MTFCA Forum

In June 1922 a 24 foot mahogany Gidleyford boat was delivered from the Gidley factory in Penetanguishene, Ontario to Detroit. The trip took 3 days on Lake Huron stopping in Tobermory, Kincardine and Sarnia. The pilot must of been weather lucky as Lake Huron can have huge waves along the eastern shore, not good for a boat of this size. The boat was received by private secretary, Ernest Liebold who purchased the boat for Henry.
So, is anyone aware of any photos of Henry and this Model T Boat?

thanks
Amesbuilt

Is the car made a permanent part of the boat, or did you remove the transom, drive the car in, and replace the transom?

It used the Model T marine power plant supplied by Ford of Canada.
Gidley also incorporated the Model T steering column, gas tank, Canadian sloping windscreen and one-man top.

Kevin

If you search Gidleyford in Google books, you will find some articles on Gidleyford and Doryford boats including an extensive article by Murray Fahnestock in "Fordowner and Dealer" magazine.

Fahnestock article
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fo ... frontcover

Another short article
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ca ... frontcover

All results from "Gidleyford" Google Books search:

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=6 ... =811&dpr=1

Interesting that it is 1922, Canadian parts books list the marine engine as 1924 to 27.

If I remember correctly, the Gridley boat actually used a large part of the Model T frame for the engine mounting and support inside the hull.

The St. Lawrence marine conversion used the Model T, Model A, and V-8 Ford as the basis for their conversion, but the Ford parts were installed on the St. Lawrence crankcase, transmission, and support assembly, which were special castings made to carry the Ford engines in a boat. The St. Lawrance castings were more like actual marine engine castings, with a differently constructed transmission housing, a starting motor available for the FRONT of the St. Lawrence assembly, (which adapted a Ford starter for all models.) (YES, even the pre-starter engines could have a starter, because the starting flywheel was mounted on the FRONT of the engine, so you could take a 1910 engine without a starter, convert it for your boat, and put any 1919- on starter on your boat. One of the reasons the St. Lawrence was so popular was many early boats could be converted to electric starting this way.) The later Lawrences moved the starting flywheel back to the rear of the engine, like all other Fords, but the flywheel housing casting was still special for the application.

The St. Lawrence was a large casting for the crankcase and transmission assembly, that were built to mount on wooden beams, the same as any other marine engine. If you had ANY brand of boat, you could take out your old or ailing inboard engine, put the St. Lawrence conversion in, and you had a very good marine installation, including reverse for backing your boat, an actual oil pump driven off the engine, and a water pump to circulate the cooling water for the engine block, along with distributor ignition, since you threw all the magneto parts away. (Or sold them for 25 cents to someone you knew that had a Model T Car.)

Here is a photo of the Canadian Ford Company marine motor. It uses a cut off T chassis as mentioned by Oily Bill

Henry had this special 33' Hacker built with a Liberty 12 cyl engine, both he and Edsel raced large wooden boats, with driver teams in the early 20s. After a serious boat fire in 1924 the racing stopped.

The special craft was found, was restored and was sold for $1.5mil.

Given the racing background, Henry may have had little use for a tiny Model T engined wood boat

Video Link below shows the special craft running on Lake Tahoe.



http://www.antiqueboatamerica.com/Boat/ ... line_38385