Old JCB Excavator....and the stories to go with it

I went on a short day trip with an old Sunshine Coast buddy yesterday. When I say old, that means that we have known each other for around 25 years or so. Old... has nothing to do with the fact that this guy is approaching 80 years old, and drives a SUV on bad days, a BMW convertible on nice days, and owns a 300 horsepower boat.

I met him back in the days when I was building marine structures, boathouses, docks, a floating store...and the such. I met this fella, when he approached me about building a set of boat ways on his waterfront property. We seemed to get along from the get-go...and away we went from there.

That would be me...back in the late 80's...early 90's building a boathouse for a 55 ft Fleming motoryacht...the photo was taken by my dad

Building curved docks...back in days gone by

We both live in Vancouver now, but his boat stayed on the coast, in a marina boathouse. ( I'll get to the JCB story in a minute )

My friend paid a local guy to start the engines once a month over the winter. One motor decide not start a while ago. Calls to the marina ( and mechanics situated there ) went like this. "We only work on Mercury motors, nothing else"
And...outside mechanics are not allowed on the docks.
Nice...very neighborly.
An attempt is made by the mechanics at the marina to get it going.... covering the basics of a "no start" situation. to no avail. Not for free mind you...for good sized chunks of cash.

So to get the boat  fixed, it has to be taken out of the water and trucked to a marine repair shop somewhere else. From the look of things ...it's likely an electronic component that fizzled...so not a big ticket repair. The boat will get a bottom cleaning and paint while it's out...so all is not lost.

The JCB ...finally

On the way to the boat, we past an ancient JCB excavator. This particular one used to be owned by my uncle Harold Pearson, of Pearson Land Clearing.
Harold used to be logger in days gone by, and when he thought that the timing was right, he got into the local land clearing biz. His son, Barry started the original gig, by hauling around a 450 John Deere cat on a Diamond T deck truck. Harold got into owning a lowbed ( 427 gas-pot Chevy Cab-over ) and a couple of 450 Deeres. When it became obvious that excavators were the way of the future, Harold set about to look for one. A deal presented itself in the form of a nice used JCB excavator with low hours...buried up to the floorboards in a golf course wetlands... that was under construction. For sale...as is where is.

A deal was made, a rescue operation mounted...and soon enough the prize machine was trucked up to the coast to start it's new life. It served it's purpose for many years, and made Harold a good living, until the time came for the tired old thing to be replaced by a 200 Hitachi.

Here's the photos from yesterday. If I goofed on the details of the JCB story, and you know the facts better ...send me a note..or other stories to go with it.

These are the first photos on the blog that come from my Android phone. The current owners have attached this I-beam to the bucket for quick grading on a yard improvement project

The cab design and low-profile rear deck looks like it would give great visibility. Interesting counter-weight design.

A little patch work here and there.

Fiberglas engine cowling

that's one tired old machine

And here is the boat from the story....it will be for sale after the engine repair and bottom painting. 20,000 dollars. With forward cuddy cabin, sleeps 2, head and bait tank.