio and sold by Sears from the late 50s to the mid 60s. They tended to lag behind and have fewer bells and whistles than Vespa models. My particular Super Cruisaire has a VNB engine, with a few parts bin features like the split case steering head, 105mm headlight and squarish speedometer. The speedo was an optional $13.79 accessory from Sears, but it appears that mine wasn’t ordered with one.
My Allstate was acquired a few years ago in trade for a Yamaha TY250 that I had. I was no longer interested in it, and my friend was no longer interested in the Allstate. It has a little crash damage in the floorboards, but a little experimental banging with a hammer and dolly has been promising. The underside is caked in greasy mud, which in this case, seems to have created a protective layer to keep out moisture.
I pulled the engine last night. I stated removing stuff and then decided to look up the engine removal steps. I did it all backwards. Pulled the pivot bold and shock mount first, then realized that the cables were hard to get to with nothing holding the engine in place. Then realized that the transmission oil was getting all over the place. Basically, I did everything backwards. This contributed to smashing the bakelite junction box. Oops.
It looks like the thing was moto crossed. The engine number was under a half inch of mud. Luckily, it seems like it’s oily mud, so the metal is clean underneath.
I’ve been thinking and talking about having a Garage Night, a monthly hangout where friends can hang out and talk shop, hobbies, life, whatever. It’s been floating around in my head for a couple years, but back in January I heard an interview on NPR with Boston Globe reporter Billy Baker about his book: We Need to Hang Out. I haven’t read the book, but in the interview he talks about how middle aged men in general have fewer friends than women, and how he set up a regular hangout night for his friends.
I feel lucky to have met some really good friends in my 30s through the motorcycle community. A small group of us got together weekly for a few years, traveled together, and went on weekend cabin excursions. A few years ago though, I moved to a different city. I kept up the weekly trips to our regular bar for a while, but after a few years, the weekly trips were getting much, and I had quit my job in Seattle, and I faded away. I’ve met a few people down here, but I don’t really hang out with my Seattle friend anymore, and the pandemic made it a lot worse.
A month ago I bought a new tool chest. It is big, heavy, and took up the entire back of my truck. I tried to see if some neighbors were around to help me, but then I thought of my friend Jason. I met him through roller derby probably 10 years ago, and he moved down here about 2 years ago. Like 3 blocks away. And I’ve probably seen him 3 times. We got to talking about the pandemic and no seeing anyone for the last year, and I told him about my Garage Night idea and the story I’d heard and how I haven’t hung out with anyone in a really like time, and we were like we need to hang out.
But my garage is a mess. I’ve been working on house projects and personal projects, and I have a Karmann Ghia in there and two motorcycles. Getting that new tool box helped me organize a lot of stuff, and building drawers in my workbench got a lot of things put away as well. A few weeks back also found out that one of my neighbors has a cool old BMW, so I got talking to him. I also kind of got shared custody of Tacoma’s classic motorcycle and scooter night, and with pandemic restrictions coming to an end, I decided that it was time to get in gear and clean out the shop.
I held Garage Night #1 on June 24th. I invited my old Seattle friends, and I invited some new friends from Tacoma. We talked shop. We talked life. I kind of over did things by firing up the grill, but it was kind of neighborhood piknik, so it was all good. I got to talk to people that I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to much. I introduced people to new people. I’m skipping it for July because I have a motorcycle event to plan, but I hope to make this a monthly thing starting in August.
Yep. Ants are gone. Shortly after my last garage update, I had it sheathed and wrapped, but it took me until last spring to get it sided. I replaced the window last summer. It doesn’t look great because I just used vertical 4×8 panels instead of clapboard siding, but no one is ever going to see it.
So what have I been doing?
Well, my Reatta has been in there for two years, and I got that put back together. That’s opened up a lot of space. But there’s a lot of clutter, so mostly, I’ve been organizing things. You can tell which ones I did first. What’s the weird spacing?
My tool box was the next upgrade. I had an old 24 in double stacker that was probably pretty big back when my grandad bought it, but it was getting crowded, and the old drawer slides are just not up to snuff. The wife and I were at Costco the other day, and well…
Last big improvement is a bunch of shelves. I’ve had a big plastic tote full of paint and chemicals on the floor for two years. That’s finally gone.
This is not my bike, but I hope mine will one day look like this.
Back in 2005, My friend told me about an old pre-unit Triumph that his friend was looking to sell a while back. My friend was unclear about what it was, and the guy selling it didn’t really know either. It was a 1952 something. Somehow it got into my head that it was a 1952 6T Thunderbird, like the one Marlin Brando rode in “The Wild Ones”.
I had recurring dreams about it for months before I finally arranged to go look at it. I don’t remember how much he was asking, or if there was even a price. It was at his parent’s house, and he was out of state, but when I saw it, it was the biggest letdown. After months of dreaming about a neglected but intact 6T, what rolled out of the garage was a chopped, raked and bondo filled hodgepodge of parts with a triumph engine in the middle. The engine and destroyed frame were probably the only Triumph bits there.
My dreams were gutted. I told him “honestly, with what’s here and usable, I don’t think I could give you more than $150 for it”, thinking that he’d turn me down. To my suprise, he said “yes”, and I reluctantly loaded the thing into my truck, along with a couple milk crates of miscellaneous chopper parts painted bright green.
What that mess turned out to be was a 1954 TR5 Trophy, the last of the rigid bikes, in a chopped 1960 duplex frame with a hard tail added. An autopsy revealed that it was probably built as a flat track bike in the 50s. As all the manufacturers were going to swing arm frames, the flat trackers still liked the hard tail, and it was one of the last to make the transition. It wasn’t until a couple years later that I realized that I probably got a good deal, and what I wanted to do was return it to it’s flat track glory days.
I wish I could show you a picture of the finished bike, but it’s still waiting to become a project. Finding a frame has been difficult. My dad bought one off ebay, but he didn’t really know what he was looking for, and it ended up being a mid 50s swing arm frame with alterations for who knows what? Maybe someone stuck an Indian engine in it?
He bought a second one that was a whole, solid swing arm frame, and now destroyed, but that’s not the bike I want to build. So I started looking for TR5 frames. The first part of the TR5 that’s different, is that the chain case is just a touch shorter, so I looked forever on ebay, and eventually found an inner case. Then a while later I found a full set. So now I have an extra.
Same theme for my frame search so far. The TRW is the same frame essentially, so when a TRW frame came up, I bought that. But that’s only the front half. I’ve been looking for a rear for a while, but haven’t found one. There has been a full frame for $1400 on ebay for a while. It’s probably worth it too, I just haven’t been able to justify getting it, especially when I have all these other frames sitting around that I should probably sell.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar together, then combine the rest of the ingredients.
Pour mixture into ramekins and place them in a baking pan. Fill the pan with boiling water up to half the height of the ramekins, and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
Chill for at least two hours. Sprinkle sugar over the top and heat with a torch while rotating to evenly caramelize the top. Serve.
