Welcome to a thread about restoring my old, old original center console boat. I hope you enjoy the thread and will follow along through to completion which won't be until next spring 2017.
The boat was built about 1970 and was called the Jupiter 15. The boat form was bought out by Mako in Florida soon thereafter and became the first Mako's ever made and sold. It was built as a competitor to the Boston Whaler and later graduated up to the 17 ft size (mine actually is 16 ft) that became common on our coast.
Some of you may remember "Burnet & Dumas" in Pasadena who brought some of the very first center console boats to the Upper Texas Coast. They carried the Jupiter/Mako and the Whaler. I choose the Jupiter over the Whaler largely because of the layout...with more open space. Never regretted that decision and never parted with the boat.
Now, approaching 50 years later, the boat needs some work in the overall finish, the rear floor section and the transom. For the final re-finish, the boat will be painted with Interlux yacht paint over an epoxy primer. The rear floor section will be re-enforced with Seacast and the original skin covering put back in place. The transom, which was really in bad shape, will be re-built with Seacast after scraping all the old rotted wood out.
You can't find the original decals and fixtures now so I'll be trying to restore what I can of the old ones and make new ones where necessary. All the original teak wood is still amazingly good and will be retained as is.
This boat has seen the best and worst of Texas coastal fishing over the last half century. It has spent the majority of its time in the waters of Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, and West Galveston Bay. The boat has seen the Buccaneer rigs and landed many king fish between the Jetties and the rigs drawing many incredulous stares from unbelieving boaters in much larger crafts.
It has been all the way from the tip of Key West to the tip of the Laguna Madre with many trips to the land cut and King Ranch shoreline. It was in "Tarpon Alley" long before that stretch of water was immortalized by Mike Williams and has seen 200 pound class Tarpon pulled over the sides as well as days of jumping over 50 Tarpon.
In its "retirement" years, it has served as an outstanding striped bass and white bass river boat having been on just about every nook and cranny of the Sabine and Trinity rivers as well as most of the lakes in Texas.
The boat has special meaning to me...some much so that I half seriously asked my wife to bury me in that boat. The problem with that is the boat is unsinkable and virtually indestructible. Some people like to restore Corvettes, but my old Corvette can't hold a candle to the sentimental value I attach to this boat.
Rather than be a "casket", I have decided to restore it and one day give it to my grandson...assuming he proves he will take proper care of it...but that is hopefully way in the future and the big white bass on the Sabine will be calling soon and the Jupiter needs to answer the call.
Check in, on occasion over the next three months, for updates on the progress of this project. Comments and questions welcomed.
The boat was built about 1970 and was called the Jupiter 15. The boat form was bought out by Mako in Florida soon thereafter and became the first Mako's ever made and sold. It was built as a competitor to the Boston Whaler and later graduated up to the 17 ft size (mine actually is 16 ft) that became common on our coast.
Some of you may remember "Burnet & Dumas" in Pasadena who brought some of the very first center console boats to the Upper Texas Coast. They carried the Jupiter/Mako and the Whaler. I choose the Jupiter over the Whaler largely because of the layout...with more open space. Never regretted that decision and never parted with the boat.
Now, approaching 50 years later, the boat needs some work in the overall finish, the rear floor section and the transom. For the final re-finish, the boat will be painted with Interlux yacht paint over an epoxy primer. The rear floor section will be re-enforced with Seacast and the original skin covering put back in place. The transom, which was really in bad shape, will be re-built with Seacast after scraping all the old rotted wood out.
You can't find the original decals and fixtures now so I'll be trying to restore what I can of the old ones and make new ones where necessary. All the original teak wood is still amazingly good and will be retained as is.
This boat has seen the best and worst of Texas coastal fishing over the last half century. It has spent the majority of its time in the waters of Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, and West Galveston Bay. The boat has seen the Buccaneer rigs and landed many king fish between the Jetties and the rigs drawing many incredulous stares from unbelieving boaters in much larger crafts.
It has been all the way from the tip of Key West to the tip of the Laguna Madre with many trips to the land cut and King Ranch shoreline. It was in "Tarpon Alley" long before that stretch of water was immortalized by Mike Williams and has seen 200 pound class Tarpon pulled over the sides as well as days of jumping over 50 Tarpon.
In its "retirement" years, it has served as an outstanding striped bass and white bass river boat having been on just about every nook and cranny of the Sabine and Trinity rivers as well as most of the lakes in Texas.
The boat has special meaning to me...some much so that I half seriously asked my wife to bury me in that boat. The problem with that is the boat is unsinkable and virtually indestructible. Some people like to restore Corvettes, but my old Corvette can't hold a candle to the sentimental value I attach to this boat.
Rather than be a "casket", I have decided to restore it and one day give it to my grandson...assuming he proves he will take proper care of it...but that is hopefully way in the future and the big white bass on the Sabine will be calling soon and the Jupiter needs to answer the call.
Check in, on occasion over the next three months, for updates on the progress of this project. Comments and questions welcomed.