For Sale: my 2011 I-20 scow, shown under construction and under sail on these pages. Boat, aluminum trailer, 2 mains, 2 jibs, 2 spinnakers. Give me a call at 207.423.0061 or email: williecrear@hotmail.com, and we can discuss the details. Lying Minneapolis, Minnesota
Maintenance Rules
There are two sides to any scow...the deck, and the hull. I first remove any boat from its trailer, to get it lower to the ground on custom sawhorses...you can just use long styrofoam blocks, or similar. Having a 'skyhook' is critical to making this job easy. First one takes the hull off the trailer using the bridle, then rolling it over using the same 'skyhook'. The trick is to take out one sideboard, then weave a strap through the empty boardbox. Simple. These operations shown here were done with one person (me). The winch is a 2,000 pound rated ATV winch from Northern Hydraulics which is powered by a 12volt automotive battery. It has a remote control.
Never place any part of your body under, or even close to, a suspended load. Darwin rules, too.
Never place any part of your body under, or even close to, a suspended load. Darwin rules, too.
Epoxy Rules...oops
On 24 March 2015, it was gusting to 35 MPH. Heard a loud crash in the late morning, went outside to find this. The impact broke the ridge pole, and bent the frame of the trailer; yet, only cosmetic damage to the hull. Sure am glad I removed the rudders in the fall. Epoxy rules.
Boats 'R' Us
Looking around as preparations were underway to leave for Neenah-Menasha ('It's a beautiful day in Menasha'), many boats were in view. I counted...three racing hydros in this picture (1 on the vehicle, 2 in the box trailer), a jetski, the 2005 i-20, the 2011 I-20, an Alumacraft (behind the 2nd I-20). In the house's lower level, a 'kilo' boat (another alcohol-fueled internal combustion race boat), a 1960 Sea King, and a 1954 Johnson 'D' scow...10 boats total. Yikes.
Bedtime for Bonzo
This is my typical winter storage regimen. It is nothing more than a blue tarp, 12' x 24', with a ridge pole 18' long, a 2 x 4 supported by a pair of 'X' braces, which are also made from architectural quality 2 x 4s.
Boat Rigging...how NOT to do it.
Shown below is a Forester powerboat, built in Wyoming, Minnesota at a company started by a very bright guy named Gus Vierkandt. Willie Crear was looking at this boat, as Forester is where the early fiberglass boats from Johnson Boat Works were actually built from the late 1960s, until the end of 1973. That's when Willie started at JBW.
This photo was taken at a storage facility in fall 2012. Studying the boat, something came into view...a pair of self tapping screws, protruding down through the hull laminate, under the waterline, just under the helmsman's seat. Yup, someone (clearly not Forester) decided to mount something against the inside of the hull, and just ran screws right through the hull laminate, with about 1" protruding below. They finished off the job by applying silicone seal around those screws where they stuck out from the hull...see 2nd picture. Un...friggin'...believable.
For the 1974 model year, Johnson started building their own glass hulls in-house, under the direction of Bob Parks; the laminate schedule was done by another very bright guy named Tom Johansen, of Airex.
Forester shut down their boat production in 1994; Johnson stopped building new boats in 1998.
This photo was taken at a storage facility in fall 2012. Studying the boat, something came into view...a pair of self tapping screws, protruding down through the hull laminate, under the waterline, just under the helmsman's seat. Yup, someone (clearly not Forester) decided to mount something against the inside of the hull, and just ran screws right through the hull laminate, with about 1" protruding below. They finished off the job by applying silicone seal around those screws where they stuck out from the hull...see 2nd picture. Un...friggin'...believable.
For the 1974 model year, Johnson started building their own glass hulls in-house, under the direction of Bob Parks; the laminate schedule was done by another very bright guy named Tom Johansen, of Airex.
Forester shut down their boat production in 1994; Johnson stopped building new boats in 1998.
The Ballad of Earl Kruse
By John Galley
(To the tune of MTA)
Well let me tell you the story of a man named Earl,
One tragic and fateful May,
He rigged up his D-boat, kissed his wife and family,
Went to sail on the lake that day.
Chorus:
Well did he ever return? No he never returned.
And his fate is still unlearned.
He may sail forever on that leaky D-boat,
He’s the man who never returned.
Earl headed for Fontana, everything was going swell,
Until his tiller happened to break.
He tried his best to steer, but he just couldn’t do it,
He couldn’t get off of that lake.
Now all day long Earl sails down the lake,
Crying, “What will become of me?
The water’s rising fast and my bailers are broken,
I fear I’ll be drowned at sea!”
Earl’s wife goes down to the Lake Geneva Yacht Club
Every day at a quarter past two.
And from the judges boat she throws Earl a sandwich
As the boat comes sailing through.
Now you members of the yacht club, don’t you think it’s a scandal,
The way that Earl sails his boat.
No matter what the weather, be it stormy or drifter,
He can’t seem to keep it afloat!
_____________________________________________________________
For those of you young 'uns who do not know what a 'D' scow is, it is the predecessor to the M-20. The I-20 is really just an M-20 in drag, what with the asymmetrical chute and a couple pieces of carbon laminate.
