All Clear- a 1933 City Island Boat Works Cruiser

Follow the story of All Clear from this as-found to its completed condition and debut at the 2007 ACBS National Boat Show at Lake of the Ozarks, MO.

Vintage picture of sister-ship of All Clear- obtained from the original owner’s sister. Built at the City Island Boatworks in 1933. This boat spent its time on Lake Champlain in its early years- and was reportedly put into service as a civilian Lake Patrol boat in WWII.

Lake Champlain Restoration Project

Lake Champlain Restoration Project (Circa 2003)

by Gary Baker

Pictured below is the Baker’s newest (and hopefully last) acquisition, a 23’’’ 1933Lake Champlain, Vermont Rescue/Patrol boat. I recently purchased this boat on eBay and spent the Thanksgiving holiday driving almost 3,000 miles round trip to New Hampshire to pick up this latest project.
I have been working on boats virtually non-stop for the last six years. Since being interested in boats and boat shows, I have known that somewhere there was a boat that was unique enough to suit my fancy and affordable enough to own. I finally found that boat.

As a cruiser, it is significantly narrower than Olderthanus, our 23’’’ 1947 Chris Craft Express Cruiser. The beam is only five feet wide, narrowing at the transom to only 4 foot 3 inches, making for a close seating arrangement for those in the stern. The cabin has room for two berths, still containing the original ceramic sink and toilet, each with a hand pump like the water well on grandma’s farm. Speaking of original, although you can’t tell it from the photos, all of the original hardware — bow and stern lights, poles, chocks, steering, and instruments — everything I can think of to look for was included. That alone makes the boat worth the trip, knowing what replacement 30’s hardware costs. Although you can’t see it in the photos, there is a permanent wood windshield that has been removed and will need to be rebuilt. Over the windshield is a six-foot-long hardtop, on which are a horn, searchlight, and running light. All are there and in relatively good and all salvageable condition. I was amazed that someone had carefully saved all the parts intending to start the restoration and they were included and saved with the boat. It makes for a better and more authentic restoration. I felt at any time I would be stopped at the border for removing a statewide treasure.

This boat is powered by a 25 hp Universal Motor Model BN 4 cylinder inboard. This model motor was initially built in 1933 and was built until mid WWII and was used in thousands of lifeboats and smaller military vessels. It has a cable steering with a giant transom-mounted rudder that may or may not be original. It looks to be a slow but steady boat. Watch out, Dr. Bob. On inspecting the bottom, it appears that once in its life, it had a professionally installed plywood bottom, as the plywood appears to need only a little sanding and a couple of coats of bottom paint.

To the best of my knowledge, the boat is older than plywood, the basis of my supposition of bottom replacement. The trailer alone was worth the trip — also a 1930s wood and metal trailer. Mounted on what appears to be a Model “A” axle with leaf springs, coil helpers, and lever shocks, this trailer made the 1400-mile return trip with hardly any effort once the correct tires were installed. Although I had arranged to have new tires and tubes installed prior to my arrival, after only 40 miles, one had rolled off the old rim at night in Concord, NH. That doesn’t mean anything unless I add that a rescheduled NASCAR event was to be held the next day, and even at the going rate of $200 per night in a Super 8, there were no rooms available.

Setting out on the wrong-sized bald spare to the next town 50 miles through the mountains at 30 mph on a Friday night was not an experience I would care to repeat. Needless to say, I lucked out, if you can say that the need to purchase another set of modern tires AND new rims this time was lucky. At least this is a keeper boat and trailer. By now, I have more in the tires and wheels than the boat.
Having never been to that part of the East, I had a wonderful time. En route, I passed the territory of many ACBS Chapters — North Coast Ohio, Finger Lakes, Adirondack — and at one time was only three hours from the ACBS Headquarters. I even saw many of the lakes and bodies of water that we read about in Rudder and Classic Boating, coming away with a much better appreciation of why there is so much boating activity in the Northeast. The weather was way better than I had a right to expect sweater weather at the end of November. My only advice to others making that trip concerns toll roads. As I set out, my wife Kathy filled the van with all manner of change in anticipation of toll roads. Change? No-way. No toll was less than $4.50, just crossing New York State cost over $20 one way.
I am looking forward to both keeping and restoring this boat. Dannenberg be damned, I will save every last piece of original wood from the cabin top and keep all else that is good as is. It will be fun to use, is easily trailerable, and a strong candidate for the “weirdest” boat trophy in 2003 at the Rendezvous.

Restoration of the “Weirdest Boat”

by Gary Baker

Last November, I traveled to New Hampshire to pick up our newest boat, a 1933 22’ Cruiser purchased on eBay. Upon returning, my first step was to empty the boat of its contents to see what I had bought. The sight-unseen purchase inherent in an eBay acquisition makes careful pre-purchase inspection impractical. Looking back, I could not have imagined I would be so lucky–or prophetic. While the December 2001 issue of The BoatHouse chronicled the original purchase and trip back to Iowa, I enthusiastically ended the article, noting the boat would be a “strong candidate for the weirdest boat at the 2003 BSLOL Rendezvous.” Little did I realize that cute little tag line would come back to haunt me this year at Treasure Island.

