21 hours ago
Sunday, June 24, 2007
SW WIND 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 8 SECONDS...DROPPING TO W SWELL 5 FT AT 7 SECONDS.
I've posted a pic of this derelict just under the bridge of the Coast Highway at the Little Nestucca River. She's a concrete-hulled boat and floated there for many years before settling onto the bank about a decade ago I'd estimate...whether from a leak or simply filling with rainwater in a wet winter, I don't know.
The last time I posted her pic I asked if anyone knew the history of this boat...no response. I don't know when concrete hulls began to be produced and whether this boat was used to transport materials along the river, was associated with the old cannery on the bay or if there was another duty.
Anyhow, I'll ask again...anyone know the history on the Simon?
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18 comments:
Ask Matt Love, he's a custodian of the estuary, he might know......
Hey Gaz
If you see him...can you ask him?
Or direct him to this blog?
What...... now I'm interning for this blog?? Sheesh!
It's not like you spend any time updating your blogs...
We first saw ferro-cement boats start appearing in Half Moon Bay around 1971. The material was originally developed during WW2 as a cheap way to build disposable landing craft and such. They were the rage with a lot of ocean hippies in HMB during the 70's, who were all going to sail off to a better world..only one managed to do so. To this day, a handful still sit abandoned within the harbor. A few have become low rent domiciles for what we used to call hippies - and are now called dirt bags.. :)
Alrighty Doc, I spoke to Matt today and he gave me the story as far as he knows it....... the hull was constructed by an eccentric individual name presently forgotten by locals......but let's call him Simon just because.
They launched the hull with plans to finish her on the water I suppose, however she must have been a bit heavy on the port side and she never was moved from the present location due obvious reasons.
The eccentric did move however, that is a bit sad.....
Brdsurf here
hey doc, some good stuff here.
I remember seeing this as a child. It was an interesting thing to look as at we got ready for the windy road going towards neskowin before the project that straightened out everything.
Best as I can recall the eccentric guy had to kind of go away. The boat was never finished and it had been listing to one side or the other about the late 80's. It used to be you could see the pilings there to which it was tied to, but those eventually rotted. After seeing this thing just sitting there for sooooo long a few of us thought it would be fun to take one of the fire trucks there with some rescue airbags, pump the water out, tie the air bags to help with floatation since none of us really knew the stability of the boat, hook up just a couple outboards and see if we could get it ocean bound. Our idea was that we could drive it up to the cape and sink the thing inbetween the points so as to create a new reef that would be hopefully as consistent as the wave was in the mid to late 80s. Youthfull dreaming!
Most of the water damage inside came after the flood of 96 when the boat was still kind of tied down, at which point the water level came over the side that was listed and started filling it in.
Suprised that it is still there....
Not sure if anyone is still viewing this site, or is even interested, but that boat belongs to my dad. He built and launched Simon. Years ago tresspassers boarded her and threw major parts and tools overboard. Many attempts were made to bring her around.
Hey Anon
Would love to hear more about how the boat was constructed if you see this message
Do you have and email or wep page we can talk on
Simon was constructed from 330 bags of concrete and steel frame work, a naval boat/ vessel commandeered by bandits, which are anonymous/ i know but will not say, who terrorized many other vessels on thee Oregon coast, the ship was run aground shortly after launching on high tide, after the hull was filled with water is when it rolled over on its side and never re floated i found out later that the name Simon was after Simon in the Bible to be fishers of men.
Friends in Florida built a cement sailboat, and I kept waiting for the news that it sank. Never did get that news though. It now floats in Georgia.
Oh wow! I've been looking at that all my life. I've always wondered. Sorry people had to do trespass and mess with things.
I know the story is was my father in laws
I am a scuba diver. I think i will scuba dive there to find out if any of the thrown off tools are still underwater in the area. If i find anything interesting i would love to return it to the original owners.
The builder was Frank Michael, my dad Wayne Harding my brother Dennis and I, Al helped build them. There were others involved. He told us that there were concrete boats in the Netherlands for over 300 years, still afloat. Frank built the wooden frame which we covered with a layer of chicken wire, which was then covered with 1/2” square mesh wire, then horizontal and vertical 1/4” cold rolled rods, 2” apart one way and 4” apart the other. then another layer of 1/2” square mesh wire then chicken wire over that. Then we boys used tie wire to tie it together. The total desired thickness was 7/8” thick. With the cement. Frank was very ingenious with making tools for the work. He took a yankee screwdriver and changed the gears in it so when you pull on it it would spin. He changed the screwdriver bit to a hook and probably invented the first wire tire ever. The concrete is “ferro-cement”. This product was sprayed on the wire and troweled into it. They used to make diving boards out of this material. There was a boat show in Portland that had a plank about 2’ wide, suspended about a foot. Enough people stepped on it to bottom it out.
