The restoration 49 RPH

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willysross

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
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34
Location
united states
Vessel Make
49 GB Alaskan RPH
And so the boat has been in the yard since October and they are replacing some short planking that had been done over the years. What a beautiful boat someday it will be IMG_1390.jpg
 
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This looks like an Alaskan! They are great boats. Lets hear more about her!
 
Here is my letter to Bay Delta Yachtsman in December about my new purchase. No throwing stone's, we are all here for the same sickness. Some just have it worse than others!

I grew up boating and know all of the rules about purchasing a boat. Always get a survey, always do a sea trial and never but never buy a boat unseen. I also have some personal rules. Always need a flybridge and although I grew up on wood boats, I prefer a fiberglass boat.

Well I have been searching for my last boat in my career, a slower trawler that I could get at the right price and do a little work on, so when I retire it is ready to go. I plan to do the great loop the first year and a half and then head to parts unknown until I can't get around anymore then return and be a burden on my children. Fourteen months ago I sold my 32 Carver in search of my next project.

Well this all sounds very level-headed RIGHT? Well on a Sunday night while sitting in an apartment I have in New Orleans, with the help of Crown Royal at 11:30 p.m. I am surfing EBAY (in the boat section of course). I see a 49 Grand Banks Alaskan Raised Pilot House at an unbelievable low price with no reserve in British Columbia. (I guess the Crown Royal just drew me to Canada.)

I quickly ran down my checklist:

1 Flybridge: No

2 Survey: No

3 Fiberglass: No

4 Sea trial: No

5 Seen it: No

Perfect

Twenty seconds left I will throw a bid across the bow and see if it sticks.

I am now the proud owner with the task of getting it to the Delta and couldn't be happier. It is now in Washington and I am going to go up next week to start preparing it for the voyage south. Well, now I am really going to stay anonymous!

I will keep you up on the adventure. I thought you were supposed to get smarter when you get older. Oh, did I mention I am working in Texas and I am landlocked? What an idiot I am!

Name Withheld By Request(NWBR)
 
Wow, good luck! Sounds like a great challenge and opportunity.
 
willysross said:
Well this all sounds very level-headed RIGHT? Well on a Sunday night while sitting in an apartment I have in New Orleans, with the help of Crown Royal at 11:30 p.m. I am surfing EBAY (in the boat section of course). I see a 49 Grand Banks Alaskan Raised Pilot House at an unbelievable low price with no reserve in British Columbia. (I guess the Crown Royal just drew me to Canada.)

I quickly ran down my checklist:

1 Flybridge: No

2 Survey: No

3 Fiberglass: No

4 Sea trial: No

5 Seen it: No

Perfect

Twenty seconds left I will throw a bid across the bow and see if it sticks.

I am now the proud owner with the task of getting it to the Delta and couldn't be happier. It is now in Washington and I am going to go up next week to start preparing it for the voyage south. Well, now I am really going to stay anonymous!

I will keep you up on the adventure. I thought you were supposed to get smarter when you get older. Oh, did I mention I am working in Texas and I am landlocked? What an idiot I am!

Name Withheld By Request(NWBR)
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I got my first boat on EBAY in a similar situation except the boat was close to where I lived and was fiberglass. And of course, I will never bid on EBAY for a boat again....or Craigslist....or any other online bid site. Didn't expect to win the boat as the pics looked REAL NICE...ha ha. The boat didn't turn out that bad though but I will always wonder why I made that stupid bid thinking no way in hell would the devil sell it to me for that amount. The compulsive gambler in me won the day and the devil got my money. There used to be a lot of road signs in Florida begging people to donate their boats to Boat Angels and the like. I suspect these (or their agents) are the folks who put these boats up for EBAY auction.

Rules were meant to be broken and breaking them does make life interesting....and expensive.

Good luck on your project.
 
I love those Alaskans . There is one for sale about 150 miles from me . I'm afraid to go and look .
 
I'm afraid to look at any more wooden boats because I love them. Two facts ring true for me.

1. I'm a skilled fabricator not a carpenter.

2. My carpentry skills display fact 1 gloriously.

Now I just have to convince myself not to fabricate a steel trawler in my backyard from plans.

Good luck with the DeFever, looking forward to seeing it when it's here in the Delta.
 
DeFever?

And, when he said he was planning to do the Great Loop, I thought he was talking about the Mississippi Delta. Now I'm curious. Let us know Willysross.
 
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49 Alaskan 1973 built by American Marine in Hong Kong #41 the same yard as Grand Banks. The last year of the Alaskan. American Marine couldn't afford to change all their boats to Fiberglass so they kept Grand Banks and the Alaskan went away. Art Defever started building the boat in Fiberglass under the Defever name since he designed it originally.
 
