"Boats in the Barn"

Brian; Awesome collection and awesome wife!

john

8122pbrainard wrote: bkhallpass wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: The biggest disaster happens to be the first fiberglass inboard. The 57 Chris Craft Silver Arrow ??? Hey Pete, seeking some clarification on this one. Arenacraft claims to be the first fiberglass production inboard. I am not certain this claim is true, but I am certain that Arenacraft made fiberglass inboards prior to 57. BKH Brian, I hope your trip home was a good one and without incident. Looking forward to your next Midwest visit. The fact about the Silver Arrow being the first fiberglass inboard was right out of Bob Speltz's "The Real Runabouts". The series of 7 volumes is really considered to be the "bible" of wood boats but he may be wrong! The volume with the Arenacraft in it is at work in my office. Monday I'll have to look it up and see what it says!

Brian, I thought that the Arenacraft would be in Speltz's section of early fiberglass boats but it wasn't. I wasn't able to find much on the boat except he did start building them in 1955. It was a pressure molded fiberglass hull which isn't the fiberglass process we are used to. So it is still fiberglass and you are correct with it being before the Silver Arrow.

I dont see much "Field" around number three there Brian... How did you get that out of there?

Fins, How many of those blue & white boats exist? I bet not many. I can see why you like the Atom.

How about some more pics of those boats?   They look really nice.

Reid, IIRC Century stopped making inboards at the end of 1976. They did not resume until 1980. When they did, my brothers & I bought a 1980 Resorter for $10,800 w/o trailer. We bought a Century over a CC because we thought CC had gone down hill in the 70's much like American cars. My brother still owns that boat and there is no rot. I don't know what the 70's Century were like, (pics show they got cheesy interiors), but that '80 is a well made boat. It's got over 1200 hours and the only repairs ever made to it are a new steering cable, throttle and one exhaust manifold. It is solid and it still looks great.

Pete, those Century's were fast. Some of the old Resorters hit 50. My brother's with a Merc 255 and a 13x12 Acme does 48 GPS. It's never even had the carb rebuilt.

reidp wrote: I'm with you on that Pete. And I certainly wasn't trying to slam the vintage Centurys as I love them. As for the double planked hull that CC used with the plywood under the planks, I thought that was actually a preferred and more expensive method as opposed to planks over battens? A number of Chris Crafts from the late 50's on used this plywood inner hull as well.

Reid, I didn't at all take it as a slam on Century's.

The single and double planked boats serve two different purposes. The single plank is a lighter construction and hence a faster boat. Add that to Century's using the biggest engines they could find and they were always fast! The biggest problem is that it is the only wood hull that does require soaking to expand the wood and make the seams tight. Over several seasons of wet/dry wood movement and you end up with loose screws and or split battens and a leaking hull. The double planked hull with the layer of canvas and bedding compound between made it a watertight hull but heavier. They were never intended to require soaking but they did need the outer planking removed and the canvas replaced every 10 to 12 years. Beware of the double planked hull when the seller states that it just needs to be soaked!

In Correct Crafts case with their after the war planked boats, I have a strong suspicion that they took a cheaper plywood hull and by adding the planking made a premium hull! Double planked boats were bottoms only but Correct Crafts were the whole boat!

Brian,(fins) You are correct that the plywood boats were less quality. They were cheap and meant to be thrown alway when they got bad!

As you can tell from my boat collection, I don't discriminate regarding material, brand, or age as long as if looks cool (in my eyes) and floats (or potentially floats), I am all over it! The "plywoodies" of the time generally seem to be of "lesser" quality in terms of construction, but a great way to get into the wooden boat scene. Although the restoration can be just as invloved as a planked boat, for some reason it seems less daunting to me.

Travis- I have the Tolly at my place at Lake Tapps. It is ready to drop in the Lake with about 5 minutes notice. Give me a shout and we can go for a ride!

Reid, I can safely say that the flotation requirements with the advent of fiberglass and the foaming was rot waiting to happen for all boat manufacturers!

Correct Craft was never noted for it's "fit and finish" on any of their woodworking. After the war, even the planked wood models were the planks on top of plywood. In some cases, I have seen where the plywood skin is holding the frames together (designed that way) and it's supposed to be the other way around!! Whenever I see a poorly fit joint on a CC, I get this picture in my mind of the old world craftsman in the plant making church pews in one room while kids with axes are in another room making the boats. Please don't get me wrong as I'm not coming down on the Meloon's beliefs, it's just the scenario I put together. Also, it was Higgins that was making the PT boats during the war while CC was making plywood boxes to be used as floats for temporary pontoon bridges.

Steve, You really have to appreciate the wood working that Century even put in there fiberglass hulls. Unlike Correct Craft they weren't afraid to show it and didn't try to hide it with pigmenting their resins. I'm sure you ran into a area or two on your Skier that made you think about CC's wood skill levels.

Just gonna get the pics on the current page...

62 wood wrote: While this thread is back up.. I got some updated pics of Daves Century. He ran into a little more rot than expected (surprise, surprise ) Besides the already know spot on the back right ,It also had a little rot on the top mahogany rail, below the drivers windshield post. Both of these areas had also let water into couple of the wooden frame pcs. So,they will need to be replaced also... here are pics taken last week... Still a great find!!!!

Fins, Nice looking boat! That looks like it has the same steering wheel as my 66 Barracuda SS. Dont know if a spare one anywhere?

While this thread is back up.. I got some updated pics of Daves Century. He ran into a little more rot than expected (surprise, surprise ) Besides the already know spot on the back right ,It also had a little rot on the top mahogany rail, below the drivers windshield post. Both of these areas had also let water into couple of the wooden frame pcs. So,they will need to be replaced also... here are pics taken last week...








Still a great find!!!!

Great Boat! It looks like it is in pretty good shape too! I saw someone else here mention A&A Marine. Not only do they have original vinyl patterns for all the Centurys, they also have the original two ladies that made them! They also have the original Century embossing equipment to emboss the logo in the back seat. Of course I found all this out after I had new vinyl done on mine. Oh, they also have the ladder/railing guy too! The fibersport was the name of the '68 fiberglass resorter when you could order either wood and fiberglass. In '69 they went all fiberglass and it took on the Resorter moniker. Another great source for Century information is Miklos and Sons near Pittsburgh. They know everything there is to know about Century boats and their website is really cool and loaded with restoration pictures of Centurys and Chris Crafts. http://www.centuryclassicpowerboat.com/

Greg, No, it is planked with solid. Some Correct Craft's and some of the cheaper Centurys were done with plywood.

Greg, Typically deck planking is 3/8" and the planks are simply butted together. No tenons, tongues and grooves, splines, etc. Every 3rd or 4th seam will be real and in between they are fake. Simply grooves routed into the face.

I don't know your background into wood boats so I don't know if you were serious with the question on the filler in the seams. The answer is yes it is filler. Today they are using the 5200 but previous would be a linseed oil base putty and then painted white.

I was thinking that the 5200 wouldn't allow movement, but I guess it does. We're talking about the front deck planks, right? How thick are these planks? The few I've seen up close appeared to be butt jointed with a chamfer on each side of the joint. Is that about how it's done? A floating tenon comes to mind...

Sorry to bend your 'ear' as I'm not in a position to start on a project just now, but there is a neat one on ebay. Caddy fins and all! LOL