The material is lighter than wood or steel and nearly indestructible. If you were to run into something hard enough to damage it, you could go below and plaster it as the waters would seep in. It will not tear or break.
They were built to fish Alaskan waters with a length limit.
The first one was purchased and taken out the mouth of the river. I heard that Terry Learned was contacted by an insurance company in Florida asking if its history. So it went through the Panama Canal.
I started my construction business in 1975 and he hired me to build the galley. It was a real challenge as it was afloat in the river as well as there was nothing straight in it. I fastened a straight edge on the bulkhead and built from that.
The first one had a Fore cabin on it. This second one was built for a midship cabin.
The second boat is the one in the river. It has a stainless steel prop shaft in it. I think that was as far as it got. It was in the river when they built the new bridge and had to be floated downstream beyond that bridge. Dave Horsefall from Newport bought it. I never met the man.
Frank was a retired Air Force sergeant as I recall.
His first dory was the JanTracy. Then he built 2 more. I worked as a puller for him on the dory he built named the Janet his other dory was the Tracy L. He had hand crank girdies and we pulled 55 lbs on our deep lines. He built these boats prior to the cement boats.
He was a challenge to work for but he had a heart for the Lord.
He came to know the Lord after he moved here and got acquainted with my dad who pastored the Cloverdale Baptist Church for 17 years from 1962-1979.
Yes, I very well know the story 🛥!! My dad built 2 ferro-cement boats and also a boat shop.
In 1974-1982, my late father, Frank Michael, was a Ferro-Cement boat-builder. He wasn't a nautical engineer but had a dream!! He corrected errors he'd found in the blueprints of the chosen plans he'd purchased, sent the corrections to the company, got them approved and built two fishing boats--a 48 ft. and a 50 ft. (My brother, Bob, worked on a 3rd, a 54’ sailboat, a couple of years later, in Newport, OR. In 1982-‘83, dad bought a ferro-cement hull. He was in Eureka, CA, outfitting it himself. He invented his own water purification system and AC system. He had plans to sail it around the world, even visiting my husband and I in Veracruz, Ver., MEX, where we were missionaries. GOD had a new path for dad……as he developed heart issues, necessitating a heart transplant. He continued to faithfully serve The LORD, blessing many others).
During my high school years at Nestucca, dad built the ferro-cement boats. (1974, approx.). My mother injured her back, and, as she recovered, I learned to cook. I made the crew huge pots of clam chowder before I took the bus to Nestucca (Union) High School. I learned to cook venison and steelhead steaks or fried clams strips for supper. (We lived off the land in OR). The tales that little kitchen could have told--ha!! Mom was patient and Dad learned not to laugh!!
Back to dad’s 1st ferro-cement boat, christened the “Lyla G”. Everyone in our family helped. My sister, Tracy, and I fed-through thick pieces of metal wire (…think pins for hot rollers, except 3X as long, and made of sturdy metal). Dad had them bent, cut and ready. We fed them through the intersections of each junction of rebar, chicken wire and square woven-wire mesh. Dad had outfitted a drill to grab the ends, twist them and snap off the excess, securing each juncture. That is the inner strength of the "ferro" (iron) part. We were on scaffolding outside the boat, with Dad, inside. We were required to help, 30 minutes a day, after school. It’s one of my most-treasured memories with my dad. I’m so proud of him.
All of this was after intensive labor by dad and his crew, to build the wooden framework for the boathouse and the boat. After, the tedious work of securing each junction in the metals, came the precise sifting and mixing of the different sands and Portland cement. Tracy and I were also two of dad’s sand sifters.
100 people came to work the day of plastering the boat. Dad had a foreman and his team to direct the work.
Mom had wonderful friends come together with plenty of food to feed all of the workers as the boat was plastered with the cement mix. Plaster day was a very long, hard, old-time "barn-raising" type day. It was also a fun and fulfilling day.
Many dear friends and our family came together for the building, plastering, launching and trip to the ocean, to help make Dad's dream come true.
The first boat, the Lyla G, is still being fished. The 2nd, the one in the Little Nestucca River, was built, sold to a Mr. Horsfeld, who soon after passed away. Their family wasn't able to outfit it for fishing, and the boat was left near the river’s edge since 1977-‘78. A winter storm caused a tidal surge, filling the boat with water, making it lean over against (or near) the edge of the river.
I’m the daughter of Frank L. Michael the boat-builder.
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