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So a while back a friend gave me a '60s era Herter's fish finder.
It was interesting, and it works. Looking up information about it made me find out a bit about George Herter, the guy who started Herter's.
George Herter's stores were the inspiration for the big box stores of today such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop, etc. Herter was a little bit crazypants, but in a good way. Everything he made was award winning and world famous, even if it wasn't. George Herter wrote the copy for all of his magazines, and instinctively knew what would cause his items to sell. Herter's writing genius extended to actual books with such titles as "How to Get Out of the Rat Race and Live on $10 a Month" and a marriage guide titled "How to Live With a Bitch." which includes such wondrous tidbits as "under no circumstances call your wife a bitch."
He did other weird shit, he'd bring in raw aluminum and actually cast it in his factories for the fittings and trim for his boats.
I was visiting my mom's place for Easter this year and the dog chased some turkeys through her neighbor's yard. I saw this boat hanging out in the backyard.
I wandered over and took a look at it. It was fairly solid, and had some very interesting aluminum trim on it. Then I noticed that the bowcap had a Herter's mark on it. Asked the neighbor, Ted, about it. He said he'd had it for about 10-15 years and always planned to do something about it, but never got around to it.
I asked if he had any plans for it and he said that he no longer did, then asked if I wanted to take it home. I said I'd like it, but was concerned about the hull because of how long it had been sitting on the ground.
Ted rolled it over and cleaned it out, it was solid, so I said I'd come over and pick it up. Memorial day came and everyone converged on mom's place and I brought a trailer.
So I started trying to figure out what year it was. Then I ran into more Herter's weirdness. See, Herter wrote the copy for his catalogs. He'd happily change shit up to try and one-up the competition, or because something sounded better.
The Mark III was produced from 1956 to 1961, the '56-57 boats were very similar to each other, the '58 models started to grow fins, and then the '59-61 models had bigger fins and were sometimes mistaken for the Herter's Flying Fish.. The 1956 catalog shows the horsepower capacity at 16 HP, except up to 25 HP for Mercury or Champion motors. I don’t know why this exception was listed, possibly because of transom height or the motor clamping system. In 1957 it jumps to 75 HP on essentially the same boat. This is a mistake or George was pushing on the competition. Herters did have one measurement, amidship width, that differed between the 56 and 57 Mark III, in various catalogs, but there was no consistency. Usually the 56 was listed with 55 in. width and the 57 at 60 in. But, there are also catalogs with the 56 at 60 in. and the 57 at 62.
So I got it home, cleaned it out further, started the disassembly to restore it. Decided that I wanted to do the boat equivalent of a rolling restoration. I'll get it registered, fix the immediately broken stuff, and take it to boat meet. Let people see it as it gets cleaned up.
Unfortunately, as I was cleaning it, I realized the seat supports need some serious love. The previous previous owner before me was not that intelligent. For the front seat support, he bolted it to a piece of pressure treated wood and did not keep it out of the wet. This sets up an electrochemical cell and the chemicals in the PT wood eat away at the aluminum. The difference between these two brackets is at least two decades of chemical reaction.
Happily, I know a guy that does castings, so I'll be able to get a replacement done up with a minimum of effort. In the meantime I'll be using the rear seat's bracket for the front seat.
So a while back a friend gave me a '60s era Herter's fish finder.
It was interesting, and it works. Looking up information about it made me find out a bit about George Herter, the guy who started Herter's.
George Herter's stores were the inspiration for the big box stores of today such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop, etc. Herter was a little bit crazypants, but in a good way. Everything he made was award winning and world famous, even if it wasn't. George Herter wrote the copy for all of his magazines, and instinctively knew what would cause his items to sell. Herter's writing genius extended to actual books with such titles as "How to Get Out of the Rat Race and Live on $10 a Month" and a marriage guide titled "How to Live With a Bitch." which includes such wondrous tidbits as "under no circumstances call your wife a bitch."
He did other weird shit, he'd bring in raw aluminum and actually cast it in his factories for the fittings and trim for his boats.
I was visiting my mom's place for Easter this year and the dog chased some turkeys through her neighbor's yard. I saw this boat hanging out in the backyard.
I wandered over and took a look at it. It was fairly solid, and had some very interesting aluminum trim on it. Then I noticed that the bowcap had a Herter's mark on it. Asked the neighbor, Ted, about it. He said he'd had it for about 10-15 years and always planned to do something about it, but never got around to it.
I asked if he had any plans for it and he said that he no longer did, then asked if I wanted to take it home. I said I'd like it, but was concerned about the hull because of how long it had been sitting on the ground.
Ted rolled it over and cleaned it out, it was solid, so I said I'd come over and pick it up. Memorial day came and everyone converged on mom's place and I brought a trailer.
So I started trying to figure out what year it was. Then I ran into more Herter's weirdness. See, Herter wrote the copy for his catalogs. He'd happily change shit up to try and one-up the competition, or because something sounded better.
The Mark III was produced from 1956 to 1961, the '56-57 boats were very similar to each other, the '58 models started to grow fins, and then the '59-61 models had bigger fins and were sometimes mistaken for the Herter's Flying Fish.. The 1956 catalog shows the horsepower capacity at 16 HP, except up to 25 HP for Mercury or Champion motors. I don’t know why this exception was listed, possibly because of transom height or the motor clamping system. In 1957 it jumps to 75 HP on essentially the same boat. This is a mistake or George was pushing on the competition. Herters did have one measurement, amidship width, that differed between the 56 and 57 Mark III, in various catalogs, but there was no consistency. Usually the 56 was listed with 55 in. width and the 57 at 60 in. But, there are also catalogs with the 56 at 60 in. and the 57 at 62.
So I got it home, cleaned it out further, started the disassembly to restore it. Decided that I wanted to do the boat equivalent of a rolling restoration. I'll get it registered, fix the immediately broken stuff, and take it to boat meet. Let people see it as it gets cleaned up.
Unfortunately, as I was cleaning it, I realized the seat supports need some serious love. The previous previous owner before me was not that intelligent. For the front seat support, he bolted it to a piece of pressure treated wood and did not keep it out of the wet. This sets up an electrochemical cell and the chemicals in the PT wood eat away at the aluminum. The difference between these two brackets is at least two decades of chemical reaction.
Happily, I know a guy that does castings, so I'll be able to get a replacement done up with a minimum of effort. In the meantime I'll be using the rear seat's bracket for the front seat.
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