Was changing the oil on the Chris Craft M tonight and got me wondering if there's any woody guys in the hamb. Let's see um, I know you're out there...
I see you're from Brooklyn;I'm from Tecumseh. Don't have a vintage boat but I've lettered a few of them;including a couple that were built in Quincy.Strangely enough the guy who built them is still alive and in his 90's. I think I've posted pics of these before but I'll stick a couple in this post.
Not a woody but my son has a 56 Feathercraft Vagabond aluminum boat . We were supposed to get started on a restoration this summer but the project is on hold . Thanks for the pics.
Tecumseh, nice. Right down the road. What kind of hot rod do you got? Edit: I see her in the background there. I see waterakis and a surfboard! You guys a skiing family? My brothers and I grew up skiing in tournaments...
Not into water skiing or surfing;too old for that. Grew up on the East coast on the ocean and I was only proficient at losing my brother-in-law's jigs when we went fishing.
My dad won this 1961 Alumacraft in a contest when I was 10 years old. I completely restored it about 6 years ago...
Here's the stern off a gray boat I restored that ended up hanging in the local joint too. Pretty cool, my grandpa used to drink in here when he was young, then my dad did, and I spent most my 20s in the joint. So I was glad it ended up in there...
View attachment 4805393 View attachment 4805393 That's absolutely gorgeous man. What's in that, an Olds? If I ever get rid of the wake boat (pictured, even though it's not very old. Only 20 years), something like that is next. I'd like to find an eliminator with twin outboards, or an old 70s hot boat with twin tower of power mercs.... I used to have a little gw invader, that was a fun boat too, maybe another one of those when the kid grows up.
Back in the Eighties, I was given a 1960 Chris Craft Sportfisher by my father in law, Henry Williams, who lived in Greenport, Long Island, New York. It had sunk at a mooring and Henry had refloated it and hauled it to his back yard where it sat for four years. I hauled it to Port Huron, MI at the start of winter. As a matter of fact, I spent my first night aboard the boat on Snowshoe Mtn. in the Poconos when the coil went out on my Chevy truck. Daylight came and I tried one of the coils off of one of the 283s that had been in the boat. Henry had flushed the engines out and oiled them before storing them in his barn. Luckily, it worked and I went on home. All the wood was good but all the mechanicals, hydraulics and wiring were toast. I found another boat that had burned and bought it for parts for the engines. I took the paint down to the wood and started the process of getting her back to what turned out to be a pretty good looking boat. The first coat of paint was half and half gloss white enamel and thinner. Every one of the thirteen coats after was a thicker mix until finishing with full strength paint. It was beautiful. I rebuilt both engines and transmissions, rewired every circuit rebuilt the hydraulic shifters for the transmissions, added topside steering to the flybridge and replaced the entire fuel system. The custom made 75 gallon each fuel tanks cost me four cases of Budweiser. The man who made them just wanted a ride on the boat. After four years of work, I got it in the water and it performed flawlessly. The last day I used it, I had it on the St. Clair River south of Port Huron, MI. I was on the water, the air was warm, the sky was blue and the leaves were just starting to change colors. I had told a friend who lived on the St. Clair that I was going to be down his way and he invited me to stop by. The day was as good as it gets. I had spent better than $10,000 getting a free boat in the water and got one really great day out of it. Was it worth it? For me, yes!! A couple of weeks later, my friend surprised me with several pictures he had taken of the boat. Here are a few. The first is what it looked like when I got home from New York. The inside of the burned boat that I salvaged the engine parts from. There weren't very many but I lost all my build pictures when towing the boat back to the slip behind my house. I tried passing my camera to my son in the tow boat and one of us dropped it in the river. He still blames me. The next is it's first time out under it's own power in almost 9 years. The next is running upriver passing the 730' ore carrier, V. W. Scully. The Scully was used in the documentary about the sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald. The last is of my son, daughter in law and myself coming in to tie up at my friend's house. It was a good day.
One more picture of my 30' Chris Craft, the 730' V. W. Scully and if you look real close there is a small hydroplane running flat out just off the bow of the Scully.
Never had an old wooden boat but had several flat bottom fiberglass. 1972 Hondo sprint boat with 400 Chev and v drive 1968 Biesemeyer with 427 Chev and v drive, 1996 Biesemeyer with 427 Chev and v drive We grew up skiing and then raced when i became an old man. Also rode shotgun in the Crackerbox Always wanted a Century or Chris Craft.
If your Rayson is available, I'd like to see a couple pics on how your seats are mounted. I need to redo mine right now. Not an upholstery guy but I can figure it out. Thanks DR
I stuck the camera under the seat ... it is just aluminum angle attatched to the stringers and there is annothe smaller wood support glassed in to help support the seat
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