6 HOLIDAY 2013 boatingonthehudson.com
Ask “Dr. Gel”
BY DAVEWEAKLEY
Email me or call me with your questions!
I’ll be happy to help you out.
email:
tel: 413.665.7424 cell: 518.577.7799 americanboatrestoration.com
DaveWeakley is the owner of American Boat Restoration and has been
helping boaters keep their vessels in fine trim and good repair for over
38 years. Serving the Northeast providing fine quality gelcoat & fiber-
glass repair, soda blasting and gelcoat repair training.
BostonWhaler Eastport
17’ Restoration
This acclaimed Boston Whaler is
sot after and when found in good
condition it is too good to pass by.
To be the owner of this boat is like
owning a classic car.
Here’s the story about how this
Whaler was acquired by Jon from
N.Y.
“In the past few years I have not
been able to work on any projects
of quality and bringing a classic
trailerable boat back to life was
an appealing project to me.
I was looking for anything before
1972 and in that quest I found
that the outside of the boats
looked good but found floor soft-
ness or problems with titles.
After searching for several
months I found this Boston
Whaler in Rhode Island. The boat
was good size for me and in good
usable condition. Within ten min-
utes of looking at it in the owner’s
driveway the owner said “let’s
take it out on the water”. So in the
cold morning of April 7, 2013 also
my wife’s birthday, he took us out
on the water and that sold me.
Once I started the project I attend-
ed several regional boat shows
and different shops to learn about
fiberglass. After much research
including the internet I found the
best route to take to restore this
classic boat was to regelcoat it
and not paint.
I stripped the plastic seats and
console. I will build the mahogany
finished woodwork.
Jon- JL Marine, Inc. Huntington
Station, NY 11746 631.220.0823
Jon brought the Whaler to our
shop and we spent some time
going over his wish list of repairs.
I examined it extensively as I
don’t like to see people putting
money into something not worth
repairing. I found it to be in good
structural condition and prepared
an initial estimate.
Jon had removed the engine and
almost all of the hardware with
the exception of the rub rail. First
step was to remove the rub rail
that was installed with rivets;
each one had to be drilled out.
The boat was then flipped and
blocked perfectly level. Someone
had attempted to do a repair on
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11/7/13 7:49 AM
