2017 February EMCBC Newsletter

EAGLE MOUNTAIN CLASSIC BOAT CLUB NEWSLETTER

February 2017

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From the President………..

First off I'd like to say that I'm having a blast serving as your president. It's now been a little over 5 months now. The transition has been a good one so far and especially with the help of the board and fellow members. I hope the members along with their guests that attended the Christmas Party back in December had a good time. We had a great turnout for it. We picked up some new members which are listed below. As always if you have someone that may be interested in joining bring them to a meeting or get together. It just so happens I have an application right here for joining: https://sites.google.com/site/treybullemlnewsletter/eagle-mountain-classic-boat-club/membership-application

We did not have a meeting back in January because traditionally, attendance has not been good. Especially coming off the Christmas holiday and New Year. Not to mention cooler weather. The Dallas Boat Show is going on now also and that seems to slow me and the rest of you up.

Wanda Spriggs, Cyndi Herbig, and I will be handling the social schedule in place of Kelly Courtney who is taking a sabbatical. Wanda & Cyndi are already hard at work thinking of ideas. But, if you have any ideas on what you would like to see or do feel free to shout at us.

Be sure you pay your dues. If you forgot that info here it is:

Mail your $50 check in payable to: EMCBC

Mail Check in to:

Carol Reince/EMCBC Treasurer

P.O. BOX 137537

Lake Worth, Texas 76136-1537

****donations are always accepted

**** Be sure to look off to the left of this writing to catch up on previous events and stories of the Eagle Mountain Classic Boat Club.

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Upcoming Events

January 2017

No meeting or get together scheduled.

February 2017

Eagle Mountain Classic Boat Club Meeting on Saturday, February 18th, 2017 starting @ 6:30 PM. @ Flight on Eagle Mountain Lake

March 2017

Our annual EMCBC Auction

Spring Creek Barbeque

6701 Lake Worth Blvd.

Lake Worth, TX 76135-2901

Date: Saturday, March 25th, 2017

Time: 6:30 PM in the banquet room

Start collecting those old boat memorabilia, parts, accessories, collector's items, tools, lakehouse/dock decor, you have in your garage and attic or other you think can be auctioned off. Donations of items and services to be auctioned are also welcomed.

April 2017

EMCBC Meeting @ Mike & Carol Reince's House

May 2017

Wood, Waves, & Wheels Show Kickoff Dinner @ the Fort Worth Boat Club on Friday night, May 12th, 2017 @ 6:30 PM - Cost of this kick off dinner will be announced soon.

Wood, Waves, & Wheels Show @ the Fort Worth Boat Club on Saturday, May 13th, 2017 from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

June 2017

Rum Runner/Poker Run Event TBA

July 2017

Tiki Torch Tequila Poker Run

August 2017

EMCBC Meeting @ Wayne "Cue Ball" Chester & Ruthie Frantom's lake house

September 2017

End Of The Summer Party @ the Paul Ruhl's lakehouse. New officer elections will take place.

October 2017

"Burning Man" Island Party on Pelican Island on Eagle Mountain Lake

November 2017

EMCBC Meeting @ Flight On Eagle Mountain Lake

December 2017

Annual Christmas Party @ the Fort Worth Boat Club

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Member Of The Month

Ann Butchard

Ann was spotted out on the lake recently with her trusty 1st mate, Lucy(1) Ann has said that Lucy(1) is great in tieing a cleat hitch and undoing one. Watch for Ann cruising around Eagle Mountain Lake.

Club Celestial

By: Trey Bull

The mother of fellow EMCBC members: Trey Tabor & Terri Tabor Wilson passed away last month. You may remember Ginny Tabor attending a few EMCBC events.

Trey Tabor & Ginny Tabor

Ginny's last trip out sailing on Eagle Mountain Lake with her son, Trey.

Virginia D. “Ginny” Tabor, a long time resident of Hurst, Texas and frequent Eagle Mountain Lake goer, passed away Sat. Jan. 14, 2017 surrounded by her loving family.

