with three of four generations who have taken the helm of this Sande Ace.
My parents, Eero and Olla Waali, bought a new Sande Ace in 1959. The boat was about $500
and the Mercury Mark 35A was also about $500. The trailer was thrown in for free
as a "Bremerton Boat Show Special." Dad had considered what I think was a
Seaswirl P-14.
I was happy then and ecstatic later when he chose the Ace. One important reason for buying it was that our neighbor on Hood Canal was Orrin Sande.
Dad took a lot of 35-mm slides and many were shots of the Sande Ace. These three photos are scans of his slides.
The Mark 35A was strong enough to pull three young waterskiers at the community "Pearson Picnic" in 1959. Waterskiing into the glare of a setting sun and, sometimes, into darkness was not unusual at that time.
The Ace made a great backdrop for Ed's cousins and a nephew in 1959. It came with a water ski mirror on the center deck. A coiled ski rope is hanging from it in this photo.
Nephew David straddles the bow of the new Ace. The Plexiglas windshield blocked folks getting in and out from the beach. It developed a crack (see it?) and was
removed in the first year. If you see a windshield, the photo was taken in 1959. Also, we did not get our Coast Guard registration numbers (WN 793A) until 1960.
The dual cockpit model has a sporty look. More important, it puts the weight of the driver in the rear where the bottom is flat. This helps to keep the bow with its shallow vee out of the water and increases the speed of the Ace.
But, the mostly flat bottom slaps the waves when the
wind blows. The Ace might go faster in a small chop but zipping along in perfectly calm water is like sweet music to me.
The color scheme of our boat is white with blue lower panel and stripes.
I remember one parked in a garage near old Swanson's grocery that was white with a pink panel and stripes.
An earlier scheme used varnished mahogany and
paint trim.
In 1985, the Mark 35A was replaced with a freshwater 1960 Merc 400 with 10 additional horsepower.
This looks towards Bald Point and Mt. Washington in the Olympic Mountains
from Alderbrook on Hood Canal. The bucket in the front cockpit shows we have been crabbing at the Tahuya flats.
In 1985 when the Mark 35A had seen the best of its service, we bought a freshwater 1960 Merc 400 in Montana. We used the Ace for a few more years until we bought a Bayliner. When Ned Hamlin and I contacted each other, I got excited about our Ace but I couldn't find the Merc 400 no matter where I looked. Who would steal such an old motor?
So we spent $200 total for three motors: a Mark 58A, another Merc 400 and a Merc 450, all white four-cylinder freshwater motors from 1959 to 1962 which would make a Sande Ace proud. I was staring at these motors and the original Mark 35A in our small garage and thought "Where am I going to put these four motors?" Ah, my friend Ed has a big garage and would let me store them there."
It immediately came to me. That's where the missing Merc is!
I now had five!! My wife thinks
it was a scam and not faulty memory, my usual defense.
I modified an engine stand to hold the best three motors. The 1962 Merc 450 in the middle was clearly in the best shape and started on the sixth pull in a garbage can with water in Fall 2004. Of course, it was also the only one of the five that had a long shaft and the Sande Ace needed a short shaft. So, after swapping some parts and getting the lower unit rebuilt, I had a motor to race Ned.
