Vintage Speed

peter1234 wrote: how ironic ... the category is vintage speed . please move the rambler stuff to the anchor blog

I agree, but hey that was my first car 1974 Javelin. After I totaled it one night I upgraded to the gold 75 Trans Am. Us girls did like to drink a few back in the day. I don't drink any more, to old.

John, not a problem I was not offended at all. If you would have been there back then, we were all kids making do. Money and knowledge was well, "lets do it this way". That boat may have delaminated at some point, but that glass and gel coat was on there when we used it. I wish I had the stringer repair photos of the old thing, there was no movement in the hull structure at any speed. All the old Higgins engine stringer support was removed and redesigned. My boyfriend was a fine carpenter and the thing was strong.

Don't forget this gem...the Pacer!

I agree on Javelin.

Matador? What's a Matador?

Looks like a Javlin?

Lisa,
It's great that you were able to use the Higgins for your needs back then and glad you were able to step up to the Skier when you were able.

Understand that my intent was not to find fault with the Higgins modification but to simply point out the problem with glassing a wood hull. Fiberglass came out in the boating would about the mid 50's. Chris Craft even tried it in the late 50's with their Silver Arrow which was glass over a wood hull. Problems were showing up even in the early 60's and the reason for Chris to discontinue making it. When I was working at Watercraft Sales (CC dealer) in the late 60's to the early 70's, I remember two glassed wood hulls coming in that had failed. The glass was coming off in large pieces. I was asked to repair one of them and found plenty of rot and glass fracturing at seams. Thankfully we didn't repair it since there was no way I could guarantee the repair.

Keep the pictures coming. We love them!

Re: Vintage speed, Once we got are hands on that first 1972 Correct Craft Skier, the old wooden re-glassed re-designed Higgins was history. Like you must know that was a real hot boat new.

John, I thought you fellas would like these pictures. Glad they are now a part of the CCF, forum's. I have a few more pictures if I can dig them up ill post them as well.

She did say they sold it 39 years ago,way before the Information Age. It was after all just a used wood boat,info was hard to get, lots of boats got glassed no one knew what would happen at the time.

NautiqueNut wrote: The boat was covered in 4 coats of fiberglass mat and then gel coated.

Lisa,
It's always sad to see someone glassing a wood hull. In the ACBS group, we call it "the kiss of death" since it expedites rot promoting an inevitable hull failure . Why was it done? Didn't the original hull float? Was there any attempt to repair the hull?

63 Skier; There was a speedometer, I did a lot of the driving back then I also purchased the Air glide 0-50 at a Kmart store back in 1972 for a Christmas stocking stuffer. If you look closely you can see it on a peace of clear plexiglass and the pickup on the transom similar to the 74 Ski Nautique. The boat was covered in 4 coats of fiberglass mat and then gel coated. Yep there were know GPS readings,but that boat would fly. All the guys did was barefoot.     

   48 mph in that Higgins had to be a "ride"!


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I like the black windshield frame rendering.

Lisa, welcome to CCF! Is the boat still around? What was the engine?

You are so right about that! This Higgins was lowered 9"-10" off the deck , however the design was near the same as the first generation Nautique it is incredible.