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I had been looking at different boats for a long time so
that I could join in with some my mates with various steam boats and
classic crafts that I know. Then I happened to get to an engine rally at
Stansbury, Yorke Peninsula and spotted John Elliott’s restored Clauson
boat on display and decided that at last I found what I would
like.
After driving every one mad I worked on a film job with some guys
that had wooden boats and talked to them about different aspects of
boating and they told me that they may have something in town that might
do the job so I decided to go down and take a look, however just as I
was walking out of the door John Elliott rang me to say that he had
heard of a boat for sale at Tea Tree Gully so I thought that is on my
way I will call in and see what it is. On seeing it I new it was the one
I was looking for, still on its original Tregoning trailer but without a
motor.
It looked like a real challenge.
It was a week before Christmas 1998 and I bought it on the spot and
took delivery.
I started work early in the New Year stripping it all down and
rebuilding it with a target of the wooden boat festival at Goolwa on the
13th and14th of March 1999. The keel had to come of to be resealed and
all the shiny bits chromed then all the timber scraped back and
revarnished, the rudder kneaded to be rebuilt and was amazed at the
amount of new nuts bolts, screws and fittings it took. The motor was
built out of all the pieces and turned out to be a two stroke STX 3.5
HP Blaxland Pup. It is a single cylinder two stroke runs a Model D
Schebler carburettor.
All the bearings and parts where matched up buy taking out shims and
filing bits together with some parts being refashioned. The magneto can
be turned to make the motor run either way, which is also how  reverse
is managed.
There was a clutch driving a half-inch brass propeller shaft.
The final job was to get the hood reupholstered this was done at
Birdwood and with a week ahead of my time target I was able to take it
to the Power Of The Past as a display which was a week before wooden
boat festival. I found that the motor gave its best power at half
throttle as any more it vibrated bad and did not go any faster in the
water.
We spent the whole weekend at the wooden boat festival giving people
rides and only used $5.75 worth of petrol.
Tregoning boat trailer
I stripped the trailer completely to pieces then sandblasted all the
steel fittings including the original Tregoning winch and had them
galvanised. Then planed all the timber lightly so to get a new surface
for painting. It had vanguard wheels and bearings and to replace the
bearings was going to cost me $125.00 a set however I found that the
stud pattern of the Wheels where the same as that of HQ Holden so I cut
the stubs off and replaced them with HQ stubs then the bearings cost me
$18.00 each time I need to replace them and also lets me retain the
Vanguard wheels and hub caps. The nice thing about the 16-inch wheels
the bearings don’t have to go under the water to launch the boat
After using the boat all over the place I found that the little
single cylinder motor was under powered and vibrated to much so I went
on the hunt again this time finding two boxes and a bag of bits and
pieces that looked interesting and started building another motor this
time a TXRR 5/7 HP twin Blaxland Pup.
The biggest trouble I had was to find a twin Magneto but I found
three bitser s
and built one good one out of them.
I had to replace the main drive shaft and use a bigger propeller but
it runs like a gem and I still have plenty of spares.
At this stage I have booked in to do a Federation boat trip from
Renmark to Goolwa in August down the River Murray, which will be about
560 Kms.
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