Truscott Truscottier Truscottier

The moment comes when the number of ancient and important woodies awaiting preservation in my storage barn significantly exceeds any realistic expectation that they will someday be in the shop. Time to shed some of these incredible artifacts of U.S. marine history.

Up for this NO RESERVE auction is Dottie Kay. Since I very much hope her next steward(s) will engage her preservation actively, I have set a largely symbolic opening bid, and will allow the market to define her value from there.

Shes complete in terms of original hardware, step pads, gauges, tank, etc., but I have yet to find a Chrysler M7, which is the correct engine for this cousin of the iconic Gar Wood 18.5 runabout.

Rather than accept installing more modern, read wrong power, I am letting her go as she is, without any engine at all.

She is a project boat for sure, but so much more than a pattern boat. Yes, her framing around her tank and that securing the transom must be replaced, but there is more than enough framing left that can serve as excellent patterning material.

Her hull and bottom are sound from the bow to just forward of the leading edge of her aft deck. She must have been stored where that end of the boat suffered chronic wetting. Her transom and bottom framing in that area must be replaced, as must her top transom board, three aft deck planks and the aft tail of her starboard covering board. (The later could be cut beneath the aft foot pad and replaced from that point aft.)

The aft ends of the covering boards, and some of the aft deck planking can be saved only with heroic effort, and must likely be replaced. (We would have saved 90% of it via some creative Dutchman repair work.)

She is on a super strong wishbone trailer that was manufactured in New Hampshire that is included in the auction. There are no lights, so bring temporary, magnetic running lights. The wheel bearings have not been disassembled, cleaned and packed with grease, but doing so is possible for a minimal extra service fee.

Who is she?

Dottie Kay, hull number M1151884, was originally delivered to Tennessee, where she remained with the same family until 2013, when I bought and brought her too Vermont. She was sold to me as a 1947 Gar Wood 18.5-foot utility, but I had my doubts from the beginning.

While she shares the Gar Woods muscular hull shape, the two hulls differ noticeably. Her seating and steering position, decking, hardware, seating layout are different as well.

Now some years later, I am quite certain she is a post April 1947, 18.5-foot Truscott Truscottier.

I reached out to Eric Bohman, who is an avid wood boat scholar, who executes marvelous small wood boat preservations in Connecticut. Eric, who owns a certified 1947 Gar Wood Eighteen Six, who went to work. Here are his research results as well as those gleaned from the day we spent together with the two boats standing side-by-side:

I own a 1947 Gar Wood Eighteen Six that was completed during January, 1947 and has been documented by the Gar Wood Society. Michael Claudon and I have had the opportunity to put both boats, Dottie Kay and my Gar Wood next to each other, and the comparison is interesting.

There are obvious similarities between the two boats, including size, bow shape, and split cutwater. However, there are also striking differences in hull shape (The Gar Wood has more flare in the forward section of the hull), planking, hardware, and interior. The Gar Wood has the steering wheel on the starboard side, Dottie Kay on the port. The seats are entirely different; Dottie Kay has a center step through front seat with compartment seatbacks, and the Gar Wood has a bench seat with a walk through on the port side. The deck planking between the two boats is entirely different, too. Finally, Dottie Kay utilizes a spray rail mounted low along the water line, which does not appear on the Gar Wood Eighteen Six. Instrumentation and controls differ between the two boats, too.

According to Anthony Mollicas book on Gar Wood boats, two companies starting producing copies of the Gar Wood Eighteen Six for one to two years after Gar Wood went out of business in April of 1947. The two companies were Truscott and Cygnet. Sadly, both companies went out of business themselves by about 1948, or possibly as late as 1949. . .that I am not sure of.

Another piece of the puzzle when it comes to identifying Dottie Kay may be found in a fiberglass boat that went into production during the same tumultuous period. Gar Form of Tulsa, Oklahoma produced a boat that appears to be based on a wooden Gar Wood Eighteen Six. The fact that Gar Woods Son, Gar Wood Jr. was connected with Gar Form would lend to the conclusion that the hull shape of the fiberglass Gar Wood was copied from the wooden Gar Wood.

Its difficult to see any advantage to changing the construction, hull shape, hardware, steering position, and seating layout between January, 1947 and April, 1947 when Gar Wood went out of business.

The conclusion that I come to is that Dottie Kay is most likely a Truscott, produced sometime after April, 1947. The other possibility is that Dottie Kay is a Cygnet, produced during the same period.