Ginny was born August 26, 1940 in Fort Worth, Texas. She attended Arlington Heights High School. She was the grandniece of John Peter Smith and very prideful of her family heritage. She was married to Paul F. Tabor Jr. who has passed away several years ago. Ginny enjoyed golf, tennis, bowling, Eagle Mountain Lake, wood & fiberglass boats, and especially people. Especially a lot of people that frequented Eagle Mountain Lake over the past years. She never met a stranger. She was loved by all and will be missed dearly.

Survivors: Daughters, Tracy Tabor Smith and husband Coke Smith and Terri Tabor Wilson and husband Mike Wilson; son, Trey Tabor; grandchildren, Jon Paul Tabor and wife Megan, Tabor Smith and wife Megan, Chase Carney, Cody Smith, Ashley Tabor and Lindsay Tabor; great-grandson, Boston Smith; step grandchildren, Angie, Billy and wife Tracy and Coke Marshal Smith.

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New Members To The Club

Please welcome are new members to the club:

Paul Auger & Jess Thomas

John Fischer

Major Jim Boswell

Allison Holt & Gary Files

Mark Kubecki

Lynda Elliot

EMCBC Member Boats

The "Queen Ann" a 1948 Chris Craft 33' Deluxe pictured on the right out of the water for a survey. Cliff Griffith's "Mahogany Lady" Chris Craft boat is pictured on the left

The "Queen Ann" happens to be for sale. Oh, I mean the "Queen". It so happens that it was named after our fellow member Ann Butchard. You can read all about it right here: https://sites.google.com/site/treybullemlnewsletter/boats/-classic-boats More pics are available along with a description of the boat. If your interested in looking at it give me a call.

The hull on the "Queen Ann" still looks magnificent.

Member Cliff Griffith's boat out of the water for deck board replacement.

"Mahogany Lady" is also a 1948 Chris Craft 33' Deluxe

Possum Kingdom Virgin

or

Bromance on the Brazos

By: Andy Butchard

This mild winter weather has opened up opportunities to do more boat camping than has been the norm so when a few days offered temps in the 70’s it was time to take to the water. I had finished a few projects on Helios regarding leaks and replacing the shifter cable and I was ready for a shake down cruise. Ann declined the invitation so on a whim I invited Hal Normand(EMCBC Member) who I knew had a camping trailer and enjoyed camping. Like Sir Earnest Shackleton in 1914 when he posted an ad in a London newspaper seeking crew for an expedition to Antarctica to march across the continent he stated “safe return doubtful”, so did I when I issued the invitation based on some of my misadventures. Hal was unfazed and signed on asking did I have a stove? Did I have a lantern? Did I have a coffee pot? I told Hal that as a professional boat camper with 17 years’ experience, well, actually no one has ever paid me to boat camp, I am always prepared and Helios stood stocked to leave at a moment’s notice with most every camping convenience you could pack into a 22’ boat.

I told Hal to bring some reading material and he showed up with two books recently scavenged from a library clearance sale. I immediately recognized a title as one of my favorites, I have read parts of it at least three times, “River Horse” by William Least Heat Moon, the account of his 1995 100 day voyage across America by boat. Yes, it can be done with only about 150 miles of portage over the Continental Divide. The other book, I latched onto, “Auto Biography” by Earl Swift, a delicious tale of a 1957 Chevy wagon he found as a derelict in a wrecking yard and was able through a series of lucky breaks and coincidences to track down all 12 previous owners and weaves a tale of American culture and the effect of automobiles in general and this one in particular on the lives of the owners.

