thompsondockside.com

I am restoring a 12' cedar strip runabout. All indications are it is a 1949 Thompson 12-50 Sport Runabout.

When I purchased it, it was missing a splash rail but it came with a very nice replacement the owner had milled but never installed. However it was milled out Cypress and not White Oak.

I plan to use penetrating epoxy on it and paint it. It is obviously not as hard as the original. Would using this be a problem?

Thanks

Steve

Steve,

I do not see a problem with using the cypess. It is softer then white oak and may be more suseptable to damaged if the boat is subjected to banging into a dock or dock support more then white oak would be. It is used for boat building in some areas and has a high resistance to insect and fungal attack.

If in the future it becomes damaged to where it needs to be replaced then use white oak for the replacement.

Can you find the letters and numbers stamped into the transom? These will help determine the year of the boat.
Also the overall length around the gunwales, centerline length, depth of hull at it deepest point and it width at widest point along with pictures would be very helpful to determine the exact model you have.

Good Luck,

Phill

Phil

Thanks you for the reply. I think I will go ahead and use the Cypress.

There are letters and numbers stamped into the transom. At first I thought it was just J499 but after stripping it down there is an F after the 9. It looks like J 499 F There may have been some additional numbers or letters in between. It is hard to tell.

The reason I think it might be a 1949 Sport Runabout is first I found the remnant of a decal at the left rear above the splash rail. I was using a chemical stripper so things were going pretty fast but I made out black lettering of "pson" very similar to the Thompson logo.

We have speculated that the boat may be a 1954 12' TVT Super Deluxe Runabout. But if you look at that year, that boat had a white bottom with Mahogany sides above the rails and Mahogany decks with a cardinal red splash rail.

I bought my boat with a dark green painted bottom, white at the rails and above and mahogany decks. Repainted several times.

When I stripped the paint the original hull color was light blue or blue green color, the original paint on the rail was a bright red and the paint above the rail was white. Removing the original white paint above the rail shows the hull was cedar with white filler in the crew holes. It was not Mahogany.

The next closes thing is the 1949 Sport Runabout. Described in the brochure with a three tone paint job and Mahogany decks.

The boat is 11'-8" down the center line and 12'-3/4" gunnel length. Beam is 53" out to out. Depth is 20" at the deepest spot. The transom heights is 15" and 48" wide inside the hull strips. It has steering in the rear cockpit, left of center. It had a bow light on it at one time and it has a speedometer. It does not have all one length cedar strips. There are some joints over the ribs in places.

Pictures of it can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62318403@N08/

I have stripped it down and will begin to replace some ribs. It is a nice little boat and am enjoying the reno and look forward to getting it done and on the water.

I have seen pictures of your boat. Its a beauty.

Thanks again for your reply.

Regards

Steve

Steve,

See if you can do a rubbing of the letters adn umbers stamped into the transom. These are very important to help narrow down the year of manufacture.

I am confused myself as the numbers if the ifrst one is a 4 indicate the boat would have been built in 1944, 1954 or 1964. 1944 these was not a 12 footer with that deck configuration in any literature. 1954 would have been mahagony decks and from the spray rail up with white bottom and red spray rails. Infact 1949 was the only year that had the three color paints from what I see.

If you would like to give me a call please do so. 920-993-7837 I live in the central time zone and am generally available from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM. If I do not answer leave a message and i will cal you back.

Would be interested in tracking down the year of manufacture for you.

Good Luck,

Phill

Phil

Here is the link to the rubbings I did of the Hull numbers. There seems to be something between the J and the 4. It has a round look to it. I just don't know. You can just make out the F at the very right.

Steve

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62318403@N08/5839536058/

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/62318403@N08/5839536058/]