Given that my “boatyard” doubles as my backyard, boat restorations at the Bakers’ usually involve a complete disassembly process, using as much of the original material as possible and a user-boat reassembly. Although out of the water for over 30 years, what was left after a thorough cleaning and vacuuming was more than I would have ever expected. The 22 foot yellow-pine-over-oak hull was rot-free and not past salvaging for a painted boat. A “new” 12-foot x ¾ inch plywood bottom had been fabricated and installed nearly 25 years ago but never finished. The engine had apparently been removed for the bottom restoration and re-installed ready to run. Inside was a full complement of hardware and other parts, including the old wooden windshield and hardtop that was only suitable for patterns.

After nine months of off and on work, I was able to restore this boat to the condition as pictured and shown at the 2002 Rendezvous. The photo above shows the parts of the boat that were re-used after eliminating what was too weathered to re-use. Although rot-free, there was significant weathering on the hull and topsides. Rebuilding the windshield and top (67 individual pieces), farming out some engine welding, polishing hardware, and other repairs occupied most of the winter. Warmer days were spent with a heat gun stripping the interior and inner hull of 70-year paint buildup. All surfaces – inside and out — had a layer of gray paint close to the oldest layer, lending credence to the previous owner’s claim that the Coast Guard had used the boat on Lake Champlain during WWII.

As warmer weather approached, the number of finishing tasks multiplied. CPES on the outer hull, heat-assisted cleaning out of all old caulk from the seams, and finally, primer and paint started the process. CPES on the inner hull was applied, primed and painted pearl gray — the least objectionable of its many old color schemes. New canvas was installed on the deck, going on nicely over remnants of the tar and roofing felt that once covered it. Then the newly-constructed hardtop was added. Several conversations with Jamestown Distributing resulted in cotton twine, cotton batting, and “caulking in a can” for the side seams. Original interior cushions were sent off to be reupholstered in more of the pearl gray canvas. A new wiring harness was fabricated from braided harness material plus wire fish tape and installed according to the reprint of the original engine manual obtained from Andrew Menkart at www.oldmarineengine.com. On and on, a little at a time, things came together for the finished boat.

Working on a 1930’s painted boat, and a workboat at that, has an entirely different feel from working on a mahogany runabout. There is a level of finish that would be inappropriate for a varnished boat yet perfectly natural in an old-painted boat. Gouges in the hull can be filled and smoothed, but not so much as to obscure the honest weathering of the planks that create the character and patina of a 70-year-old boat. Old screw holes can be filled. Split planks can be epoxied, puttied, and re-used. Those that are too weathered can be re-sawned to replace pieces in other areas. The very worst become patterns for new pieces. Under the canvas are tongue-and-grooved seams that obviously show through underneath the new paint but are somehow correct and proper on this boat.

Working alone gives you lots of time to get up close and personal to your work. For the majority of the restoration, I was working on a brown boat. Not a nice brown, but a nasty, old, splotchy, and mottled brown. One quick day of painting after all the prep and my brown boat was gone, replaced by a white boat. Sounds simple enough, but it took several weeks for the brown boat to fade mentally and the white one to take its place. The transformation happened again after adding canvas decks and painting them green. My white boat became a green and white boat, again changing its character completely. Adding the windshield and top transformed it into a smallish New England fishing boat, replacing my mental picture of a sleek white-sided cruiser. The last and best phase was seeing the boat sitting on the trailer after its first in-water test in 30 years.

I knew that I would make it to Red Wing the next day as an in-water boat rather than a trailered boat.

As the transformation was taking shape, I also faced naming her. Kathy stated that she needed to see the completed project, but thought a name might just occur to me as I continued to work on the boat. Mulling over its varied history and one of its previous owners, the noted East Coast Naturalist John Noga, we bantered about several ideas until the name “All Clear” surfaced. Not only did this encompass several aspects of the boat’s past, but as we left our harbor to boat out into the main lake through a narrow channel, Kathy said, “all clear” to indicate a clear channel and its homeport is now Clear Lake, IA. We fancifully envision its usage by the Coast Guard during WWII, patrolling Lake Champlain – and thus the name. Plus, “All Clear” fits well on the narrow transom split by the odd outboard rudder.

The finished product was certainly worth the effort. Kathy and I had more fun at the 2002 Rendezvous than any other, just sitting on the boat talking to the people that stopped by for a chat. My little cruiser was a people magnet. For the first time in my Rendezvous experience, people actually walked down the dock to see the whole boat, peeking into the interior at the cast iron sink and old-time hand pump. Of the boats in the water, it certainly struck a cord of interest — and nostalgia — with many of the show attendees. To our delight, we must have told our story a hundred times. It more than validated my thoughts of the boat’s potential on the long trip back to Iowa last Thanksgiving, later events notwithstanding.

All things considered, it should have been no surprise to win the Weirdest Boat award at the 2002 Rendezvous. As I remember it, the last three Rendezvous winners were the fiberglass Dorsett (whose owner’s wife almost didn’t let him come back after winning the dubious honor in 2001), the two-toned pink aluminum mail boat in1999, and that guy with the airboat in 2000. By our count, we received 210 comments about the “cute boat”, 76 about the “cool boat”, 56 “great boats” and of course, one “Weirdest Boat.” Coming from Dr. Bob and the judges, though, that is high praise indeed and a prophecy fulfilled. The next boat I buy I’ll be more careful about an award I predict. The entire restoration is documented at: www.acbs.org/ClearLake/SafeHarbour