New member - 1st post to list.

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Hello,

Lee Hazen here. Age 61. I'm a new member of this list.

I've been a big fan of the Johnson Seasport and Surfer (and Dolphin) boats
since l974
when I moved to Hendersonville, TN and bought a house adjacent to Old
Hickory Lake. A neighbor had a l970 Johnson Seasport - dark green, and
let me use it and I immediately fell in love with it and wanted one. Another
neighbor had a light green 69 Seasport in a neighboring cove.

In l979, I finally found a 69 Seasport in a cove up the lake from me in Mt.
Juliet,
Tn and bought it for $1,500.

The story goes on and on with me finding other Seasports for my friends and
we ended up with a sort of "club" and would run together on the lake up to a
little island we called "The sand Island" where the bottom was sandy - a great
spot to visit, wash our boats and consume our favorite beverages.

Our group has moved on and the boats are gone as well, but that love for those
wonderful boats continues. Recently, I drove by a duplex in town and sitting
in front was a l970 Johnson Surfer on the original Johnson (bulldozer)
trailer.
The boat was all original with a few additions of a stereo and depth finder.

I made and offer which was exactly what the owner wanted for the boat, and I
brought it home behind my 1979 Olds Custom Cruiser Wagon with 403 cu in
engine. I keep it just for this kind of towing.

Servicing the boat turned up a perplexing problem. The engine had 4 gallons
of a thick honey consistancy mix of oil and water.. The previous owner had
bought the boat about a year earlier and had been running the boat with this
sludge in the engine.. It's obvious there is water getting into the oil -
but
WHERE? I'm suspecting the input manifold gasket as an Edelbrock intake
manifold is mounted on the 307 V-8 engine. Both petcocks were tightly closed,
but since the seller said he had run it about 3 hours , a week earlier, I'm
not
sure if it was drained last winter or not. The freeze plugs look fine.
Engine
started up fine and idled evenly - for about 10 seconds - as I do not have a
flush
adaptor for water and didn't want to damage the impeller.

Outdrive oil was dirty in the lower unit, so I changed it. The intermediate
and
upper housings were full and clean. I greased the steering fittings as well.

So, my present engine oil/water problem is all that's keeping me from putting
this old classic in the water and going for a cruise.

A month or so ago, I started a "Johnson Sea Foil Owners Group" at Yahoo.com.
No members so far. I'll probably shut it down now that I've found this group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JohnsonSeafoilowners/

I've heard that the l966 Sea Foil design was exceptionally efficient and
Johnson
was stopped from using the design for some legal reasons. Is there a story
about this that I can read?

By the way, I bought my 19' Johnson Surfer for $1,000 including the trailer.

I hope to get involved with your group. I can sure use some help with my
boat.

Lee Hazen (retired recording engineer from Nashville studio scene)
615 824 2330
Received on Sunday, 31 August 2003