I used to wonder how long it took some people to do a restoration of a Glasspar boat. It seems that the true diehard owners will do a complete floor and transom rebuild. This fact in mind, I assumed it would take about a year to rebuild a specific boat.
That was just averaging of course, my first Glasspar was a 1961 del Mar and it took me just a couple of months to get in water ready. That included replacing most of the floor. I was also off work for those months back in 2000 as I had recently undergone surgery for Kidney Cancer. I was feeling fairly good and my wife was upset that I was out and about crawling around a boat but I had to keep busy.
I passed a few boats around after the del Mar but never started another restore until I found the love-of-my-life . . . in boats. I was actually just searching Google for anything that popped up as Glasspar when I found an ad of a retired gentleman selling his 200hp outboard in the Los Angeles area. The ad mentioned that it was on his 1962 Glasspar Ventura. That’s what grabbed my attention.
It was only a few days after viewing the ad that I was dragging this Ventura home on wheels that had not seen air for a few years. They managed to hold air and I made it the entire 90 miles home without any problems. I went to work straight away cleaning and removing parts.
It was apparent that the boat needed a new floor throughout because the previous owner never kept it covered and the bow was lower so water went where it thought it should go . . . into the cabin.
To replace the floor in the cabin of a Ventura, you have to remove . . . well . . . the cabin. I decided just to get it over with and really started working on the boat as well as documenting everything I did and removed. I was just about down to an empty hull with cabin roof when my wife and I got a bright idea . . . buy a new home.
One thing led to another and we were on our way to purchasing a new-to-us home that was on 2.65 acres and was 25 miles from where we were currently living. My wife said we needed the 2.65 acres so I could store all my boats and such. I agreed.
The problem with property is you find new and different ways to use it. Kids want to be involved in 4H, Dad’s want to get chickens, Mom’s want to start a garden, you get the general idea. To make this already long story short, 7 years, 2 chicken coops, three animal barns, 1 car barn, 25 planted trees, and 90 square foot of animal pens later, I’m finally uncovering that Ventura to get back to work on the restoration progress. I probably would not have started back this year if it were not for my 15 year old son who wants to do some wake boarding and thinks the Ventura with its acquired 165hp Mercruiser will suit him just fine.
It’s funny how things work out. Family and job and other priorities seem to take a front seat to our special projects. It will be fun to see how long this spurt of work will last. Time to sign off, gotta go help my eldest son remove that rub rail!