From trash to treasure

Youngster restores old fishing boat wins awards

By Craig Nyhus

Lone Star outdoor newS

At age 11, Wesley Stevenson saw a boat that was headed to the trash heap and asked his father, Eddie, if he could have it.

“I just wanted a boat to fish from,” Wesley said.

Once he was done with the boat, the then 12-year-old won both the Grand Champion and Showmanship awards at the Uvalde County 4-H Junior Livestock Show in the Ag Mechanics Division.

“The boat was a 1970 Montgomery Ward Sea King 12-foot,” Eddie said. “A friend from church was going to trash it and Wesley asked if he could have it. I told him he could if he would fix it up.”

Wesley’s first move before getting to work? He went on YouTube.

“There are a couple of YouTube channels on redoing old boats,” Wesley said. “Guys find these old boats and trick them up.”

Some of the first steps were sanding, fixing leaks and painting the boat.

“He started last April,” Eddie said. “Wesley took the benches out and did a lot of sanding. He sealed the rivets and learned how to use the rivet gun, how to frame and wire. He used all aluminum so it won’t rot or rust.”

Painting didn’t go as smoothly as hoped.

“He tried a spray gun but that didn’t work well with maritime paint,” Eddie said. “He had to start over.”

Wesley used a stencil kit for the camo, doing 1-foot sections at a time.

For insulation, Wesley used pour foam insulation, with an added feature.

“He took a water bottle and wrote a note in it, making a time capsule, also with some crankbaits and worms,” Eddie said. “It’s encased in foam.”

But Wesley wasn’t done. He had some tricking up to do.

“I put green LED lights on