We left on a glorious sunny Monday afternoon for the beautiful drive thru the Cross Timbers of the Brazos River valley. We launched at the public ramp near Villa Marina and before we were off the trailer we had our first mechanical adventure. The boat wouldn’t shift into reverse so I could back down from the trailer. In changing the shifter cable I had adjusted it and tested it but then I found that I had missed installing the rubber seals on the ends of the cable to keep water out so I removed the cable ends, installed the seals and that must have changed the adjustment. It is critical to have just the amount of throw or you get forward or reverse but not both. Since forward would be our principal direction and I could adjust it at the first sandy beach we decided to forge ahead, damn the reverse, full speed ahead! As we left the marina I spied an early 1950’s 28’ CC Semi Enclosed twin engine cruiser that has been on the lake since my first trip in the late 1980’s. We cruised along the cliffs to the east along the swallow nests attached to underside of the cliff overhang and made for the south shore crossing depths of 100’ of water. Along the shore, I noticed I had not cleaned the windshield so we stopped as I climbed on the cabin top as the wind gently pushed us against the shore bow first. Now reverse would have come in handy but after we poled and paddled out away from the rocky shore after just one contact with the rocky bottom and our spinning propeller we were on our way again.

Hal was thrilled with the scenery of PK and that is when I found out that although he had driven around parts of the lake he had never been on the lake never cruised through the clear waters that surround the majestic Hell’s Gate. On the contrary Hal has been a frequent riverman on the Brazos downstream of the dam and spent many family camping trips on canoes and knows the Brazos River like the back of his hand. We cruised in the beautiful weather about 25 miles upstream heading for Sand Island whose name was misnomer as there was no sandy beach since the lake was full. Finding no suitable landing spot, we dropped anchor in the late afternoon, Hal went forward and laid on his back on the foredeck and elevating his feet on the cabin top and announced he was in such comfort that even a pillow as not needed. I sat on the aft deck reading my new book as the afternoon gave way to twilight. The silence and serenity was a jewel of the trip that we both enjoyed.

Dinner time arrived and I set up the propane grill and started my recipe for garlic butter lemon juice chicken and some jalapeno sausage as an appetizer. Steamed broccoli was on the menu to lend some semblance of healthy eating and to make our mothers proud. Plates were not needed as we stabbed our meat with forks in a primordial nod to our ancestors who ate meat over a fire with no utensils other than maybe a stick. I then prepared the aft deck for the glorious evening to come. Propane space heater, comfortable reclining chairs, binoculars, big comforter to use as lap blanket, lantern lit, and a dog in each lap. Hal showed his expertise in camping in Texas in winter on a boat in the middle of the lake by breaking out some 14 year old snake bite antidote which we administered from two old tin cups with a few ice cubes and a dash of water in measured or somewhat measured doses. I am glad to report that due to our precautions neither suffered from snake bite but we did experience convulsions from laughter, spirited conversation, hilarious jokes, banter, lies, tall tales, and camaraderie that is usually only found when a few friends are marooned on a boat for an extended cruise. Orion was passing overhead as Leo the Lion roared and reared in the east as we decided to turn in for a good night’s sleep. Hal got his first good look at M42, aka Orion’s Nebula, the middle fuzzy spot in his sword, the best one in the heavens. I spent most of the night dreaming of the special breakfast Hal had promised, something about flat enchiladas with an egg on top.

I awoke before the Sun and went on the aft deck in pleasantly cool weather and checked the night sky. Since I had no alarm clock and we were on vacation I crawled back in my bed and we arose sometime well after the Sun and when we were damn good and ready. Eventually we arose and enjoyed a piping hot cup of coffee and then Hal proceeded to cook his famous flat enchiladas. In a skillet of hot cooking oil, he placed a corn tortilla for a few seconds, flipped it once to heat, then dipped it in warmed enchilada sauce, then on a plate with a layer of chopped onions and cheese, repeat three times and then a fried egg on top. My skillet was uncooperative on the fried egg so we scrambled them with no harm to the taste or presentation.

We cruised for a little while until get came to a ramp and dock on the west end of the peninsula and I beached the boat at a sandy spot and tried to adjust the shifter cable but no luck, I got either forward or reverse, take my choice. We jury rigged a dog lease and attached it to the shifter arm on the back of the outdrive so we could pull on one end and get forward or pull on the other end and get reverse. We finally gave up on having much control over our direction of travel and cruised toward the State Park and check out the damage from the wild fires of a few years ago. The park was deserted and the store was closed so we tied to a boat house and enjoyed the sun, Hal took a short hike and I read on the aft deck. Hal found something he had rarely seen and never in Texas, a lone Loon was diving and would pop up in unexpected places and you had to be quick with the binoculars. Hal said if he was a birder it would go on his life list.

