The Story of a Family Treasure Lost and then Found

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:43:59 GMT

I have had a small miracle happen in my life which you might find interesting. I’ve posted some photos of our boat that my father designed and built 40 years ago. The summer before last (2006), I had the pleasure of being reunited with this boat after it had been out of our family for over 25 years. Here is a brief synopsis of this story. You can see more pictures of the boat when it was new and how it’s shaping up now in “THE Boat” photo album.

My father Elden Lange is a role model for me and can build amazing and wonderful things. He has built two boats, several hotrods back in the 1950’s, is a machinist, welder and mechanic by trade, and is a pilot and aircraft mechanic. He is currently designing and building a ¾ scale Boeing P-12 in our hangar. This particular story is about the second boat he built for our family to enjoy.

He started building this boat before I was born, and finished it five years later with the inaugural launch in 1967.

This was one of the first “jet” boats (Berkley Jet Drive) in the San Francisco bay area which made it even more unique. My father found a wrecked Chrysler Imperial endowed with a 392 cubic inch hemi V8 which he modified for the jet pump and mounted into the boat. In stock form this engine should produce about 350 horse power.

The boat was designed to operate on the Sacramento Delta which is a network of waterways where 5 rivers converge before dumping into the bay. These waterways are constantly changing and often have debris and sandbars that move around unexpectedly. To account for these hazards my dad built the boat like a tank to survive any collision that might happen. The boat lived up to the design standards on more than one occasion surviving being driven on-top-of a dock and even completely out of the water up onto a rock covered jetty with only minor damage (both accidents under the ownership of other people). This boat is tough.

The design is a combination of a day cruiser inspired by the Campbell boats (as shown on the right) and a flat bottom SK race boat hull (an example below). Although the boat is a little heavy, it will easily pull several skiers at once and tops out at about 60 mph with a stock engine. It scoots along pretty well. On many occasions, we’ve had informal “races” with low slung v-drive boats and faired very well to the astonishment of the other boat owner. Many times they would pull up to the dock and question what was under the engine cover in disbelief. Fun memories for a kid or an adult.

Anyway my dad sold the boat around 1979 and my brother and I vowed to someday get it back. The new owner was our longtime family friend Pat whom we had boated with from the conception of this boat. He took very good care of it, rebuilt the engine a couple of times, and always kept it stored in a warm dry place. For some unknown reason he sold the boat to another party in 1987 and we lost track of the boat. I had recurring dreams of riding in it, skiing, camping, and all of the other events that created the memories that made up much of my childhood. I even nearly hired a private investigator to find the boat so I could try and buy it back, but never actually did it.

One day Pat called me at 7:00 in the morning exclaiming that our boat was for sale on Craig’s list in San Jose. I wasted no time finding the ad and immediately sent an inquiry to the owner. I explained that my father was the original creator and that I wanted to talk with them about purchase options. In the mean time Pat agreed to be our agent to look at the boat personally. I would buy this boat whether it was serviceable or not! A couple of hours later the owner called me back and said I was the fourth person to respond to the ad (which had been posted just the night before), but considering the family connection, I moved to the front of the line. This was quite a relief and within 2 hours, the boat was ours and on its way to Pat’s house (also in San Jose).

It took a while to figure out the logistics, but my father, brother and I drove to San Jose to get the boat. Pat painted a pretty grim picture of the condition of the boat as he knows what a perfectionist my father is and how much energy and emotion had been poured into this boat. We knew the boat had been left outside uncovered for at least a year, which is very hard on a 40 year old wood boat.

When we drove up we were pleasantly surprised at the condition of the boat. The paint is chipping, the fiberglass is separating a little on some corners, and the varnish looks nasty, but it is structurally sound and very repairable. Of course it also seems smaller than I remember it as a kid… We immediately started repairs on the trailer replacing the wheel bearings, cleaning up the brakes, replacing the lights, and got the lights and brakes hooked up to the car.

Then we spent two days carefully driving the 900 mile return trip back to Lake Stevens. The trip was uneventful albeit very tiring, but seeing the boat tagging along behind us was all the inspiration I needed to stay focused.

The boat is now happily resting in our hangar awaiting its full restoration to like-new condition. As my Dad finishes the P-12, I need to get back to stripping the paint so we can a new magic carpet of family memories for the new generation of our family.

Flight Sim Blog ala Paul (P-12C): Family

The Story of a Family Treasure Lost and then Found