On September 7, 2007 I bought Tortuga, a 1936 raised deck cruiser built by the Nunes Brothers Boatyard in Sausalito, CA.  The purchase was a bit of an impulse buy.  I have liked the lines of raised deck cruisers since I saw my first Lake Union Dreamboat in Seattle back in the 70's.  Consequently, I periodically check out listings for wooden power boats built between 1920 and 1939.  In August, 2007 I came across the listing for Tortuga.  In the past, all of the raised deck cruisers I have seen were on the west coast, but to my surprise, Tortuga was located in Maine and the listing broker's office was only 5 miles from my house.  Naturally I when over to chat with the broker (Jarvis Newman) about the boat and arranged to take a look at it.

This page shows a few pictures of the boat and its interior with my comments about its condition.

Click HERE to move on to pages documenting the rebuild of the boat (in  progress)

The Tortuga was at the Hylan Boat Yard on the Benjamin River in Sedgewick, Maine about 50 miles from my home, so Jarvis and I drove over to look at it on a beautiful late August afternoon.  The boat was sitting at the edge of the yard at the end of a short gravel road.

The boat looked pretty good from a distance, but as we approached you could see some rot in the leading edge of the keel just below the stem and lines in the bottom paint where the yard crew had scraped the paint off to reveal the fasteners.

This bow-on picture shows the shape of the hull.  You can also see that the varnish on the mahogany toe rail is shot.  The green canvas is a custom fitted sunbrella cover on the cabin house.

This picture shows the mahogany transom with the name in gold leaf.  The transom was redone in '96 and is still in pretty good shape except for two checks in one plank.

Now for the bad news.  There were two planks missing from the bottom on the starboard side.  One plank was part of the garboard.  As you can see the frames need some attention.  That is my way of saying that they need to be replaced.  This area is under the engine and the floors are also shot.  Based on my first observations, it was clear tat the Tortuga would need a fair amount of new wood before she would be seaworthy again.

The cockpit was quite spacious and very clean considering that the boat had been on the hard for three years.  The picture above shows the helm station with its bronze wheel, the engine box and the entrance to the main cabin.  It is dark because the cover is on the cabin.

Looking aft in the cockpit you can see the varnished douglas fir cockpit sole and the nice mahogany stern seat.  Aft of the house, the cockpit is fully enclosed by a bimini and zip-out windows.  There are also screens that can be substituted for the windows.  All the trim in the cockpit is nice mahogany.  The cockpit looked very nice for a 1936 boat.  It turned out that the cockpit had been totally rebuilt in 1996.

The main cabin has the hed compartment in the bow.  Moving aft on the port side there is a set of drawers, then a settee than folds up into bunk berths.  Aft of that is the galley sink with dich cabinets.  On the starboard side there is a hanging locker, a small dinette that seats two and a galley counter with a two burner Origo alchohol stove.

Overall the cabin house and cockpit were in very good shape although a few trim pieces were missing and there was an active  wasps nest in the cabin which made spending time in there a bit hazardous.

After we looked the interior over, we opened up the engine box to take a look at the power plant.  What we found was an old 110 h.p. Chrysler Crown M47 flathead 6.

The engine had a mechanical gear with a very cumbersome shift mechanism.  You can see it at the top of the picture with about 25 pounds of lead counter weights attached to it.  Both Jarvis and I tried unsuccessfully to turn the engine over by hand.

So my summary first impression was that the boat defintiely had potential, although major hull work would be required.  I have been looking for a project boat and Tortuga looked like a good prospect if the price was right.

Click HERE to move on to pages documenting moving the boat home after I bought it and the subsequent rebuild.