Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

I am proud to say that I am the new owner of Triton #114. I feel very fortunate to have met Joe Henson and to have been in a posistion to take advantage of all of the hard work and time that he has put into #114. The work that Joe has completed thus far is of extremly high quality and that was the primary deciding factor in my decision to take on the project.
Unfortunately, the timing of this project is not the best for me and I will likely have to keep it on a back burner for the next year or two. I have been in contact with Tim and ultimatly I plan to deliver the boat to Maine and have Tim complete the final fairing and painting of the hull and decks. I will then bring the boat back to my house where I can complete the reasembly and fitting out myself.
Joe and I worked together to load the boat on my trailer a couple of weeks ago and I made the trip from Northern Va. to my home near Annapolis pretty much without a hitch. Here are a couple of pictures of the process.

David Fields

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

(It's gonna be hard on us to wait two years though ;^)

R.

Congratulations David! It's comforting to hear that Triton114 is going to a good home and that you plan to have Tim finish fairing and painting the deck and hull. Looking forward to the progress. Please keep us abreast of the progress with lots and lots of pictures.

Congratulations, indeed. You've got a lovely vessel there, well loved before you, with great blessings heaped upon it by the previous owner and all of us on this site. Auspicious beginning! Keep up the good work, and as others have said, keep us all in the loop since we enjoy vicarious boat work almost as much as the real thing!

I would love to know the details of the lifting rig you and Joe used to get the boat on the trailer.

The lift I used is one that I cobbled together with four boat trailer winches and some used lumber that I had lying around. It did the job but not very safely, I must say, I would not recomend such lightweight wood members for any boat as heavy as the Triton. I would also never get under any boat lifted in this manor.
I am actually in the the process of redesigning the lift and replacing all of the wood components with steel tubular scafolding that I happen to have available. I will be using the new system to off-load #114 this coming weekend. I will post some photos of that next week for anyone who is intrested.

Congratulation David. I'm glad to see another early Triton find a safe harbor. I hope you enjoy her as much as I enjoy KAHOLEE.

I had been following Joe's toerail refurbishing project with great interest. He was certainly doing a great job. I am sorry to hear he is parting with the boat, but glad someone with the excitement you seem to posses taking over. Best of luck with finishing. Major projects can be exciting, rewarding, expensive, satisfying, over-whelming, expensive, frustrating, exhilarating, expensive and wonderful to finish. Oh yeah, and let's not forget they can be expensive.

(note: time/labor is an expense, no matter how much of it you have)

Enjoy the process, it is the best way to assure you finish in my opinion. A goal sure helps, but alone it is often not enough. Come here often, it will help, even if just to receive some encouragement.

Excellent!

I'd love to see pictures of the updated/modified boat lift... that is a really slick idea.

Zach

Always easy to welcome another Triton lover.

Stephen 185

It looks B E A U T I F U L David!!!!!!!! Almost as nice as a Glander 23. :-()

Pete and Matt

I finally found enough time over the holiday to get the boat moved from my driveway, down a very steep hill and off of the trailer to a spot directly in front of my little workshop. The tubular steel scafolding worked quite well as a lifting frame and seemed to be much more stable than the wood frame system I had used previously. Here are a few pictures of the move and if any one is interested in the process I would be happy to share what I have learned.

The boats all well and good, but I want that shop! What a beauty, and right by the water!

Boy does that look idyllic! You sure you're not in Scandinavia?

I bet there's hardly a member here who would not like to hear more about that scaffolding set-up. I know I would :)

Rachel

PS: Joe, she's looking really good - you sure did a nice job of getting her to this point.

Dave,

You weren’t kidding about the hill. Good thing you had the skid loader. It’s good to see her in her new home. She looks much happier being near the water!

What was the scaffolding braced against? That lifting rig is neat.

I can’t imagine having that beautiful shop right next to the boat. I must have gone down to my basement shop about 10,000 times during the project, which was particularly annoying taking 11’ epay planks down for constant fitting. I love the doors.

PS: Joe, she's looking really good - you sure did a nice job of getting her to this point.

Thanks Rachel. I learned a lot during my ownership of the hull (particularly what not to do) and had a lot of fun with it. However, some of the work is not very good, to be honest, and Dave has a long way to go with the project. I look forward to seeing the work going forward.

Joe

Rachel,

It's funny you mention Scandinavia because my house was actually built by a Swedish family in 1948 and there was an old wood fired sauna on the exact spot where my shop now stands. Unfortunately, by the time I purchased the property it was too far gone to save and I had to tear it down completely and start my building from scratch. I am quite proud of my little workshop, it is only 14' x 18' but I have put tremendous amount of thought and effort into making it work efficiently. I also added some fun stuff like a dart board, woodstove, beer fridge and a bunch of really cool tools.

Anyway, I agree with you about the lift being something that most people would probably be interested in. I think the cost of moving these boats or getting one on and off a trailer can be a huge obstacle for most restoration budgets. For me, it was as much about being able to move the boat when and where I wanted, as it was about the the cost. In fact I'm not sure if I could have even convinced a professional mover to attempt the hill down to my shop and having the boat close to the work shop was paramount for me.

I will try to put together a post soon about both types of systems that I used with some photos and sketches that made along the way.

Here is one more picture of 114
Dave

Cool beans!

I am impressed by your ingenuity.