Back from the Dead; '81 Scarab 38 Resto
07-16-2019, 10:12 PM
#622
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Location: St-Hyacinthe, quebec, canada
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I got so many stress cracks on my cat looking at yours makes me wonder how I will need to work on mine ! Guess i will find the right way reading more of your resto!
07-17-2019, 03:10 PM
#623
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Awesome job, keep up!
I usually just silently follow this awesome restoration, but no human can withtstand such excellence without a single word, so i decided to write a comment:
It's just amazing! So good to see someone so passionate in his hobby, and you may not even realize how valuable your efforts are, and how far they can reach, so let me share my story: I am a 27 year old guy from Europe, Hungary. You may not even know that my country exists at all, but regadless i grew up in this little post soviet country in an agricultural family, and i spent my early years alogside tractors and combine-harversters, so naturally i developed a strong passion for machines/tech/vehicles. Trains, cars, aircrafts, boats are my favourite topics, and therefore after watching Miami Vice as a teenager, i of course fall in love with speedboats too. These cigarette shaped beauties are a marvel of engineering and design, and it is so eye-catching to see them cut through the waves in the sunset, with their huge twin engines. I am specially fond of the older, 70-80s designs, because in my opinion they were more stylish, and in general i am kind of a fan of retro.
As a passionate person about this topics, i started to search the internet, to learn more about boats, and boats of the 80's in special, but you can imagine that i found nothing in my mother tongue, and later on i sadly realised that powerboating is kind of a subculture even in your country, so there is very limited information available. It's really disappointing, because it would be so good to read more about the history and evolution of these boats, how they built and drove them, how they developed new materials, new designs and ingenious solutions during the 70s-80s-90s and so on. Which persons contributed the most, which boats were the best and why, and so on. Or just to have a source of information where one could learn just the basic terms like transom, stinger, stern, astern, starboard side, various bow hull sections and so on.
Also it is such a pity, that the history of your powerboat racing culture is so badly recorded aswell. For example based on your restoration i started to dig up some information about Kaama and Betty Cook and the rest, but i found almost nothing about this area aswell. No video footage of races, not even mediocre quality pictures, no press articles, no wikipedia pages, nothing...
This is the reason why your documented and shared restoration is so useful and so important! I was really happy when i found this thread because one can learn so much here, about how these remarkable boats were designed, built and operated. It's almost like if you would be an archeologist, showing us the ancient skeleton of a dinosaur, just in this case the dinosaur is a powerboat and the skeleton is the plywood structure under the decks.
So i guess I just wanted to let you know that there is a guy presumably more than 7000 kilometes away from your home, like 4-5 time zones away, in a small european country, following your super restoration project day-by-day, just to gather knowledge about a wonderful, tiny piece of boating history. Thank you for making this possible, and for preserving such valuable knowledge for the future generations!
p.s.: Also if this community can suggest other sources where an absolute noob like me could learn more about the history- and evolution of offshore speedboats, from a technical perspective, please let me know!
It's just amazing! So good to see someone so passionate in his hobby, and you may not even realize how valuable your efforts are, and how far they can reach, so let me share my story: I am a 27 year old guy from Europe, Hungary. You may not even know that my country exists at all, but regadless i grew up in this little post soviet country in an agricultural family, and i spent my early years alogside tractors and combine-harversters, so naturally i developed a strong passion for machines/tech/vehicles. Trains, cars, aircrafts, boats are my favourite topics, and therefore after watching Miami Vice as a teenager, i of course fall in love with speedboats too. These cigarette shaped beauties are a marvel of engineering and design, and it is so eye-catching to see them cut through the waves in the sunset, with their huge twin engines. I am specially fond of the older, 70-80s designs, because in my opinion they were more stylish, and in general i am kind of a fan of retro.
As a passionate person about this topics, i started to search the internet, to learn more about boats, and boats of the 80's in special, but you can imagine that i found nothing in my mother tongue, and later on i sadly realised that powerboating is kind of a subculture even in your country, so there is very limited information available. It's really disappointing, because it would be so good to read more about the history and evolution of these boats, how they built and drove them, how they developed new materials, new designs and ingenious solutions during the 70s-80s-90s and so on. Which persons contributed the most, which boats were the best and why, and so on. Or just to have a source of information where one could learn just the basic terms like transom, stinger, stern, astern, starboard side, various bow hull sections and so on.
Also it is such a pity, that the history of your powerboat racing culture is so badly recorded aswell. For example based on your restoration i started to dig up some information about Kaama and Betty Cook and the rest, but i found almost nothing about this area aswell. No video footage of races, not even mediocre quality pictures, no press articles, no wikipedia pages, nothing...
