Growing up i was allllways around boats. he grew up with them and he had worked in a boat yard in marina del rey most of his life. always had cars and friends with cars, etc. by the time i was born my dad ditched the mustang cobra fastbacks and nomads for drag boat racing... and he did so with his buddy Jeff.
I remember doing everything with this boat. Learning to ski, getting pulled on a tube, but the best was sitting on dads lap and steering.
We mostly went to martinez/yuma with friends and family. My aunt and uncle had a house in the parker keys that we went to on occasion. But I still remember my dad racing
My dads boat was 147 and his buddy Jeff Blosdale had an almost matching 141 (sold recently on pboats i think and it was BEYOND clean. such a pretty boat... if anyone knows what happened to the 147 it'd be cool to hear!)
heres a neighbor buddy Al with the 141
my dads shortbed chevy with the 147 boat.
Heres him making a pass:
anyways he sold the flatbottom and I remember driving out to somewhere in the middle of the desert where there was an old train caboose somewhere next to a gas station.
once boatless he got hit up to run throttles for an offshore race team "thundercat" and did a few races in mead, san francisco, etc.
the owner then sold the boat and such and that was done.
shortly after he got a heads up that someone was selling an old catalina ski race boat... and thats when we picked up the 79 tarva. it was a piece of work to say the least but it had mostly everything. my dad said it had a 468 or something with a littlefield blower on it, logs and snails. something happened with that motor and he had replaced it with a 540 with a mooneyham and imco center rise, art carr t400, etc... it really was a pretty boat and we had a lot of great times in it. ive made plenty of trips to jeff's shop in torrance on del amo, walking around numerous engines being built, and at the time not understanding what much of it was.
new interior (i think martinez did it...)
he painted it himself
(photos courtesy of daygo, who later purchased the boat)
and the motor, it really was beautiful
we had some great trips in that boat along with his buddy jeff. shown here in his hocking
and our neighbor that had a jet boat
when he remarried my step mom wasnt a fan of going fast and not being able to get polished parts wet. so the tarva was sold. but being boatless didnt last long.
he picked up a tollycraft which they lived on for a short while due to my grandmas health with alzhiemers, selling their house, my grandmas house, and building a retirement home for themselves in north carolina.
which brings us to today.... they're retired in north carolina and his "last boat" (haha yeah right...) a little center console robalo.
I'm only on my 2nd boat... I got a lot of catching up to do...
