Paul’s Yellow Jacket

In July of 2008 my wife and I noticed a beautiful looking boat while visiting a friend’s house. They had found it hidden under layers of junk at the back of a consignment store in Chico, California. They had purchased it with the intent of bringing it home, filling her with dirt and planting flowers it it! It didn’t take long for us to realize that an attempt must be made to save her beautiful lines from becoming a planter box. We offered to take it off their hands and took it home to our house in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The original Yellow Jacket emblem was still attached to one of the seat backs, and my internet search brought me to this wonderful website. The restoration began in late July, with me only working on the project every couple weeks due to my work schedule as a pilot in the Gulf of Mexico. The Yellow Jacket was in reasonable shape for her age, despite her water stained appearance and small hole in the port side. After a lot of scraping, and treating the stains with Oxalic acid she received two coats of Smith’s CPES, three coats of primer and then three coats of bottom paint. I had to replace the mahogany plywood on the deck as it was to weathered and oil stained to salvage.

She had come with a 1956 Mercury Mark 55e which will have to be restored. Thanks to Bob M. of Dorrington who provided me with a nice 1951 25 hp Johnson Seahorse to get her going in the meantime, to my young son Paxton for all the help sanding, and to my wife Mechelle for allowing me to spend so much time with the restoration.

Paul A. mailto:foothillsfamily@yahoo.com

The top two photos are before restoration.