Teague Custom Marine 21 Schiada Coming Home

Originally built in 1987 by Schiada Boats and Teague Custom Marine, this 21-foot V-drive was picked up by Bob Teague in New York and is headed back to his shop in Southern California.

Originally called Nothing Showing in homage to a command Bob Teague and fellow firefighters used if there was a false alarm upon arriving at the scene and because its turbocharged engine was completely concealed under the hood, Teague’s hand-built Schiada Boats 21 River Cruiser is on its way home to California after spending the last 16 years in Canada near Ottawa and the Thousand Islands region.

Teague, who was towing the 21-foot V-drive through Oklahoma when we caught up this morning, originally built the boat in 1987 after purchasing a bare hull from Schiada. He said everything throughout the boat was handmade at Teague Custom Marine and that he purposely made all of the exterior components and hardware out of stainless steel for maintenance purposes.

“That stuff still looks new,” said an excited Teague, who sold the boat to Canadian Emile Guay in 1997 after dropping in a big 540-cubic-inch blower motor at Guay’s request. “The boat has only been used for about 90 hours since we sold it. It’s definitely nice to have it back. It’s been with the same owner this whole time in a climate-controlled garage so it’s in great shape. How lucky is that? It may need some carpet and other updates—I don’t know for certain because I haven’t looked inside it yet. As soon it went through customs, I picked up the boat, shrink-wrapped it and hit the road. I made a big skirt for the back of the F-450 to keep road debris off of it.”

It’s obvious Teague is partial to the Schiada that his kids grew up riding in considering he drove from Southern California to New York and back to pick up the boat. He said his daughter, Cherilyn, was 2 when the boat was built. His son, John, wasn’t even born. Both kids now work with Bob and his wife, Andrea, at Teague Custom Marine.

“We’re going to keep the boat as is,” said Teague, adding that it will probably stay on a hoist at his home away from home in Discovery Bay, Calif. “There’s been an insurgence lately of guys restoring older Schiada models as well as flat-bottoms, V-drives and that type of stuff. So it got me thinking how I wished I never sold Nothing Showing.

“One thing led to another so I called Emile and told him I wanted to buy the boat back,” Teague continued. “He said ‘You know what? Nothing would make me happier.’ He actually turned down higher offers because he wanted me to have it.”

Teague said he looked into different delivery methods, but in the end decided to pick it up himself to guarantee its safe return. Teague plans on stopping over in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., for a few days to tend to some business and attend the Dave’s Custom Boats regatta, which is being held Sept. 27-29 at the Nautical Inn Resort.