1952? paceship plycraft

[ithacaPacePly]

I just inherited this boat from my grandfather. It was purchased new in 1952 according to my mom. That seems to be one of the 1st years that paceship manufactured these. It has the Industrial Shipping Company in Mahone Bay, NS label.

It is generally in good shape. The steering wheel and "cam" are rusted solid. So I will need to replace or possibly rebuild that part. The engine controls were disconnected but I've got those reconnected and appear to be working well. The gas is old, so I will dispose of that and get some more, but the engine was running fine no longer than 5 years ago.... so i'm hopeful..

The varnish is in OK shape, there is some bare wood underneath the boat along the rail in the middle, and chipping along the rails at the top of the hull.

I joined because there is obviously a LOT of knowledge here. So I'm looking for advice. The current plan is to get it in working order and enjoy it for the summer, then strip and refinish the entire thing over the winter.

Any thoughts?

This thing is probably pretty soaked with salt, because it was only used in salt water for the last 20 years at least. Is that an issue at all?

I can't figure the attachments out, has to be less than 19kb!?

[ithacaPacePly]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs507.ash1/29959_576076984978_3704960_33474710_7209313_n.jpg

[mmd]

I have one of those boats, though my hull was built in 1965 and finished out in 1967. They made the boats in two materials - birch veneers and mahogany veneers (mine is a mahogany fifteen-footer; yours looks like the same LOA in birch), and in many sizes from twelve feet to over twenty. A great majority of the ISC output was shipped as bare hulls to other boat companies who fitted them out to suit their market niche and then re-badged them. The spray rail on mine ends about by the driver's seat. The weak spots on these boats are the outboard keelsons (they tend to break about three or four feet forward of the transom) and the transom upper outboard corners (water gets under the deck covering and into the plies, delaminating the transom corners). The boats tend to pound in a chop (pretty flat bottom just about where the hull rides at speed) and do not like to be over-powered. In it's lifetime my boat has had four different motors ranging from twenty to fifty horsepower. It likes 35 hp best.

Good luck with your resto - they're fun boats!

[ithacaPacePly]

That's interesting, I had assumed it was mahogany from what I'd read so far on different sites. I don't really know my woods... someday we hope..

It's actually 12'. I think 15 hp is appropriate, maybe 25?

I might need a clarification on the locations of the weak spots, but so far I don't see any delaminating going on. So thats a good thing!

Thanks for the help, I think I'll try to get it going and see how she rides!