JOY DE V-DRIVE

A BOAT RENOVATION PAYS OFF WITH ADVENTURE IN THE HIGH SIERRAS

-  JOHN L. STEIN

The old gear lever for the Hall-Craft V-drive, a 10-inch chromed tube with a steel cue ball welded on top, isn't pretty. After a half-century, it's corroded and worn, and its simple pivot-hidden beneath the boat's distressed plywood floorboards-is equally sloppy. But then, the shifter needn't do much-simply take the V-drive in and out of gear. Need reverse? Grab a paddle.

I found it remarkable how much power this ancient shifter held over me. But why? For three years after acquiring the boat, I'd anticipated the day when I'd start the engine, survey the water, and push that lever. For 56 years I'd wanted a V-drive of my own, after first seeing a Howard Custom Boats ad in a 1960s magazine.

Finally, it was happening. On a remote lake in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, a fresh wind had brewed, sweeping across the launch ramp, latching onto the boat's low silhouette, and pirouetting it away from shore. The blower-a recent addition hummed deep inside the bilge. So, I set the choke, swatted the big gas pedal, switched on the ignition and fuel pump, then turned the key to light off the old Ford 289. Laboriously, the V-8 stumbled and then caught, settling into a noisy, cantankerous idle and spewing water and exhaust through the transom. I had to pinch myself.

HOT RODS OF THE SEA