Dad’s Last Ride is a 2021 Reproduction of a1934 Gar Wood Speedster 16. The boat has a built PCM 350 Chevy engine for power. It has Morse controls, MSD electronic ignition, Holley Sniper fuel injection, and Bennett trim tabs to keep it all under control. The boat has a top speed of 65 MPH.
This boat was started after my father was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. We had just received the 2017 Frank Bronson Memorial Award at the Hessel boat show for our other boat “Burn Pile”, a 1964 Century Resorter 16. We were inspired to build another boat, so we started on the Speedster. As the cancer progressed my father wasn’t able to help like he would have liked. He just watched me build the boat and said he hoped this would be his last ride. He passed away in 2019 and never got to see the finished product. It was a very rewarding day when the boat was launched for the first time. My father’s ashes were spread from the boat so it truly became “Dad’s Last Ride”.
Currently we use the boat in inland lakes in southern Michigan and northern Indiana and take it to as many shows as we can squeeze in.