Well I can remember being in love with the classic Whalers since I was a kid. While in college I decided to pony up and just buy one (no matter what the condition) and restore it myself since the price tags weren’t dropping any time soon.
I ended up finding a decent '67 Whaler that just needed some new paint and a few minor fiberglass repairs. So I bought it out of Tybee Island. I’ll have to track down the original photos from the day I bought it.
Here is the boat half way through sanding off the final coat of what ever the heck they painted it with. I still needed to sand off the nasty green primer.
Then I finally got enough money to buy the paint. That two part paint is not cheap. I went with the Interlux Perfection and it was much more user friendly then I had anticipated. Here are a couple images (sorry for the crappy lighting) of it in my garage after the final coat.
And then we got the wood kit and got 3 or 4 coats of spar varnish. We plan on doing several more next winter, we just want to get on some fish with it this summer so we are taking a break to use her. Also next winter we will be stripping the inside paint and repainting all of it.
All thats left for now is to rig the outboard and get a few last minute items and she’ll be good to go.
Optiker - once I get her wet we’ll have to see who can bring in more fish
I’ve got a 25HP Evinrude I got for it. It is is really good condition! I’m excited to get everything on it and get it in the water. I’m just not looking forward to getting it registered.
Where do you usually run yours?
I have been in the upper Wando for several years but have now bought a house across town. I’m going to have to do some exploring in the Ashley and other places.
Cool. Mines a 25hp 4 stroke and its a good size for it. It goes about 30 mph which is plenty enough speed for its size.
I have a place at Edisto so it stays there most of the time. I have run it in the Cooper and Wando (and Ashley) also. I live near the Ashley launch up by Ladson Rd.
My anchor light is an aftermarket WestMarine model. I found the original base and used that, and did a little garage engineering to make the new light pole work with the original base. Its there full time, ie I can’t easily remove it, but its LED so it should last. In that pic you can see where I have my gas tank. Opposite that I have one of those West Marine orange dry-boxes and a little custom-made switchbox for my electronics.
That is a sweet little boat. I remember spending many Summers on one like it that my cousins had down in Beaufort. It seemed like they got a new one every Summer. I saw a real nice 30 year old 15’ on THT with 60 Yamaha 4-stroke the other day for sale. Brought back a lot of memories.
Got an interesting email from twincities with info about rubrail kits, thought you might find this helpful:
Good Morning Greg,
Whaler just had a price increase at the end of March, so here is the current pricing.
There is a tan w/black insert kit which consists of 2-parts moonstone colored (very light shade of tan) with a 1-piece black insert for a cost of 138.07 and comes with rivets to install.
There is a 3-piece all black kit, where all 3 sections are black for a cost of 184.66 and comes with the rivets to install.
There is a 3-piece all white kit, where all 3 sections are white for a cost of 173.46 and comes with the rivets to install.
There is a 3-piece white with black insert, which consists of the first two pieces being white and the last piece which is the insert which is black for a cost of 158.01 and comes with the stainless steel screws to install.
Between these and the quote I got from CMI, its going to be hard to decide which kit to go with. Although I must say these prices are much better than looking into a generic kit from West Marine!
Cool, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately I am here on CF.com right now. My fishing buddy (10yo) is a little sick today, so it kinda killed my plans. I think thats not too bad of a price. I can’t stand WM, what a ripoff. They need some competition. The folks at WhalerCentral seem to think quite highly of twincities. I like the look of the all black rubrails but they are definitely not in keeping with the traditional rubrails, which are all white (at least on mine)
I’m stuck inside today too. Should be out trolling for sails, but I had to stay in with a major toothache. I’m afraid to see how much this emergency dentist visit is going to cost.
Might put the rubrail off for another week or two if this costs too much.
