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I have been working on this 1954 Penn Yan for a number of years now. According to a representative at the Penn Yan Company,
she is a 1954 Captivator standard version. The number in the transom knee is KTF 54375, with the 54 representing the year
and the 375th boat of the type. The boat had not been run in over twelve years, but a couple of years ago I sent it out to
to Johnson Bros., Inc in Laurie MO and Larry has gotten her up to speed and running well. Last summer (2008), I e-poxied the
bottom up to the splash rail, with 2 coats of cloth on the bottom and 3 on the skegs and keel, so she is water tight and quite
a bit more solid. There is no change in the way the boat looks. I need to put a couple more coats of varnish on, (there is
now about twenty in all) and another coat of white on the sides and she can go into the water. The bottom is already painted.
I go back and forth on selling this boat, but if someone came by with about $7,000 I suspect that she may find a new home.
Sometimes I think that I don't need to take care of a wooden boat, but with the bottom e-poxied, maintenance is minimal, and
she can be dropped in the water at any time without leakage problems. And she is pleasant to look at as I work on other projects
in my work barn. Since she is ready for the water, even though other projects seem to get in the way I know that any time
I feel like it, I can plunk her in and just go for a spin on the lake. It would also be kind of fun to hitch up and head out
to one of those classic mahogany and chrome boat shows.
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Left side rear. Thats a 1958 35 Horse Evenrude on the stern. It appears to be the original engine on this boat, and it was
gone over in 1992 with a rebuilt lower unit.
The boat is a "Q" deck series, which has the center pass through deck and rear deck. The Captivator Penn Yan standard
boat has a designation of "KTF" which is the first of the series of numbers on the center rear knee. The next two
numbers designate the year. The number stamped on the center rear knee of my boat is "KTF 54375", so she is a 1954
Captivator, Standard version, and the 375th one of the type built. She is painted in the original colors of the Standard series
with white sides and blue bottom.
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The right side was rebuilt in 1985, with fourteen new oak frames steamed in. Clear cedar is difficult to find so I used basswood
double hull with plastic between the layers as was used in the original. I used bronze boat nails like original, and soaked
the inside a bunch of times with Cuprinol preservative. The repair work looks good, is hard to distinguish from the original,
and is structurally sound and she looks good.
The aqua meter spedometer is original and looks good, but it is not operational. I use GPS to register speed these days.
The seats were re-done in 2005 to the correct color for the model year the boat was built.
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There is a brass plaque on the right side of the transom saying,
Penn Yan
All wood plactic core
Striptite
hull construction
Patented
 Here is a picture of the bow. Instead of having numbers and registration painted on the side, I wanted a removable plackard
board above the deck, which is what you see on the other pictures. However, the registration folks wanted the numbers on the
bow itself, so here is the new registered look. There was originally a windshield, long since gone. There are indications
in the deck that it was there, but she looks better without one so I am not interested in putting one back on. I also like
the wind in my face, as well as the unobstructed view. She looks lower and sleeker without the windshield as well. The trailer
is a combination of the original steel, and a new central frame of wood. It makes for a nice classic look to the boat trailer
combination. There are no brakes, but on this light set up, they are not really needed. Trailer lights are new this year,
and are not shown on these photos.
Paint can hide all kinds of woes on an old wooden boat, so it is always with a
bit of trepidation that one removes large amounts of it, particularly on the bottom. It was nice to find that after paint
removal, the hull is still in very good condition with no rot visible. I have learned a few things about the boats history
and building while removing paint. It appears that the whole boat was originally painted white, with a coat of light blue
below the splash rail. The subsequent bottom paint layer colors were light green, black, dark green, bright red, brown, reddish brown and light blue. Planking looks good for its age. On each side of the keel the outer layer
of planking is made up of three 3 5/8” wide planks, and then about twenty 1 1/16” cedar planks running up to the
gunnel. There is an additional keelson added by me for strength when I replaced bad cedar planks with basswood ones on the
starboard side in the mid 1980s. The repair still looks good, and the wood is tight. There are some
slight curves in the bottom, but this is understandable in a fifty year old boat. The keel, keelsons
and splash rails are oak, and all the fittings are bronze.
Duffy is always ready to help with the big jobs.
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There is a brass plaque on the dash which reads,
"Doc" Chauvin
63-75 & 275 Lake Ave
Worster, Mass
Mod ______ Ser_____
There are no numbers in the boxes. They were either never put in or they were so light that you can't see them anymore.
Apart from the overhaul of the right side, I have only been working on the boat a little bit here and there as time allowed.
But recently I have made a point of trying to get her finished. She is now up to speed and looking good, although she will
never be a show boat. She is a good example of a working Penn Yan that is out having fun without museum quality hoopla. That
being said, I have had her for over twenty three years, and she has always been inside while I have owned her. So she
is somewhat pampered.
After the last cruise on Lake of the Ozarks, the pounding opened up a number of seams causing leakage. I have been trying
to refrain from the Epoxy option for repair, but I think that the time has come to strengthen the hull. The picture is of
the upside down boat so I can work on the bottom.
I spent last summer removing the layers of paint and found the hull in very good shape. I used Interlux epoxy on
the bottom up to and including the lower edge of the splash rail. Two layers on the bottom, three on the keel and skegs
and one layer up to the splash rail. Here we are starting the flip over after the epoxy work. The paint color is as
close as I can get to the factory original. The upper side of the splash rail and bove the splash rail is still painted wood.
Next job is putting everything back on and a spiff up job on the paint and varnish. I did purchase a Penn Yan Pennant
for the bow staff from the Penn Yan site, but it is printed the same one both sides so that from one side the writing is backwards.
It looks good though, and the boat is about ready for the water.
The e-poxy job is done, with two coats of resine and cloth on the bottom and three on the skegs and keel. I ran the e-poxy
only up to the outer lower edge of the splash rail and to the water line on the transom. This would strengthen and protect
the wood, yet keep the wood visible in all the upper areas. You have to look really hard to notice that there is an e-poxy
coating on the bottom, and with the bottom paint in place the boat looks identical to the pre-epoxy condition. But now she
is much more user friendly, and of course there is no leakage problem. She is much safer now in a chop because no seams are
likely to open up, and she still holds her original image.
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