OT, Rebuilding A Legend

[Hydro Junkie]

For those that are fans of the Blue Blaster(aka 77 Atlas Van Lines), you will be pleased to know that a long awaited restoration project has finally begun. I personnaly saw the boat with the right side deck and aft nontrip removed few weeks back. As with other restorations and scratch builds, the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum has started a restoration photo essay on the HARM website. For those that want to follow along, the address is http://www.thunderboats.org/77AVL/main.html

The boat is, considering it sat outside for many years in Washington's rainy climate, in remarkably good condition. I'll be going to the HARM today and I'll see if I can get an update on timelines on the rebuild, as well as some pictures of the R/C hydroplane exibit going on today and some pictures of the HARM in general

 

[larcor69]

Get some pic's of the Gas scale's that the PNWTB club will have on display for us to HJ

 

[dave weagel]

hydro,

thank you for posting. been waiting a long time for restoration the '77 atlas. that one has been long overdue. i'll definitely follow their progress. too bad Roger Newton not there.

btw, do you know aaron olson ? he's involved with the PNWTA out there and should be at the museum for the rc show. say hello to him for me if you see him.

as corey says, please post photos or link to photos of the rc display, especially the gas scales.

dave

 

[lynn bowers]

Should would like to have a piece of that they have thrown on the floor to put on the wall in the shop. Use to follow that boat when it was racing.

 

[Brian Schymik]

For those that are fans of the Blue Blaster(aka 77 Atlas Van Lines), you will be pleased to know that a long awaited restoration project has finally begun. I personnaly saw the boat with the right side deck and aft nontrip removed few weeks back. As with other restorations and scratch builds, the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum has started a restoration photo essay on the HARM website. For those that want to follow along, the address is http://www.thunderboats.org/77AVL/main.html

The boat is, considering it sat outside for many years in Washington's rainy climate, in remarkably good condition. I'll be going to the HARM today and I'll see if I can get an update on timelines on the rebuild, as well as some pictures of the R/C hydroplane exibit going on today and some pictures of the HARM in general

 

[misshydro]

Should would like to have a piece of that they have thrown on the floor to put on the wall in the shop. Use to follow that boat when it was racing.

I saw some of those pieces showing up on ebay for sale..I guess that boat will have all new wood skins on it.. didnt know they used alum frame work back then..

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Now that's a first, Misshydro admitting there is something she doesn't know

For those that mentioned wanting parts of the deck, there was only one left that I saw, from the left deck where the word Atlas was painted. Pieces showing up on Fleabay? I'll check with Don Mock and see if they are legit pieces. More than likely, all the skin parts that were removed ended up in the dumpster.

As of today, the timeline is roughly two years on the rebuild. This is mainly due to the cost of aluminum honeycomb needed to replace the sponson insides and air traps. There is damage along the boat's bottom under where the cockpit was, a full depth crack of the sponson inside just forward of the left sponson transom and some serious degradation along the bottom of both sponson insides where the runners were attached. For those that want to help out, Director Dave Williams told me donations would be accepted to help pay for materials to go into the rebuild. You can contact the museum through the museum's website, http://www.thunderboats.org

I took pictures of many of the R/C boats there, along with some of the Atlas. As soon as I get the roll of film processed I'll be adding the pictures to my gallery. Believe me, there were some fantastic boats on display. There was even one boat for sale, READY TO RUN. It's a 1/10th scale electric 1981 Thousand Trails, of which I "think" I have a picture. The owner was asking $1,000 for it. If I had the cash, it would have easily come home with me