John Baisch bought a Sande Ace Ace in 1988
after spotting a classified ad in the sailboat category. This serene picture shows it a few years later
with his son Greg and classic Mark 58A Mercury motor on Whidbey Island's Useless Bay.
The boat is the spitting image of Ned's original Ace.
John later converted the boat from the double cockpit to center console steering and added a hot Tohatsu motor.
Bob bought the Baisch Ace in 2011. The original double cockpit configuration was not only cool, it was faster since the driver's weight was further back helping to keep the slight V of the bow out of the water. Here's Bob's story of his third restoration of a Sande Ace.
I purchased this Ace from John Baisch. It was a good hull to start with. John did a great job with his modifications to this Ace. All the modifications he made were done with craftsman-like skill without changing the original hull. I wanted to return this hull to close to original with a center deck configuration.
Seat supports were retained and reworked. Heights and curves were changed. Using a drill press and Forstner bits, I inset holes for the bolts to be mounted in. This gave the supports a slightly cleaner look without bolts protruding to catch things on.
Once I removed John's modifications, it was a very straight forward reconstruction. Using a multi-purpose vibrating saw aka “bone saw”, I surgically removed the side seat supports and removed as much of the interior pieces as possible with the intention of converting it back to relatively stock configuration. I cannot say enough what a great job these little “bone saws” do.
You can see the original dark blue splatter of Zolatone that the Sandes used where the front seat meets the sides of the boat.
Original dark blue Zolatone
At one point, I thought I would save the front seat/locker configuration that John had done such a very nice job of building. That thought changed once some time was spent in figuring where the center deck beams would be placed as per the plans. It was very nice having another Sande Ace (hull number 5598)for a guide as well. I removed the seat/locker in short order using the multi-purpose saw and proceeded to put her back close to original.
Tom Regan loaned me his wood deck beam templates he used to build his Ace “Scooter” at his Grapeview Point Boat Works. They were very close to what I needed in terms of initial size. Ned provided me with a picture of his boat from when he was a young lad of 18 or so. He advised me of a little known fact that the later Sande Aces (best guess…the ones built toward the end of the production runs) had slightly flatter decks. They achieved this by not putting as high a crown on the center deck beams. We think the Sandes would be able to use smaller height lumber for the beams. I spent a lot of time trimming the crown of the two center deck beams to make them “fair” and yet flat.
This picture of the side was sent to Ned to determine if this was his original boat from the early 60’s. The serial number on this boat has been confirmed to be 3622 which translates into "2nd boat built in March, 1962." This boat may be the last Sande Ace built. I was told by this time in 1962, the Sandes would only build an Ace on a custom order basis.
I was lucky to find a freshwater original steering hub and wheel. The hub was taken apart, cleaned up, restored and the mounting bezel was sent out be re-chromed. Here is the finished product. The steering wheel will be restored the winter of 2012-2013.
Bottom repainted, stainless steel plug in, fin is off an SK drag boat and is a little overkill but John again did such a nice installation I did not feel it needed to be replaced. I will probably add bottom wedges or shims as I use the boat in the coming years.
Using Sande Ace 5598 as a guide and templates for seats and floor boards made really quick work of that project. Here you see seats installed. Seven coats of varnish on the seats. Sand was added to the varnish for the floor boards to give some grip for your feet. Looks and works great.
I added the tachometer and GPS to dial in the motor for this boat. Once it is where I want it to run in terms of RPMs and speed, they are easily removed leaving no trace behind. Ready for first test run.
Presenting 1962 Sande Ace #3622 with an original, un-restored 1961 Mercury 500 and 2005 EZ-loader. One very nice set up...and she is a runner! The first time out without any setup produced 40.8 MPH on the GPS. I have since been able to raise it from there!