This is the reason why your documented and shared restoration is so useful and so important! I was really happy when i found this thread because one can learn so much here, about how these remarkable boats were designed, built and operated. It's almost like if you would be an archeologist, showing us the ancient skeleton of a dinosaur, just in this case the dinosaur is a powerboat and the skeleton is the plywood structure under the decks.
So i guess I just wanted to let you know that there is a guy presumably more than 7000 kilometes away from your home, like 4-5 time zones away, in a small european country, following your super restoration project day-by-day, just to gather knowledge about a wonderful, tiny piece of boating history. Thank you for making this possible, and for preserving such valuable knowledge for the future generations!
p.s.: Also if this community can suggest other sources where an absolute noob like me could learn more about the history- and evolution of offshore speedboats, from a technical perspective, please let me know!
Last edited by Holyhead; 07-17-2019 at 03:16 PM.
07-17-2019, 06:38 PM
#625
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VIP MemberThread Starter
Thanks guys, Jeff my boat has a lot of cracks. Much of it is where the gel was waaay thick, most of the rest are around the perimeter of the deck and will require a lot of attention.
Holyhead, WOW! I am humbled. I’m glad you are enjoying the thread so much. Hopefully it will move along faster as my goal is to be in the water late spring next year. We’ll see how that goes. (At one point I thought I would be in the water two years ago)
Theres a a lot of experienced people on this message board. Dan Mcnamara (team archer) knows Larry Smith personally and has all kinds of historical information on the scarabs. Larry Smith was the guy who designed the original boats that Betty Cook ran.
Thanks for chiming in and keep it up!
Holyhead, WOW! I am humbled. I’m glad you are enjoying the thread so much. Hopefully it will move along faster as my goal is to be in the water late spring next year. We’ll see how that goes. (At one point I thought I would be in the water two years ago)
Theres a a lot of experienced people on this message board. Dan Mcnamara (team archer) knows Larry Smith personally and has all kinds of historical information on the scarabs. Larry Smith was the guy who designed the original boats that Betty Cook ran.
Thanks for chiming in and keep it up!
Last edited by hblair; 07-17-2019 at 06:41 PM.
07-17-2019, 06:54 PM
#626
Charter Member#568
Charter Member
Holyhead, you have found the best source for the information you seek right here. Go to the general discussion page, go to the earliest entries and start reading. Shouldn't take more than a year or so of reading. There is more information here about the boats and the people who made them than anywhere else.
__________________
Straight bottoms and flat decks
Straight bottoms and flat decks
07-18-2019, 09:59 PM
#627
VIP Member
VIP MemberThread Starter
Shon is back in action tonight. He got to work on the trailer. He cut all the bunk stands off. They’re all rotten inside. I’ll be going back with angle steel. Not as pretty, but I will be able to paint all sides.
I sanded and ground some more on the rear part of the deck gunnels and engine compartment. I’ve got about 75% of the cracks worked in this area. I think I will get this area and the transom in primer, then glass the inside of the transom, cut the holes for the drives, then I’ll be able to install the drives, transmissions, dummy engine blocks, and I’ll know exactly where the stringers need to be width-wise so I can install them correctly.
I sanded and ground some more on the rear part of the deck gunnels and engine compartment. I’ve got about 75% of the cracks worked in this area. I think I will get this area and the transom in primer, then glass the inside of the transom, cut the holes for the drives, then I’ll be able to install the drives, transmissions, dummy engine blocks, and I’ll know exactly where the stringers need to be width-wise so I can install them correctly.
07-23-2019, 12:27 PM
#628
Registered
I just wanted to chime in and say this thread has been my absolute favorite. Finishing up a 20ft runabout (my first boat, been a 4 month project) and definitely appreciate the time you're putting into this. It's almost making me want to take a trip down to Alabama to give a helping hand...
Also wishing this thing would hit the water in St. Clair again! Crazy to hear that the boat spent some time here in my hometown. It would be the talk of the lake with the re-fit and paint for sure!
I love seeing what you are doing with the 38’ scarab. You are correct about the boat being used a lot. I knew the guy who owned it in the 80’s. Unfortunately he passed away in 1991 and his son sold the boat just after he passed. I have pictures of that boat back in the 80’s and might even be able to get my hands of some video of the boat running. The boat spent a lot of time on lake St. Clair, Mi.
07-24-2019, 12:31 PM
#629
VIP Member
VIP MemberThread Starter
Thanks a lot. Appreciate the good words, it would be cool to take it up there when it's done. Boyne thunder would also be cool. I bet summer up there isn't quite as muggy as it is down here. Unseasonably cool day here today, it's like 81. Hasn't been this cool in forever. Might be a record.
07-24-2019, 09:08 PM
#630
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The deck has plenty of cracks. Whenever I think I have most of them more of them reveal themselves...
