The Sartorial Parlor and other neighborhood scenes

[Sal Paradise]

I rode the bike up to Kingston New York yesterday, the crew was pouring a concrete sidewalk, good excuse for me to get out of my office, anyway across the street from the job was the smallest building ever-

This building is literally 6 feet wide

Inside just room for chairs and an aisle. I am gettig my next haircut here.
on my lunch break I took a quick spin by the docks

Just down the street from that awesome sailboat , behind this really cool building

I found the owner of "Fleet Obsolete" , a lawyer who has a company which fixes up old PT boats and old tug boats. Thats a WW2 PT boat which saw action in the Pacific, restored and used for tours.

They have a half dozen hulks of PT Boats waiting to be restored.

 

[strokerlmt]

Thx Sal....I'm a sailor at heart, will always be one. The PT boat info is fascinating. I love that bring it back to life shit.
LMT

 

[mark66]

+1 what LMT said. Had a couple of sailboats over the years. The last one a 37' Alden sloop. Great boat built in 1965, had a ton of teak to varnish every year.
Those PT boats are really something. Remember taking a ride in one when I was a kid. I think it was in Ocean City NJ. I'll never forget that. Thanks for posting the pics. BTW the Bonnie looks nice in those pics. Mark

 

[geolpilot]

I grew up in Ocean City, N.J. An Italian dude named Chris Montagna had Chris's Restaurant, tourist fishing boats and THE FLYING SAUCER. The flying Saucer was a converted PT boat with three 1800 HP Packard aircraft engines that burned aviation fuel at the rate of 400 gallons per hour. It could go over 60 mph offshore. Here is a picture of it. It had row after row of seats for the tourists and a cockpit in the bow for the captain.

 

[Kirkus51]

There were a couple of old PTs in San Pedro harbor. I didn't realize they were so big when I 1st saw them. I lived on an old 25ft Owens for about a year. It wasn't so great in some cases like when it was cold and rainy or hot.

 

[mark66]

I grew up in Ocean City, N.J. An Italian dude named Chris Montagna had Chris's Restaurant, tourist fishing boats and THE FLYING SAUCER. The flying Saucer was a converted PT boat with three 1800 HP Packard aircraft engines that burned aviation fuel at the rate of 400 gallons per hour. It could go over 60 mph offshore. Here is a picture of it. It had row after row of seats for the tourists and a cockpit in the bow for the captain.

Hey that must have been it. Where the hell did you find those pictures?

 

[geolpilot]

I found the pictures on an internet search several years ago. He also had a smaller boat, the Flying Pony, I think.

http://www.bdssystems.com/flyingsaucer.html

http://www.bdssystems.com/rbb02.html

 

[rodburner]

McHale's Navy was one of my favorite shows,growing up. The PT73 was probably more widely recognized than Kennedy's boat....

 

[BornAgain]

Wow 3 restorations I didn't think there were that many left. I saw one at the San Jacinto monument in Houston that was being restored. Its currently at the MacArthur museum in Fredricksburg, TX.

 

[Sal Paradise]

Thanks guys . I read that the the PT boat on the dock is actually from McHale's Navy.

In addition to her starring role in "McHale's Navy," PT 728 has also appeared in the motion picture "Sleeping With The Enemy" where she was dressed up as a Coast Guard vessel and in a History Channel special called "Great Ships - PT Boats."

Although PT 728 now claims fame as a Hollywood celebrity, this is not what she was originally designed to do. Officially launched on September 25, 1945 at the Annapolis Yacht Yard, PT 728 was initially set to join the Soviet Navy. However, with WW II coming to a close at that point, she was instead decommissioned from the Navy and sold to a private owner on August 18, 1947.

Of 812 PT boats that were built in the United States, PT 728 is one of less than 15 still known to exist. On top of that, she is also the only surviving US-built Vosper designed hull and the only US Coast Guard inspected PT boat licensed to take passengers for hire.

Fleet Obsolete, a not-for-profit educational organization based at the Cornell Steamboat Company Building in Kingston, New York, runs PT 728 and considers her a valuable historical treasure in their mission to restore the country's largest flotilla of operational PT boats.

 

[geolpilot]

Do you know if they have been converted to Diesel. Carrying passengers over huge gasoline engines is more than a bit on the dangerous side, not to mention expensive. The Flying Saucer blew up in 1970 with over 100 passengers on board.

 

[Sal Paradise]

Yes, they have been converted to twin diesels. I used to "race" against this boat with my ChrisCraft and it moves along pretty good,35 knots or so.