Why fix up an old wooden boat?

It's a nostalgic thing I suppose.  Growing up we spent summers on Ottertail Lake in Minnesota fishing, swimming, sailing, digging in the sand, jumping off the dock, and driving a boat all around the lake.  From about the age of 4 (circa 1955) through high school.

And it's a wooden boat, probably more than anything else, that can elicit the sights and sounds of a lake.  Parked out at the fishing hole in the evening, every sound carries - the clunk of the oars, shuffling the tackle box on the floor of the boat, and fishermen talking in low tones about the weather, the bait, and where the heck are all the fish.

So it was with that in mind that I began a search for an old wooden boat that I could put a motor on and enjoy on the lakes around Bemidji, home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

There really aren't that many wooden lake boats around anymore that haven't rotted away behind someone's boat house.  Haven't seen one on the water for a really long time.  Mostly you might run across one that's being used for a flower planter in the yard in Perham or Foxhome or in front of a farm house.

So it was with irrational exhuberance that we drove down to Alexandria and plunked down 300 bucks for this old boat last fall.  I wrapped a tarp around it to protect it from the snow over winter.  And just last weekend I pulled off the cover and moved it into the garage, now that we can park outside again. 

It's close to 18 feet long, which is pretty big for a regular lake fishing boat.  The hull is in pretty good shape - the bottom planks don't have any big gaps between them or anything.  When I started poking around with it up on the bow, I found a fair amount of dry rot around and under the top trim piece.

(to be continued...)