Our slow and steady cruise brought us to ramp around 3PM and I noticed that the CC Semi Enclosed cruiser was turned around in her slip from the day before so we thought the owner may be working on it. We drove over to Villa Marina and struck up a conversation with the marina owner’s son. They were motor heads as well with a restored 1946 Jeep CJ2 and a nice late 1950’s Chevy pickup. He said there were only three wood boats in the marina and they owned two. The 28’ CC and a 1962 Century Resorter with the aircraft carrier foredeck, both in decent condition. There was a 57’ Chris Craft in the water that looked like it needed a bottom job ten years ago and he said that it was too heavy for their railway. Under a shed roof was a late Century Coronado with the heads off and every plug in the transom planks missing so she was in bad shape. I asked about a late 1950’s 34’ Chris Craft Captain with high sides on the aft deck but with side doors hidden in the design that I remember seeing in years past. The marina owner said it had been pulled several years ago and I could have it for free so we all know what condition it was in. Villa Marina was a Century dealer and has been in business since 1959.

We took the long way home traveling south on FM 4 across the Brazos River and landing at Palo Pinto where I showed Hal the old drug /hardware store on the south side of the square that appears to have closed their doors in 1973 (calendar hanging in the front window, barely) and never touched it since. Lots of old neat things to spy looking thru the dirty and occasional broken windows. We arrived back home barely 30 hours after leaving having enjoyed the weather, the lake, the outdoors, and ourselves immensely. Now if I can just get that dammed shifter cable fixed.

“Texie to Muscogee”

by: Andy Butchard

This is a pirate to be reckoned with. No tellin how many boats this pirate has shanghaied. He always tells it like it is, "the sword is mightier than the tongue".

The pleasant weather between Christmas and New Year’s found me in Muscogee, Oklahoma, USA, a city I have driven thru many times, usually pulling a boat. Muscogee, I sure has many charms, if you search for them, but is not a place you think of for a vacation. My first visit was in 1981 when the CPA firm I worked for had an oil company client that flew me up there in their Lear jet, my first and only experience in the rarefied air of private jets. I went there to audit a subsidiary of the company and I was well aware of Merle Haggard’s song extolling the virtues of the town. Haggard wrote the song tongue in cheek but the public did not see the sarcasm and it became a patriotic anthem that went all the way to the White House. This is absolutely true: When I got off the plane and boarded the pickup truck of my host the car radio was belting out “Okie from Muscogee”. It was almost a mantra from heaven. Or Hell.

The reason I was in Muscogee is that the Arkansas River flows nearby and upstream just a few miles there are two tributaries that are navigable by riverboat. I decided on Christmas Day evening to take advantage of the warm weather and on Monday in just 5 hours I had re commissioned Helios, gassed her up, fixed the leaky freeze plug, charged the batteries, checked the tires, test fired the engine, and was loaded up and on the road. I arrived around 8PM so I watched the Cowboys game in a bar and grabbed a motel. Since I was going to cruise three rivers I worked my way through three margaritas mainly because the motel was next door to the Chili’s. I slept very well.

The next day I arrived at Three Forks Marina where Highway 62 crosses the river just a few miles east of town. I had seen a riverside ramp on satellite but when I approached it to launch a man drove up and told me about a much better ramp in the harbor and I wouldn’t have to fight the current although the river ramp did have a dock upstream of the ramp. He proceeded to tell me, as the project manager, the city spent $11 million on the concrete lined harbor, a marina, a gas dock, ramp, travel lift dock, two boat houses and a visitor center. It looked like a government project run amok. The visitor center was huge and had about 4-5 people working there or at least they were on the payroll. The winter time is not really the prime of the boating season and I was the only customer. I doubted private interest would have invested that much money.

