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Giving a Bezoat a Second Chance

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  • Giving a Bezoat a Second Chance

    Hello from New Brunswick Canada,
    When I was a child some years ago my father stopped on a highway bridge in Cocagne to watch some real fast boats go in circles. The year after he brought me and my older brother at the time to spend the day there and watch the madness. It’s a really early and spotty memory for me, but I remember him telling me that some local guys used to race as well.
    Fast forward a few years to middle school and I started hanging out with a really good group of guys who I’m fortunate to be friends with to this day. One of whom had the last name Carruthers. As the years went by you would occasionally hear a story about hydros, and my friend would tell me about going up to Valleyfield every summer to watch the gp boats run.
    Fast forward ten more years, same good friends and now one is getting married. What better bachelor party than to pack up and go watch the hydros in Quebec.
    Once there I found pits filled with blown alcohol big blocks, zoomiez and vintage boats running mechical fuel injection that I had only ever seen in magazines or on the web. This was so engaging as someone who’s Interests had varied from turbocharging cars, to snowmobiles, motorcycles , drag racing and all kinds of other weird motorized stuff.
    Fast forward to this past spring. When “Carruthers” on this site offered to sell me a y80 with a spun crank bearing. Having looked through the manual I thought this doesn’t look to complicated. This combined with not having worked on a 2 stroke made it an easy decision. If I had been smarter I would have realized that once you have a motor you pretty much need to start shopping for boats.
    Over the course of the summer I have been able to try a few Carruthers built hydroplanes, with Yamato 80 and 302 power. The first time in a boat I was hooked, such a unique driving experience.
    Now join me in the present as I was part of a gathering of boats last week near Rexton NB. Perhaps some of the elder statesmen of this site may remember racing there in the 1980s.

    After a great day on the water with half a dozen hydros in attendance and a few runabouts I was taken out behind “the shop” and shown a boat. It looked as though it had been stores outside for a decade and sadly it was.

    Fortunately removal of some of the decking showed that internally it was in decent shape. The resident experts informed me it was a Bezoats and that when built it was a top of the line machine. Unfortunately for me while I’m a passable welder my experience with woodwork is non existent. But a deal was stuck hands were not shaken, libations may have been had and the next morning we picked up the boat with a trailer. Tag along as we keep digging and find out if this boat is really worth saving.
    Last edited by Albert; 08-29-2020, 05:13 AM.




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    • #3
      Great Boats, hope you can restore
      Kegs



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      • #4
        Anything can be restored... within reason. Remove the decks and go from there. Take pictures. A company called ‘Jamestown Distributors’ has really good technical advice... and all the supplies you would need. You could send them the pictures and they would be able to give you the best advice.

        Good luck on your project..... put pictures here during your restoration.
        sigpic

        Dean F. Hobart



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        • #5
          Dean,
          My experience in automotive has shown me that anything can be fixed.
          The bigger question is as what point does it make sense to save a 25+ year old boat?
          The local discussion on this has been that if the underside of the boat is solid, and the interior structure than it’s worth saving.
          So far we have half that info.

          Pictures to follow.



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          • #6
            118332350_185006279703714_4690621078778449562_n.jpg 118556697_805256103545422_3539340592490006323_n.jpg 118425235_295742491724149_6821098368537908355_n.jpg 118170489_641512116770074_2348171191524888016_n.jpg Edit: trying to get pictures back up here.





            Last edited by Albert; 11-29-2020, 07:41 AM.



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            • #7
              Before doing serious work I would pull the deck off to see the complete inside and see what is needed. If your carpentry skills and budget are not there then do top repair and bottom work and hope for the best.

              Bottom looks good in pic but for a good ride check the last 3 to 4 ft for flat both longwise and crosswise. Cut the highs and fill the lows with thickened epoxy ( I use cabisil to thicken). I use a flat 2x4x3 ft with 120 grit dry from cut belt for a belt sander. Also check the last foot or so of the sponsons and do same.

              I would remove more of the old finish. Can seal it up with couple coats of epoxy then color to suit.

              Post progress pics.

              How tall is the transom vertical up from outside the tunnel to outer top edge of transom, not the slant dimension?

              What is width of bottom at rear?

              Give it a weigh .

              Bezoats are great race hulls ran against many in Region 5.
              "Keep Move'n" life is catching up!
              No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

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              • #8
                Mr or Mrs L8tr,
                I’ll get measurements next time I’m up to the boat, but it was raced with a Yamato 80.
                I may not be much for wood work but I can follow directions and have a wealth of knowledge around.
                The list of west system and epoxies seem to be growing as my father strips the boat.
                I would say 60% of the decking is already removed, all the wood work inside seems to be in remarkable shape considering what the outside of the boat looked like.
                I was told to plan to spend a lot of time getting the bottom flat. I’m fortunate to have some time off this month before work gets real busy so progress should come fairly quick over the next few weeks.
                As you mentioned the bottom is not done. We’re going down to bare wood, then it’s getting the full west systems catalog thrown at it.
                Next update will include photos from the top with deck removed...and perhaps measurements.



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                • ZUL8TR
                  ZUL8TR commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Pete here

                  Since it was raced with the 80 years ago it might not have been raced as high as today where they run them measured at rear of prop shaft to be no higher than 1/2" below bottom measured outside the tunnel surface. Some do not cool at that height depends on several factors prop being one of them. I run the 80 at 1/2" with 3 blade on the round nose in the Avatar and it cools ok.

                  Great you are taking it down to wood.

                  With new 3mm ocume on the deck and cowl will you be doing it natural finish with color highlights?

                  Restoring old race boats is great therapy.

              • #9
                Nice to meet you online Pete,
                I’ll have to measure and compare to one of the local boats.
                Funny enough we were talking paint last night and it was pointed out to me that there’s a few pounds to be saved there. Likely the bottom will receive a full coat of paint to hide all the filler and repairs. The boat will be receiving all new ocume up top and will likely be receiving blue/white accents or white/green accents. Jury is still out but the blue paint is in my garage and paid for. The paint job on it currently is a bit much for my taste.



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                • ZUL8TR
                  ZUL8TR commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Same here Albert. You will work out the colors once reconstructed. If the cowl is still on or removed without too much damage make a thin poster construction board (the white stuff kids use in school for projects) pattern for the new wood. Have much experience with boat restorations with epoxy, varnish, wood work, etc just ask if needed.

              • #10
                Names actually Luc.
                Some real boat guys showed up this afternoon and removed the rest of the decking to check the interior wood work. Everything looks like this will be a quick deck job, level and paint.




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                • #11



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                  • #12




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                    • #13
                      Furthermore I just wanted to point out I won’t be doing the deck work. A local with much more experience has stepped up to do that part of the project.
                      There is a small but committed group of people in the area and were hoping to have enough boats that if the boarder is still closed next year we can race among ourselves.



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                      • #14
                        Get a template of the cowl while it is still on the boat.
                        sigpic

                        Dean F. Hobart



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                        • #15
                          Question for those in the know.
                          Is there any real safety benefit to running a higher cowl on the rh side like the more modern boat seem to run? I can’t see it doing much to stop a boat coming at you at speed. Or is this primarily a styling choice.



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