Sweet Samantha

1980 Boston Whaler V-22 Revenge Page 1

Here's our "new" boat, as she was early in the fall of 2004, on the day we decided to buy her. In the months ahead, we expect to share many new photographs of the newly rechristened "Sweet Samantha" as she is put back into top shape. Revenge is a model name used on a number of different boats made by Boston Whaler from the early 1970s until the early 1990s. For his Web site, Jim Hebert wrote an comprehensive history of the Revenge boats, and David Junker contributed a fascinating account with photographs to Hebert's site detailing his restoration of a Revenge just like ours.

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Classic Whaler Smirk, in Size 22

Those classic Boston Whaler lines look great, even with faded bottom paint and gelcoat that needs polishing.

Port Side

We'll be replacing the aftermarket bimini top (folded forward here) with a Mills canvas set, and we are contemplating designs for a radar arch that will look good, be functional and not interfere with the planned canvas.

Port Side, Aft

We'll probably remove the kicker motor bracket and go with a 20-inch kicker mounted directly to the transom, just for emergency "get us back to the dock" situations.

Custom Bow Pulpit

The boat has an anchor pulpit that was added by a previous owner. It looks very functinal, if not "factory." We'll probably keep it if we can make the wood look good. We're not sure if it's teak or something else.

OMC 2-Stroke Power

The motor is a 1998 Evinrude Ocean Pro 175. It started easily (even with weak batteries) and ran fine during our short sea trial. We love the 2004 Evinrude E-Tec 50 that we put on our 1982 15 Sport early in 2004, but it will be some time before we can afford to repower this 22 Revenge with a 200 or 225 E-Tec. This two-stroke 175 needs to last us for a while, in other words. Mike will get those teak gunwales and the swim platform looking good in short order. That's our friend Jim, who told us about the classified ad listing this boat for sale, checking out the forward deck.

A Huge Cockpit

After we get the boat cleaned up, one of the early projects will be new seating -- two new pedestal seats and, something this boat probably never had, a stern seat. The transom is so low and so open that it is quite disconcerting to look back while under way. A stern seat will help that, as well as provide us with the additional seating we desire. We want to take our friends on cruises without leaving anybody at the dock to "take turns," as we have done with our 15 Sport. We don't fish, so some of the vertical rod rolders may have to go. The horizonal wooden ones are a classic Whaler design, so they'll stay.

The View Forward

Besides new seats, another early project in the long restoration will be refinishing all the wood trim. There'll be new instrumentation panels, gauges and electronics coming, in time. That's an old Loran on top of the dash. We have no idea if it works, but the plan is to install a Garmin 3006 GPS unit in its place. (That model will work with Garmin's forthcoming RADAR, due on the market in 2005.)

Inside the Cuddy

The rope locker door is missing and must be replaced. The headliner smells "damp" and is ripped, worn and stained. It'll have to be replaced, and all the cushions either replaced or at least recovered. We are pleased with the amount of room in the cuddy. It's bigger than we thought.

Ready for a Ride

Cheryl and our daughter, Samantha, are ready to take the "new" boat on a test drive. Since our 15 Sport is named "Sweet Cheryl," the 22 Revenge will have to be called -- what else? -- "Sweet Samantha."

Meet the Crew

We're under way, and this is about the moment we decided to buy the boat. Well, actually, Mike figured on buying this boat before he even saw it -- but the smile on Cheryl's face is what made the purchase a reality. And one of Samantha's first words is "boat."

Meet the Captain

Mike is at the helm, already thinking about all the work and fun ahead in this new restoration project.

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Contents (c) 2004 Mike Brantley This page was created on Sunday, October 24, 2004.