The project manager directed me to the ramp which was near an old Richardson cruiser, about 42’ with her bottom off, usually a sign of impending doom. He told me the owner worked in the oil patch and every few weeks he would get off work and work on the boat for weeks at a time. He was doing a good job, nice new oak frames, stem, chines but man what a project. I launched the boat and started it and immediately heard a rush of water so I opened the engine hatch and I had lost a freeze plug, not the one I had repaired before leaving, but one on the side of the exhaust manifold. I stuffed a rag in the hole and was after several attempts able to reduce it to a small leak. I looked for the freeze plug in the bilge because it must be there but could not find it. I then looked around for something to stuff in the hole and wished I had a set of those tapered wood plugs that are handy when you hole the hull. I walked back to the old Richardson where there was plenty of wood scraps but most were oak and I knew they would be hard to cut to fit with a Swiss Army Tool. I found a small section of plank about half inch thick and a small piece of plywood about a quarter inch thick. With the rag stuffed in the manifold and a confidence that I could affect a better repair that afternoon I shoved off for parts unknown.

The area I launched is called Three Forks for the three rivers that merge nearby. The Verdigris River, 310 miles long beginning in Kansas , from a Spanish word meaning “ green gray”, meets the Arkansas River a few miles upstream from Muscogee. The Neosho River, 463 miles long, an Osage word meaning “clear water”, merges with the Arkansas just a mile down stream of the Verdigris. The Arkansas River, an Anglo word meaning “inbred toothless hillbilly”, is shallow above Muscogee so the Verdigris has been dredged and locked to make navigation all the way to Tulsa, opening in 1971. It is part of the McClellan – Kerr Navigation System that runs all the way to the Mississippi river dropping 420 feet.

I started my cruise on a bright winter day with the Sun out and the temps about 55 as I headed upstream just about a mile and entered the Neosha which runs about 4-5 miles to the next dam but does not have a lock. The Neosha River forms the Grand Lake of the Cherokee, a huge lake upstream in NE Oklahoma. I was only able to ascend about a mile until I ran into a gravel bar blocking the way even though the river was about 75 yards wide. I turned downstream, turned right at the Arkansas and went about a mile and turned right into the Verdigris which was narrow but had barge traffic. Had I stayed on the Arkansas I would have hit sand bars within a short distance. These barges moved much more slowly than the barges I had seen on other rivers. I cruised a few miles until I saw the lock but decided to not lock thru but instead turned downstream to anchor where a protected chute returned to the Verdigris.

The winter twilight is the longest since the Sun is sinking at a sharp angle to the horizon so the turning from day to night takes a long time. Before it got dark I removed the engine hatch and started my repair on the freeze plug. I traced on the plywood around a bottle cap from a Gatorade bottle that was slightly larger than the freeze plug hole to give me a circular line to cut with my saw in the Swiss Army Tool. There was a gap in the mounting bracket of the heat exchanger that I was able to wedge the plywood in as I rounded it to match the traced circle. I continued to cut and file until I had a tight press fit. I then mixed up some JB Weld and saturated the wood plug and the lipped hole of the exhaust manifold. The engine was still warm which cured the epoxy. The next morning there was no leaks and I probably have the only boat using a wooden plug for a freeze plug.

The evening was most pleasant with a dinner of chili and crackers, a long sunset, the lantern lit, the propane heater on deck, the blanket on my lap with the dogs underneath as I finished one of several books I bought at a Denton bookstore on the way to Muscogee. I was anchored about a half mile from a railroad bridge and I enjoyed hearing the occasion train crossing the river. I would have had a great night sleep but my hull was leaking, even after caulking the transom plate of the outdrive with 3M5200, (I swear that stuff is worthless for sticking to anything). I left the bilge pump on auto so the bilge pump and the trains would get in synch and just about the time I would fall asleep the bilge pump would cycle and then as I was dozing off the freaking train would come along. All night long.

