As he flew by the little boat on the highway, he didn't give it a second thought. But as the distance between them grew, John Gambill's interest level began to grow too. He turned around and went back to the boatyard for a closer look. As he walked around the small Elgin runabout, his first thoughts were to just leave it behind. The Elgin was filled halfway with water and in rough condition, so it was hard to see any value or potential in it.

Since John was on his way to run errands, he left the Elgin, but after each stop along the way, his thoughts returned to the small runabout. On the way back home, he decided to give the old boat one last look over. Even though the boat was in tough shape, it was the fact the boat still rested on its original Elgin trailer and had the 40-hp Elgin engine that had come with it from Sears that caught his attention. There was even the original Elgin gas tank under the rear deck. The package was too complete to pass up. After a short talk with the manager of the boatyard, John wrote a check and the boat was his.

Sears Roebuck originally sold John's Elgin to a market that was already accustomed to buying from the national retail giant. Along with Montgomery Ward and its Sea King line of boats and motors, Sears Roebuck was selling valuable boats and gaining name-brand recognition. 

Before discovering the Elgin, John had owned a series of big, heavy runabouts, the last one a Four Winns 215 that he used for 14 seasons on Lake Michigan where he lives. "I've been to every port on the Lake," he says fondly, as if revisiting each place as he speaks about it. "I sold the Four Winns four or five years ago, and not long after that, I ran across the Elgin."

The little boat had completely pulled him in. Without any real restoration skills or any of the specialized tools necessary for a detailed restoration, John dug in to resurrect the small survivor.

"It had a solid transom," John says. "The floor is actually the bottom of the boat, and for the most part, that was OK too. It did need some major repair work along the keel. I learned how to work with the fiberglass and got the bottom up to full strength, and then went to work on the cosmetics."

 John couldn't really tell what the original color was, so he decided on International Orange from Awlgrip for the deck. "I painted the white deck striping by hand, which really sets off the orange," says John. "The original upholstery was still there but had rotted beyond doing anything with it. I had it reupholstered in the exact pattern as the original, adding the embroidered Elgin logo to the rear seat."

As with everything else available from Sears Roebuck, an easy financing plan was also an option on the 1960 Elgin.  John's package came complete with the boat, motor and trailer for an advertised price of $1,499. With a down payment of $150, Sears would put it on the company's "Easy Payment Plan."

The 40-hp Elgin motor was manufactured by McCulloch Corp. at its Marine Division in St. Paul, Minn. Looking vaguely similar to the styling Raymond Loewy Associates had done for the Scott brand, it was different enough to create its own identity. While the boats were sold from either the Sears catalog or at its retail locations, any Scott-McCulloch dealer nationwide could have serviced the motor. 

The engine was in remarkable condition. "It didn't need much," says John. "It didn't even need paint, just a thorough cleaning and polish." By spring 2003, the restoration on the Elgin was complete, and John started to take it to shows. "It has received several first-place awards since then and has continued to be a real show-stopper," John says. "Like any 14-foot runabout, it screams on a flat lake or rough water, and everybody loves to see it go."