How NOT To Store A Wooden Boat

Phostenix

Phostenix

Power User
So, my wife's family is from the Pittsburgh area and her dad had this 1957 Chris Craft all wood boat (mahogany) that he bought around 1990 fully restored. He used it 2 summers, bought a custom trailer for it in 1992 and then put it into storage in 1993. The storage facility is an old limestone mine in Wampum, PA. They represent this as ideal long term storage for vehicles of all kinds due to the stable temperature & humidity, lack of insects, etc.

Well, dad died last week & we are in Pittsburgh for the funeral and other family matters. We went to look at the boat in preparation to sell it. I would call it a total loss. :( After talking to a couple of guys from the local Antique & Classic Boat Society, it turns out that these types of caves are a horrible place to store wooden boats. It's too damp.

I made a page on my guitar wiring website to post the pictures so I could share them with some people who needed to see them. Consider this a cautionary tale.

https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/57chriscraft

What you will see is lots of mold, stalactites hanging from many places - including the dash, and the trailer pads have pushed through the hull of the boat in every location. Oh, and the speedometer is missing, too.

What a mess.
 
That's a shame, those are beautiful boats. Sounds like false advertising considering damp climates will affect any piece of equipment, me thinks. Do you have any recourse?
 
Wow, What a shame ,Who new. I seen alot of those boats in this area .Not like that though
 
bobby_g said:
Do you have any recourse?
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Doesn't look like it. The storage facility's rental agreement says that we are responsible for inspecting our property every 6 months. I think 19 years is a little more than that. :) The agreement also says that they are not responsible for theft, even though they control all access & you must be escorted by an employee when you are in the facility.

We haven't looked at the insurance policy, but they typically also have clauses about damage that occurs over long periods of time, as well.

We're just trying to find someone willing to get it out of there at this point.
 
^^^ My thoughts exactly. That's too bad, ST, good luck whatever you do. BTW, dig your wiring library.
 
WOW! this is really sad. if they require an escort while in the facility, then there must be some level responsibility on their part because one of the employees had to have been present when the theft occured.
 
FractalAudio said:
A limestone mine???!!!! Those places are way too damp to store anything.
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Sure seems that way! They advertise this as a great place to store cars, RVs, boats, etc. I just got off the phone with a local wood boat restorer and he said that they had no real issues storing boats over the winter in there, but then they started leaving a couple of boats in there longer. They were able to rebuild a couple that were there 2-3 years, but had one there 10 years that ended up looking like this one. It's a complete loss. He says that if it gets wet now, the wood will disintegrate. The engine will need to be rebuilt. Even the seats are shot because they are plywood structure. It's basically a scrap project now.

He also said that plywood goes faster than solid woods, so RV floors get ruined in there, too, if you leave them longer than just the winter. I can't even imagine that a car would survive in there for any length of time without mold and stalactite issues.

The whole thing sounds stupid to me. It's a lesson learned, for sure. That's why I posted it here.

Don't store your vehicles in places like this for long periods of time.
 
I store my cars in my garage and leave a dehumidifier on 24/7. Humidity is your enemy.
 
It looks like this facility changed hands in 2005, so I don't know what was or was not available 19 years ago when the boat went in. Their website shows that they have "climate controlled" storage available that is 65 degrees & 65% humidity. The uncontrolled storage is 54 degrees and the humidity is "significantly higher then (sic) in our climate controlled areas". Car storage is only offered as climate controlled.
 
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