Between 1957 and 1970 Cheoy Lee produced approximatley 133 folkboats originaly sold as the the Offshore 25, better known as the Frisco Flyer.

There were three versions of this small blue-water boat. 91 in all wood and 42 in Fiberglass with wood. There were 55 Type I's and II's and 78 of the Type III's. The Type I (aka the Pacific Clipper) was an all wood boat, had a mast that was stepped through the deck, a traditional folkboat fractional rig and a smaller cabin. The Type II's had a larger teak trunk cabin and a masthead rig. The Type III's had a larger teak dog-house cabin, some "standing" headroom and a masthead rig stepped on deck. The earlier Type III's were solid teak built onto a fiberglass hull and the later Type III’s (1966-1970) were made entirely out of fiberglass with teak paneling.

This boat, Yard # 1507 is one of approximatley only 30 Type III's left. It was out of the water for the previous 16 years when I got it and then about another 5 more while I rebuilt it. It was an empty, cracked hull when given to me and needed a complete restoration/refit. It took about five years of long nights and weekends of working outside under a tarp, in the garage or in the boat during cold winter nights, wet rainy afternoons and everything in between. The occasionally eager assistant on the project was my four (now ten) year old daughter who can have this boat as soon as I convince her mother to get another one. This blog is the record of all the work that "we" have done to the boat as well as some other somewhat related events with friends and family. Eventually, this will be put together in a book which will stay with the boat.

She still has plenty more to go but for now, Jackaroe has been in the water for a couple years now and thats all that matters...

To see past projects, use the links below.



Questions and comments to Matthewearlgarthwait@gmail.com





Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Johnson Light Twin Waterbug....

I started on the Johnson this week. Its a 1925 AB-25 Johnson Light Twin "Waterbug", one of 10,00 made. This one has only been used in the lakes of New Hampshire and they were all initially intended for only fresh water but through a nice stroke of luck this is the salt water version with the bronze lower end. Perfect. I've wanted to learn more about motors and this one is a nice simple two stroke to start on. It only has a few parts (about thirty screws and thirty separate pieces) and after a couples times it only takes about 20 minutes to break it down and put together (with no left over bits). The friend who gave this to me said he was given it when he was about 13 and at the time the motor was already more than twenty years old. When I got it was over 80 years old and a little banged up but looked to have 99% of all its original parts. Buried under layers and layers of grime, (Still looking for a picture of what it looked like before I started cleaning it) there was a perfect little motor with only one small crack on the muffler bracket, a frayed wire and a missing cavataion plate.


This is where I sat for a couple nights this week. Maya has her own camera now and is really getting into this project by taking some of the pictures too. She took this one of me taking the upper end apart.


After soaking everything with a couple cans of oven cleaner and some hard scrubbing, the bits cleaned up a pretty good. They didn't get polished but at least all the grease and grime was gone.


A shot of the pistons on the left and then all assembled on the right. You can also see where the missing plate would go on the lower end. Everything else looked good and all I had to buy was new oil, plugs, some copper tubing to make new fuel lines and I needed new paper gaskets too but couldn't find them so I made some from a paper grocery bag. I did an OK job cleaning it but could easily take it to the next step by having the dents taken out of the fuel tank and muffler, re-chroming the handle, casting a new bronze cavatation plate, buying "new" period ignition cables, polishing the rest and finally buying reproduction AB-25 stickers from that 1925 model.
For now though it looks good enough and as soon as I get the new fuel lines on I'll put it on the dory and take it for a spin with the kid.


While I was doing this, the she had a visitor from next door and they went to work cleaning the dory. We had a recent adventure which ended muddy and the boat still needed a bath. We'll post the pictures from that and other sails, launchings and projects soon.

A helpful starting place for info on this motor:
http://www.yankeeaomci.org/johnsonat85.htm
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