The D scow was a C scow hull, rigged with a mainsail, and a jib. It debuted in 1946.
The song, 'M.T.A.' was popularized by The Kingston Trio in the late 1950s. Here is the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.T.A.
All of this foolishness was passed along to Willie by John Spargo, who got it from John Galley decades ago. For the greybeards of the I-20 class, Spargo, Willie, and Geoff Catlin, they don't just know about the M.T.A., they lived it. They were all 11 years old when the song burst upon the music scene in 1959.
We will post a picture of a D scow when we find an electronic file of same. Dayton Walker, where are you?
Wood hull, wood spars, sail number I-111; this is obviously Spargo's D scow on Geneva. 'Topsy II'. Why is that windward board down?
Jeff Henninger 1967-2012
Jeff sailed I-20s ('Misfit Toy') out of the Minnetonka Yacht Club for the last decade. He is shown above with his boat in the lagoon at Green Lake, at one of the many regattas he attended whilst his health still permitted. He dealt with Crohn's disease for all of his life, and a rare form of colon cancer finally brought him to his final weather beat this summer. Jeff was not content to just sail scows; he also sailed on the Capri 25 'Consensus' out of Wayzata Yacht Club.
He was a graduate of Orono (Minnesota) High School, and Cornell College. After school he made his living in computer software.
Always involved with Lake Minnetonka and her history, he worked as one of the volunteers on the reconstruction of the iconic streetcar boat 'Minnehaha'.
Greybeards of the M-20 fleet will recognize Jeff's boat as hull #636 (or #638) originally delivered to Mike Sherin of Lake Geneva. It was rigged with parts stripped from Mike's first hull, which was then given away, and re-rigged as 'Junkyard Dog'. Jeff would have seen himself just as the boat's most recent custodian.
Jeff came to the party with an infectious sense of humour; he anchored the I-20 fleet at Minnetonka.
Jeff sailed I-20s ('Misfit Toy') out of the Minnetonka Yacht Club for the last decade. He is shown above with his boat in the lagoon at Green Lake, at one of the many regattas he attended whilst his health still permitted. He dealt with Crohn's disease for all of his life, and a rare form of colon cancer finally brought him to his final weather beat this summer. Jeff was not content to just sail scows; he also sailed on the Capri 25 'Consensus' out of Wayzata Yacht Club.
He was a graduate of Orono (Minnesota) High School, and Cornell College. After school he made his living in computer software.
Always involved with Lake Minnetonka and her history, he worked as one of the volunteers on the reconstruction of the iconic streetcar boat 'Minnehaha'.
Greybeards of the M-20 fleet will recognize Jeff's boat as hull #636 (or #638) originally delivered to Mike Sherin of Lake Geneva. It was rigged with parts stripped from Mike's first hull, which was then given away, and re-rigged as 'Junkyard Dog'. Jeff would have seen himself just as the boat's most recent custodian.
Jeff came to the party with an infectious sense of humour; he anchored the I-20 fleet at Minnetonka.
Tapper and Gorgen...that's not an ice cream drink
Chuck Gorgen came to town (Minneapolis) the week of June 10, and took the opportunity to race Willie's new I-20 while he was off racing powerboats in Winona. For those of you who don't know Chuck, it was his father who talked Willie's father into buying a D scow in the fall of 1956. Without that conversation, you wouldn't be reading any of this. Shown above is the greybeard Gorgen (73) at the helm, with relative newbie J.R. Tapper crewing...Tapper only has 20-30 years of scows under his belt, so he was pulling jib. Chuck (with Brad Robinson) was Willie's sailing school instructor in the years 1959 and 1960. Gorgen won the D scow ILYA Championship in 1957 (Comet II), 1960, and 1961 (Comet III). This week, they beat INNOVATION, the new V-38 super A scow, to the first mark, and were unilaterally declared the race winner by PRO Blake Middleton. Protests were not entertained.
Dave Whealon ordered a new I-20 in October of 2011, and it was delivered in the first week of May. Here, his son Sam hams it up for the camera as Joe Ewing (Indian Lake, Ohio) presents a celebratory bottle of Maker's Mark whiskey to Willie Crear. This is hull #2, or more precisely, hull # WCT 20002 D212. Way better than hull #1, chronicled below. Sam debuted the boat, with a rookie crew, to a 6th place finish in the Spring Fling regatta at Cedar Lake, Indiana.
Recovering M-20 sailor Kevin Caulfield steers the first I-20/M-20 hull to come out of the Johnson Boat Works moulds in a decade.
Here we are leading the 4th race of the 2011 I-20 Nationals. The mainsheet is cleated, hard (look at that main leech), and we are about to test the weathertightness of the deck. Photo by Paul E. Dehn.
That's Aaron Lynn and Keith Rosenbaum, closing in on the left. They gave the lead away to us early in the beat, and I gave it right back to them. Photo by Paul E. Dehn.
That's Susan Sternkopf on the weather rail, and Willie testing his water wings. We recovered to 4th. Photo by Paul E. Dehn.