Updated: 5/18/2012 (12 years ago)

Originally Posted: 6/6/2010

Total Views: 2,810

The boat has its home with my son Jamie on the Montgomery County side of Lake Tillery, North Carolina. I was always concerned because I could never find any reference to this model Ski Nautique. I was able to get in touch with Mr. Art Cozier, recently retired after 44 years with Correct Craft boats, who was able to give me some insight into the Correct Craft Company during the mid 1960’s. He was kind enough to look through the archives of that era for reference materials for the 1965 Ski Nautique and any relevant materials during this time as they went through a restructuring and rebranding period for their first generation namesake. Art related to me in a phone conversation that he re-conditioned a same era SN with the partition behind the driver compartment as noted in the SN brochures on Correct Craft Fan. In 1965 the partition was removed from the fiberglass mold with a crude block and then once the fiberglass for the hull was laid the 1965 had a fiberglass patch placed under the gunwale, on both sides, where the partition would have been. This boat does indeed have that patch on both sides which Art stated was probably the single most deciding factor for a definitive year of manufacture. During the same conversation Mr Cozier also stated that due to monetary concerns during corporate restructuring, the 1965 SN may have parts from various years in order to use up the shelf inventory of parts to save money. Having restored an earlier Nautique himself he was able to recall certain facts with regards to the fiberglass mold production changes in the 1964 and 1965 years which verified my boat as in fact a 1965 Ski Nautique. He did suggest that with the number of 1964 "flysheets" remaining in the archives that they had probably printed too many and just decided to use them in 1965 to save money. The fiberglass changes he mentioned were easily visible once I knew what to look for in the finished product. The HIN was reassigned in Texas and we could not find another reference number anywhere on the boat. I bought it from a boater in League City Texas who renewed both the inside and outside of the boat and then decided to sell it. He personally delivered the boat for us to Lake Norman near Charlotte in 2009. The owner said that he was the second owner of the boat and that it had spent much of its life in Florida. The windshield does have several ski tournament decals from the late seventies through the mid eighties. At some point the boat was repowered with an Indmar 302 which was a good choice for us. The boat is very sound both mechanically and cosmetically with a few spider cracks which will be gone in the next renovation. It was in good shape when we bought it and is now in very good shape with mostly general maintenance and updating previous work. My children and especially my granddaughters love it. It never fails to draw attention from the gas pumps to the sandbar on Lake Tillery NC.