What one learns along the way

After much fretting on my part, Bounty got delivered into the right hands. The right place was found, not on the internet mind you, just simple "let your fingers do the walking", a bygone era advertisement for the Yellow Pages, I found John Kilpatrick Boat Repair. He is not on the internet. He says he has been struggling hard to avoid going to the internet: "too much, too fast, information before I need it".

My fretting began several years ago when I realized that Bounty needed restoration. Myown research via the internet told me that Bounty was a rare boat: built by the Thompson Brothers who believed that a well made wood boat would be a better boat than one made of fiberglass. (see the Thompson description on Wikepedia). Bounty is a solid boat, built right, powered appropriately and of the size that we can use regularly and store indoors for the winter. I would like to keep her. I had been asking around, calling the last person who repaired her port front deck and refinished the hull and bottom, he lives in Oliphant. He declined: "too many things to do." Most local people did not know if anybody would work on wood boats. The Wiarton Marina was not interested. By chance, Bounty's battery prematurely expired and RJ and I went to Peninsula Marine, now on Stokes Bay Road. The previous owner had his shop right on the water at Myle's Bay, next to Old Woman's River Road in the Stokes Bay area. He apparently sold the business and closed up shop. Fortunately for us, the man who bought the business, is an energetic person, growing the business and with space to expand. RJ & I found him back in his shop, one of many, amongst a line of tin boat storage buildings. After the battery purchase he also declined to restore Bounty as he did not have the environmental license to use the underwater paints nor did he have the safety equipment to paint the paints. Apparently, at least according to himself, what we have been doing, sanding and painting Bounty all these years, has been environmentally hazardous and gravely hazardous to ourselves, although such alarming instructions are not on the can of paint, and, all those boats, with their underwater paints, are being launched into our lakes, streams and drinking water reservoirs. He did gave me the name of John Kilpatrick.

We went home and I got out our 2004 AMTEL phone book, checked the Yellow Pages under Boat Repair, and there he was: fiberglass AND WOOD repair. I called: 519-371-0018 and a woman with a thick Scottish baroque answered and said that her husband was not there right now, that the men working on the boats would not be able to help me, leave name and number and he would call back; and," Oh by the way, what kind of boat do you have?" I told her. "And what do you want done?" I told her. " That might be a bit expensive." Anyway, her husband will call back. After a week, and no call back, I called again, this time I left a message on their answering machine. No call back. Two days later I called again, spoke to his wife again, and this time she got her husband and we talked. By my conversation with John, I was left in some doubt about any success in getting him to restore Bounty; "he would take a look at it". I decided to pursuit this opportunity; did I have an alternative?. After two sets of instructions on how to get to the boat yard, and two more calls back on my part because I could not find his boat yard on the internet, Google Earth, Yahoo and Mapquest could not get me to his boat yard, eventually I had to go to the internet county sites for Bruce County and Grey County. You see, I know, after 50 years of being up there, that if you don't find what you are looking for in Bruce County, you need to look in Grey County. Their web sites are a hodge-podge of taxes, land use permits, and county welfare links, but NO maps of the county, at least not recognizable to me until I scrolled through the Grey County web site "Transportation". In the Bruce County web site, I eventually came to a map, of course, not in the heading of Transportation. Bruce and Grey Counties are split by Route 6 up to Wiarton. That's right folks, the Town of Wiarton on the East side of Route 6 (Berford Road) is Grey County and on the West side of Route 6 is Bruce County. I guess the Counties have an agreement as to who changes the light bulb in the stop light smack dab in the middle of the road. Of course, Grey County ends at the bottom of the big hill (apparently at the Brewer's Retail store) just before Route 6 goes on top of the Niagra Escarpment and continuing North to Tobermory.

