Atom Skier, Dad, and a Road Trip

Made the road trip this past weekend to pick up my 1960 Atom Skier Deluxe. My Dad rode along as a reflief driver, navigator, and general moral support. Even if the boat turned out to be firewood, a road trip with your Dad when you are old enough to swear and drink without being grounded is reason enough to go. We left the Seattle area at 4:00am Friday, and didn't stop until we rolled into LA, 1120 miles later, at 10:30pm. We had to chuckle every time we passed a truck stop that had "adult" stores thinking of the advice from this site regarding road trips. We loaded the boat at 8:00 the next morning and headed home. We both ran out of steam about 10:00 that night and stopped. The last 400 miles seemed like a cake walk Sunday. We had to laugh every time we pulled off for gas or food. I had the GPS in my Tahoe, and my Dad brought his TomTom. As soon as we would take the exit, they would both start telling us to turn around, turn right, make a u-turn, go two miles, get back on the freeway, turn left...   It was just like having wives in the back seat!
The boat is actually in great shape. Obviously, the dog house has to go. But it did come with the original sidedraft carbs to get the height back down. The bottom only has one or two areas I need to checkout a little better. All the hardware is intact and in great shape. We even put a battery in it and it cranked over. Missing spark, but should be easy to get running. This little boat should be a rocket at 14 feet and a big V-8. Can't wait to play with it some more.

Brian, Glad the trip went well. Now that you have 2 wood boats to work on, the work should go twice as fast!! Efficiencies in number of projects! It will be interesting when you tear into it deeper. Keep us posted.

Pete-
I know when I was looking at this boat, we discussed wether or not the motor may have been original. Is there anyway to find out if this the case? By the way, my Dad has this week off and was back at my shop today tinkering and got the motor running.

The only other thing that I am questioning is the big brass plate at the strut mounting and the brass angle at the rudder mount. My '59 Atom does not have these. I am not sure if it was someones attempt to patch or if it was original.

Another nice find Brian, you seem to have a good eye for these things.

Congrads, and I am anxious to see them, when I can find time... I am currently in South Carolina and supposed to be headed home in the morning.

FINS

Thanks for sharing the story, pretty cool road tripping with your dad.

When I picked up our boat three years ago, I road tripped with one of our sons. Great time.

Chuck