The morning coffee smelled as good as coffee can be and the engine started up with no hesitation. The dogs got fed and I had some fruit for breakfast and the temp was maybe 45 but quickly warmed when the Sun rose above the tree line. The Sun was shining all day with no wind and it felt so much like Spring that I removed my shirt to get some vitamin D. The weather was so perfect I never put up the bimini top or the side curtains. I turned downstream to see what I could see on the Arkansas River. Just south of Muscogee the river takes a long sweeping left turn and then a right to resume it southerly course. The reason the river turns is because great big rocks and hills are on the outside of the curves, maybe 100 feet high and in a few places I saw people out for a hike along the river. The short stretch looked more like the Cumberland with the high limestone cliffs but elsewhere the river bank was a dull stretch of dead trees and muddy banks. The winter had removed all traces of green from the vegetation so the main colors were the tan of the river, the gray bark of the leafless trees, and the brilliant blue sky. A flock of about 35 pelicans gathered on a small island added some brilliant white to the landscape. On two occasions I spotted pairs of bald eagles, maybe they are now mating to hatch a chick in the spring.

I cruised downstream heading south on a glass smooth surface for about 30 miles and found a cove I could anchor for the evening near Green Leaf State Park. The river was widening here and becoming the large Robert S. Kerr Reservoir and the next gas was 30 miles and I didn’t want a long 60 mile slog on an open lake when the wind gets up. I dropped anchor in a quiet cove about 20 yards from shore. Tonight was to be the coldest, forecast low of 27. We were very comfortable on the aft deck, wrapped up in blankets and dogs as I read under the stars. This night I turned the bilge pumps off so I could get a good night sleep but little did I know there was a train track nearby but with little overnight traffic.

The morning dawned clear and cold with a heavy dew that had left a layer of ice and frost all over the boat. When I arose, and put my thick woolen sock covered feet on the cabin floor my decision to turn off the bilge pump proved to be a bad one since the floor was flooded about a half inch so my feet got wet so I removed the wet socks. Lucyfer , always the bold and curious dog, jumped on the engine hatch as I stepped on deck to check out the sunrise. I went back in the cabin and climbed in my still warm bedroll. Soon I heard the pitter patter of little paws and claws on the foredeck. Then I noticed, all of a sudden, that I did not hear them, and then, wait, what? was that a splash? I jumped out on the aft deck, barefoot, in my Walter White whitey tighties scrambling to find Lucyfer. First I leaned over the port side, nothing, then over the starboard, nothing, then over the port, now thinking do I really need to don a life jacket, then over the starboard side when I heard the splashing and thrashing of a dog trying to wake up and start swimming. I got her attention and was directing her along the starboard side and to add insult to injury the two bilge pump discharges were going strong and they pissed right on top of her head as she swam by. Laughing, I grabbed her by the collar and hauled her on board. We were about 20 yards from shore but I wonder if I had been asleep if she would have given up on trying to get in the boat and swam to shore before the cold water got to her. I don’t think it would take much time to chill to the bone an 8 pound dog.

One of the best things about cool weather boat camping is the

mornings, when I wake up, turn the heater on, the smell of percolating coffee filling the cabin, watching the Sun brighten the landscape, and climbing back into bed with a couple of warm dogs to pet and snuggle with but with a cold shivering dripping wet winter swamp rat in your bedroll not so much, it kind of spoils the ambiance.

We headed upstream under a brilliant blue winter sky in a slight breeze, a little cool if the wind was on our quarter but pleasant if heading into the wind. Arriving at the ramp about 3 PM I retrieved the boat and then went looking for a wood boat I had seen in Muscogee about 20 years ago. At a Valero gas and C store on the west side of the highway in Muscogee there is a cute little inboard lapstrake side steer dingy on display with beer cases stacked around it. I was hoping it was still there and I found both the boat and it’s story in a newspaper article. The owner bought it from Sierra Boats in Lake Tahoe, NV and a letter from Sierra attest that the boat once belonged to Errol Flynn, one of two dingys on his yacht, “Zaca”. The 1957 dingy was only one of 20 with inboard power, a cute Kermath twin cylinder.

I enjoyed my little three day get away of 72 miles cruising and exploring yet another great river but I have yet to find a river that is better in all respects than the Cumberland in Tennessee. I am planning on a Cumberland run in April and I need a few brave souls with cabin boats to join me. Who is in?