Country Stoves E-76

Country Stoves E-76
Circa - 1986 or 1987 

The hydroplane was originally built in 1978 by Ed Karelsen. I purchased the boat in 1986 and raced the boat with my brother John Woodward (we shared driving responsibility) and my brother Richard Woodward as the crew chief. We ran as the Country Stoves until mid 1987 when John flipped the boat at Lake Tapps, near Auburn, WA. We rebuilt the boat with the help of Ed Karelsen over the next 15 months. We updated the sponsons (the right one was mostly ripped off in the flip), added the dropped center section and also added rear "shoes" to the hull. We also changed cowlings as the original rear cowl is still at the bottom of Lake Tapps (sure wish we had a little flotation in the original rear cowling). We went to the newer style of Karelsen cowlings for the rebuild as the mold was no longer available for the original rear cowling, hence, the different look of the boat. We then ran the boat in the last Region 10 race of 1988 and a few times in the following 3 years. 1991 was the last time the boat was in the water. It has sat in the garage since then. 


 Restoration


E-76 after 1987 rebuild but before 2003 restoration as a Vintage Hydroplane. 
 


View of bottom - wood in great shape 
 


Another view of the bottom 
 


View of the bottom rear of the boat and the shoes that were added in 1987 
 


View of right sponson - step is too thick (2 each 8 mm thickness rather than 1) 
 


View of left sponson - step too thick 
 


Right sponson rebuild begins 
 


Left sponson rebuild begins 
 


Nose skin stripped off 
 


Right sponson with new wood - not yet glued 
 


Right sponson - now a single 9 mm thickness step 
 


Left sponson - new wood - not yet glued 
 


Left sponson - now with a single 9 mm thickness step 
 


Nose of center section with new skin on bottom side.
 


Front of boat - beginning to shape up.
 
 

The rear shoes have been sanded and are ready for finishing.




The entire bottom is sanded and ready for finishing, also the prop shaft hole was rebored as it was not bored correctly
when the new bottom was installed in 1988 and the prop shaft was rubbing against the edge.
 
 


View from the front with all the woodworking done on the tips of the sponsons, sanded and ready for refinishing
 
 

A closeup of the front of the right & left sponsons.


 






After sanding and sealing with epoxy and sanding some more, and varnishing, the bottom is done. I put multiple coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish on the bottom with a brush. It came out looking pretty good. The bottom is done and the boat is flipped over. Yippee!!




The boat is right side up now. I need to do a little work on the decks before re-glassing.
 I peeled off all the original glass in preparation to replace all the decks, but have decided not to do it.



The Karelsen trademark vertical fins on each side of the center section will be replaced as one is delaminating.




The cockpit area looking towards the rear and the front of the hull. You can see that some cleaning and refinishing are needed in this area, but it is not too bad. After completing the refinishing, the steering and mechanical bits and pieces will be reinstalled.

The original 273 that came with the boat. It had sat for about 5 or 6 years with the ports open and as you can see, there is rust in the ports of the heads and the bores on the block. But maybe worst of all was the condensation that was in the oil that caused rust on the crank.
All this can be fixed with a bore job, a valve job and having the crank turned.




This is another 273 I purchased as everyone was converting to the Chevy 305. It has been sealed up well and after opening it up this past weekend, all is well. No evidence of rust in the top end or the lower end. This is the motor I will run in 2004. You will note that the exterior needs some wire brushing and a good coat of paint, but that is easy to do.


 

Thanks for following along. 
The time has arrived to paint the deck & cowlings. First coat of primer is applied & sanded.


The boat & cowlings after the priming.


Cowlings are looking good.


My sanding crew is two of my daughters, 11 year old Jenny & 17 year old Amy.


These photos show the center section and the cowlings after being painted black. I sprayed the boat with a borrowed Apollo HVLP turbine setup and used Nason Fulthane 2K paint. The paint went on real well, though I had little experience painting and no experience with the HVLP equipment.


Cowlings get their color applied.


The last photo shows the body of the main hull painted Orange with the cowlings sitting on the boat to see what it all looks like.


Here is the boat being lifted from the dolly onto the trailer the old fashioned way, lots of bodies!


The boat is now on the trailer and I am setting the rear cowling on to see what it looks like 


The boat is in the very messy garage with graphics being tested for size and location.


The boat on the trailer after the 2004 Madison event. It came out looking pretty good and ran even better at Madison

© Doug Woodward

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