I have been working on a 14 foot flat bottom that belonged to my dad. After he died in Spring, 2003, I brought the boat from Arkansas to Tyler. It took a lot of effort to sort out the registration issues. Arkansas does not title boats plus he had the registration all fouled up. Some years ago he got a newer boat but did not update the registration, just stuck the old numbers on the new boat. When I tried to register it with Parks and Wildlife, the Arkansas paperwork did not match the serial numbers on the boat. After several stops and starts, I finally got the boat titled and registered in Texas. This fall I started working on the boat, motor and trailer. Here are some BEFORE and AFTER pictures.

The BEFORE Pictures:
I took the picture of the boat after I had removed the rotted plywood decks, rotted seats and burned up trolling motor. The trailer had wooden rear guides and bunks, all rotten. The trailer was well rusted and the tongue had been broken and repaired twice.

The metal ring is all that was left of the inside wheel bearing on one side. I think I was lucky to make it all the way to Tyler.

I fabricated a new tongue, installed two new hubs, added angle-iron guide supports, and new carpeted bunks. The trailer got sanded, treated with Rust Cure, two coats of Heavy Rust Primer and three coats of Hunter Green Rustoleum. I still need to add the seats and a trolling motor—I have an old 30 pound thrust hand controlled that will go on it.

The 15 horse Yamaha had not been started in four years. It would fire but only run at half choke. I ran a can of power tune thorough the motor, cleaned the carb, and installed new plugs. It now starts first pull and runs good.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of hours and some money on this project. But if the lake keeps getting lower and I can’t launch the Blue Wave, I may be glad to have this little one!