Once I found a map of the region, and located at least the area I suspected the facility to be in, Kathy and I set off early, on a dark and foggy Saturday morning, I with heightened trepedation. Contributing to the overall downer for me were several facts: the tires on Bounty's trailer were 46 years old, and although they have held up well (right one requiring pumping up every year) just going back and forth from boat house to launching pad they worked fine. However, there was no guarentee that they would hold up at moderate highway speeds (45 mph); the trailer wheel bearings require greasing every year and have been replaced by me on two separate occasions, would they hold up also? ;the license plate on the trailer had been borrowed from one of Bill's boat trailers and that had been obtained maybe a decade or two ago; Bounty is registered as an Ohio boat, last registration update maybe 1965; the engine never has been registered in any state or province; the trailer has what appears to be right and left tail lights but I do not know if they, and I suspect they do not, work; besides, the wire electrical harness connection to the towing vehicle long since went with "Black Beauty", a 1962 black Buick given to me by my mother, with 28,000 miles on it, and eventually sold for $25 in 1971 with 150,000 miles on it. If stopped by the Ontario Provincial Police, the cop would develop writer's cramp siting all the violations. Howsome ever, I had a clear picture in my mind of the route: South on Route 6 through Wiarton to about a mile out of town, turn left (East) onto County Road 17, formally Grey route 1. CR 17 turns South a Wolmsy and proceeds towards Owen Sound. You pass the Kemple Quarry on the left, go to the next road, Concession 10 which becomes Indian Acres Road which ends in a reincarnated Grey Road 1, "Turn left, heading North on Grey Road 1, and we are the fourth driveway on the left hand side of the road, set back a ways so that you can't really see us." Now, there have been some new driveways added since those instructions were devised, maybe some years ago, however, a keen memory that I have, I remembered the address: 308794 Grey Road 1. I started counting driveways, the fourth driveway is 308787, we watched until we got to 308794, and sure enough, a driveway winds into a pine forest and a lovely brick house appears, surrounded by a cornicopia of flowers, gayly livening up this overcast and intermittantly rainy day.

Indeed there are two sheds, flanking either side of the house. We parked in the gravel turnaround, Kathy remaining in Big Red and I walked into the large shed with a regularly sized door open and called "anyone here?" No one was inside and I eventually had to go to the house to find John. However, what immediately struck me as I first peered into the shed, was a very old wood power boat, with areas of bare wood, parts of the cabin gone, almost derilect appearing. Beside it, sat a gleaming 40 foot mahogany planked sailboat, varnished above the waterline, and green bottom paint below, stunning in appearance. Gaff rigging spars, carefully laid aside, await the time for the boat to be put all together and into the water. Subsequently, I was told by John Kilpatrick, that the boat was orginally built in 1900, that he races it on the Georgean Bay but not this year as he had some interior cabin work to do. That the hull has 5 coats of Petitt "Captain's" Varnish on it, last put on in 1996. Since boats of that era had rudders attached to the keel and no engines, he removed the old rudder and installed a "spade rudder" closer to the transom for better steering, and a small diesel engine. The motor launch sitting in the shed would be restored by Spring 2008.

"I see that you found us, eh? Wasn't that a good way to get here?" I said nothing about my trepidations, only to say that I was glad to be here. "Now lets look at what you've got." John is a youngish looking red haired man, blue eyed and medium height and build, square faced and a firm handshake. His voice Kathy describes as "gentle" with a Scottish baroque. We began to talk about Bounty's restoration, how lovely she is, and how John loves the fine craftmanship he finds in wood boats. Bounty's hull and bottom will be sanded but not taken down to the wood, no need to. Topsides, the sun has yellowed the brightwork and he will reduce the yellowing, remove and reglue the windshield, remove the floorboards, sand and fabric them over, clean and revarnish the interior and bilge; restore the bowseat. "How much were you thinking of spending?" not pausing to let me speak he continued; "Last year I restored a boat, originally built by a man in Wiarton, now long since dead, and that was varnished inside and out, that cost $3000, and it was a little bit smaller than your boat." We talked about Bounty's heritage, how I got her as a Christmas present in 1961 at Cleveland Yacht and Supply, and that my children were interested in keeping her as well as I. "She will last another 40 years if they keep it as you have done:" inside storage (Bounty can be ruined in one winter being outside, even covered by plastic), not leaving wet items (lines, anchors, lifejackets, and materials that can block water evaporation: tool box, emergency equipment, flags, horns) in the boat over the winter, allowing her to dry out completely. "I think it will cost between $3000 to $5000." "Let's do it" I said. He asked "Do you have a business card?" I gave him my MSU card, wrote my home address and phone, the cottage address and phone numbers. " He gave me his card. "Leave her anywhere over there," gesturing towards the front of the big shed, " we will be moving her soon and taking her off her trailer. I will give you a call in a couple of weeks." We shook hands. No money as down payment, none asked for. As we drove away, down the winding driveway, away from the worksheds and flower festooned house not seen from the highway, Kathy said he was a gentle man, and I had found the right person to restore Bounty.