Feathercraft project by Louis Rothermel and Joe McCauley
Louis has had his 13′ Feathercraft runabout for quite a while. He plans to run his Speeditwin on it with rear seat steering, fastest set up possible.
I bought my 1956 Vagabond II from Meatball, our esteemed purveyor of fine classic boats and motors. Louis became so enthused about my getting a Feathercraft that he invited me to redo the boat at his shop. I’m nearly done, but Louis must wait until fall when his tax work is finished.
I’ve rigged a 1960 Scott 40 on my boat, and for days I fought the Scott and it looked like the Scott was winning until finally the bagpipes sounded and I broke through.
If you’re restoring one of these beasts, here
are some things to look out for. Replace the wiring from the points to the coil. This is the ground side of the coil in the battery ignition system (the first 6 cyl. Mercurys starting in 1957 had battery ignition). I used an OMC key switch, the hot lead to the coil goes to “A” for accessory on the switch. I did have a
1960 Scott wiring diagram. The three (!) kill switches can be disabled by removing one lead from the battery hot wire terminal, in case they’re suspect. The Carter N carbs are an anomaly: a spring-loaded metering rod moves up and down to regulate the fuel flow through the high speed jet. At first I had no diagram at all, then discovered one that Scott expert Jim Roden had sent me several years ago when I bought the Scott from Bruce Miller’s son (Scott-Atwater Al traded me a fuel pump and some carb parts for prop work). The motor starts easily and idles, but runs hot for my taste. All threeof my Scotts, while pumping water well, run hot. A 1975- OMC with thethermostat removed will have a block that is relatively cool to the touch.
Meatball had a transom cut for the boat. Darrell trimmed and fitted it for me glassing the three separate pieces together. Ray Matlock (Oak Ridge) made a center brace for me for the transom (Ray bought a 1983 Evinrude 35 from me last year to run on his Feathercraft). Louis gave me a beautiful classic Kainer steering wheel.The boat has a ‘fairly’ straight bottom. The short afterplaner was hooked. Darrell and I flipped the boat over at his shop and I hammered the afterplaner straight.
At a transom height of 18 1/2″ the cavitation plate is barely above the boat bottom. I have a 10×14 2 blade bronze prop that I’ve reworked, I’ll need to shim the end near the gearcase due to too much play there. I’m running Evinrude oil at 50:1. I replaced the malfunctioning (even after rebuild) Scott fuel pump by a Stinger pump.
Paul Allison, who ran Scotts in 1958, told me that 6500 RPM is about allyou can squeeze out of them. Above 6000 RPM, if I get there, I’ll run 25:1.
Cornelia is in charge of choosing the seat colors at the upholstery shop. She fell for the green/white ones in Meatball’s 10 1/2′ Feathercraft at Kingsland. My son Finn is the pilot in the shots. This article was written by Joe McCauley.