Nsail said:
DeFever?

And, when he said he was planning to do the Great Loop, I thought he was talking about the Mississippi Delta. Now I'm curious. Let us know Willysross.
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The Delta I will move it to is the California Delta. I grew up in the Alameda and spent my childhood on the delta and lived in Disco bay for 15 years.
The loop I was talking about is the one from Stuart florida up the hudson into the great lakes then down the Mississippi back around to Stuart.I lived in Stuart for a while on the Oceechobee waterway and watched the trawlers go by. Six years is my target. I plan to take at least a year and half to complete
 
Donsan said:
I got my first boat on EBAY in a similar situation except the boat was close to where I lived and was fiberglass. And of course, I will never bid on EBAY for a boat again....or Craigslist....or any other online bid site. Didn't expect to win the boat as the pics looked REAL NICE...ha ha. The boat didn't turn out that bad though but I will always wonder why I made that stupid bid thinking no way in hell would the devil sell it to me for that amount. The compulsive gambler in me won the day and the devil got my money. There used to be a lot of road signs in Florida begging people to donate their boats to Boat Angels and the like. I suspect these (or their agents) are the folks who put these boats up for EBAY auction.

Rules were meant to be broken and breaking them does make life interesting....and expensive.

Good luck on your project.
Click to expand...

I would give you my long reply on all the boats I have bought on Ebay and done just fine but there is a boat going off in 5 minutes and I think I will throw a bid at it
 
CPseudonym said:
I'm afraid to look at any more wooden boats because I love them. Two facts ring true for me.

1. I'm a skilled fabricator not a carpenter.

2. My carpentry skills display fact 1 gloriously.

Now I just have to convince myself not to fabricate a steel trawler in my backyard from plans.

Good luck with the DeFever, looking forward to seeing it when it's here in the Delta.
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CP ,I'm sure that you have checked out the Michael Kasten web sight and drooled over some of his designs . Come on man just go for it .
 
Thanks for clarifying my DeFever and delta questions!

CPseudonym was right!
 
Willysross-- if all goes well you could end up with something that looks like this. This is an Alaskan 49 in flawless condition. When I saw the boat in Ganges, BC I was half-convinced the hull was fiberglass even though I knew it wasn't.
 

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Well look at the bright side, at least you were drinking Crown Royal. Who knows had bad the boat could have been if it were Southern Comfort. :whistling:

Ted
 
nsail Sorry, meant to type DeFever "design" but my fat head and fingers got in the way. Beautiful example of which Marin posted a photo of.



Pack Mule said:
CP ,I'm sure that you have checked out the Michael Kasten web sight and drooled over some of his designs . Come on man just go for it .
Click to expand...


I've picked one out already but am nowhere near committed to taking on the build so have not bothered purchasing the plans.
 
willysross said:
And so the boat has been in the yard since October and they are replacing some short planking that had been done over the years. What a beautiful boat someday it will beView attachment 37878
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More pics as you move along on your project and best of luck
 
willysross said:
. . . we are all here for the same sickness. Some just have it worse than others!
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This should be on the TF masthead.

Amazing how on-line shopping has elevated impulse buying to boats, cars and tractors. It sounds like you scored a beauty. Enjoy her.
 
I think the Grand Banks Alaskan has nearly perfect lines. If I had a lot of money or any kind of wood working skills I would be after one of these as my ultimate boat. I am just down the dock from one that was restored after it was nearly destroyed by fire by the current owner. Gorgeous. The reality is that with my lack of any kind of skills in that direction i at best am likely to end up with a Defever 49 RPH or an Ocean Alexander Mark I (I wish). Now I just have to win a lottery.

Take a look at the story "Up From the Ashes" in this article about the Alaskan on my dock.

http://www.grandbanks.com/images/discovery/experience/spray/backissues/spray/v6n2.pdf
 
I like the lines of the Defever...I pretty much like all Defevers, but I just don't see nearly $80,000 in that boat...I'm not sure what that would be American, but I still think it's priced itself out of the market. Doesn't even mention the hours on the mains. Just my opinion.
 
I took a peek at her a couple of weeks ago. She's looking good!
 
I realize this thread is close to 3 months old, but this is the first time I've read it. That's a beautiful boat and you are a gutsy dude! Good luck....and are you still gonna keep us posted? I hope so.
 
wyoboater said:
I realize this thread is close to 3 months old, but this is the first time I've read it. That's a beautiful boat and you are a gutsy dude! Good luck....and are you still gonna keep us posted? I hope so.
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Yes I will keep everyone updated to the end (mine or the Boats)
 
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