American Skier Pics

I hope this works. A new member here guys and although I'm not a CC owner, I have a sweet '86 American Skier Barefoot Skier(no not the CC model American Skier) that I thought you might like to see. I also have a huge appreciation for older cla$$ic boats no matter who makes them. I've put a lot of time, effort, sweat and tears into this and I'm extremely proud of her. After reading numerous posts over the last couple weeks, I thought that some of you old gearheads out there might appreciate this even if it's not a CC. I bought her 13 years ago and since then completely replaced the floors and carpet. Reconditioned the trailor. Put on World Products Torquer II heads, MSD dist. and ignition, Edelbrock Performer Air-Gap intake, and rebuilt the carb. It has an Indmar 350 and everything is stock except the adds that I've already mentioned. Yes, that includes the exhaust manifolds and the valve covers. I just did a little polishing of the manifolds. OK, it was a lot of polishing!!! The engine is a 300SP and according to Indmar, only about 50 units were produced per year for a three or four year run. It was supposedly pushing really close to 300HP from the factory and in the mid to late 80's this might have been the hottest small block produced by a factory as an optional motor. It runs even sweeter than it looks. She'll pull a 'footer at 44MPH and when you give her the coals, everybody else on the lake knows it (God, you just gotta love the sound of a cla$$ic). It now has 1200 hr's on it and I'm either in it or behind it weekly. Enjoy!

Not a CC but definitely a nice boat, Nice job man!! Welcome.

Nate

Boat doc, whats missing?

Wow!!!! Nice job. That is a beautiful boat. Nice job on the polishing.

Welcome and great job. I am with BKH. In the 80's The American Skier brand was my second favorite. I have known 2 guys who've owed them, one still does, and they both loved them. Really liked the manifold job.

john

Very nice boat, Backfoot100. My buddy owned a 1987 American Skier Advance and had over 2,400 hours on the original PCM. I think their looks were ahead of their time. Welcome to CCF.com!

Ken

Nautique2001 the barefoot model has a barefoot plate on the transom from the factory(which was WAY ahead of it's time). I think that there may have been more engine options too and the third speedo which this doesn't have. Other than that, I don't think there was any differences. It's a basic Advance hull. This is the only barefoot model that I've ever seen and I've only seen the same engine in one other American Skier.

No one likes cla$$ic Malibus?

I've been in and behind a good number of 'Bu's both young and old. I like 'em. The posted photo is small and kinda hard to see but it looks similar in lines to a Euro F3. How about some more specifics about a the boat (year, model, etc.) and how you ended up getting that to the UK? There has to be a story behind that. Try posting a pic with photobucket to get a better look at it.

Riley,

We probably have as many of those 80s model Malibus in my area as anywhere (they are made about 90 miles from my house). In my experience the boats are nimble, and a little faster than the CCs of the same era. I think they do tend to be pretty bouncy in rough water, and they don't have a very high freeboard.

It's not that common to find the 80s models in good shape. At the time, the boats were sold as price point boats as Malibu entered the comp boat marketplace. They are notorious for rotting floors and stringers, and also for the "Malibu Lean." I don't find too many people who put a lot of time or money into them, because on the open market here, they only sell for 4-7K. Malibu also chose some wild color schemes, which I don't think have held up over time with collectors as have the more cla$$ic schemes of the CCs.

Bu has come a long way in terms of quality and, of course, their prices have risen accordingly. On the other hand, my neighbor had an 85 which he put over 2800 hours on. Can't ask for much more than that.

Looks like you've found a good boat, really well taken care of. Enjoy it. BKH

Riley wrote: If the CC of that era are better in quality, it's the behind the scenes stuff.

Thats exactly where you can see the difference. For example, Malibu used to inject the foam after the floor was in place. The floors were made entirely of wood, rather than fibergla$$ over foam on the CC's. Here is an '86 Skier thats being restored:

backfoot100 wrote: I've been in and behind a good number of 'Bu's both young and old. I like 'em. The posted photo is small and kinda hard to see but it looks similar in lines to a Euro F3. How about some more specifics about a the boat (year, model, etc.) and how you ended up getting that to the UK? There has to be a story behind that. Try posting a pic with photobucket to get a better look at it.

Eddie; Took another look at this thread. Boy I like the look of your motor. I have a set of Commanders laying in the garage that need to be buffed so I can replace the PCM's on my motor. What did you use on them? I am gonna be pretty embarresed when you look under my cover!

john

Eddie, I also just noticed that you're a Telecom PM. I'm a telecom GC on the wireless side. Are you wireline or wireless and if so for whom and where?

John/ReidP;

I worked for an interconnect in WI for 24 yr's. I installed PBX's as a lead tech for 14, then became the install dept. Supr. for 5 years. Missed getting my hands dirty but liked management so I became a project manager (hence the PM John) for the last 5 years there. Job got eliminated due to downsizing. Relocated to FL (so I could ski year round) and currently working for a place in Tampa rebuilding used PBX's through Siemens. I actually tried getting into the wireless side because I did PM a couple of microwave installs and also got into the in-house wireless scenario's that integrated with PBX's. I thought it would be really cool to PM cell tower installs, but evidently, nobody else did. I worked systems as small as 6 phones to extremely complex 5000+ station location systems that were distributed to several sites across country.

Telecom guys rule!!!!

John, as far as the polishing of the manifolds goes. I just used Flitz with combinations of terry cloth towels, wool buffing wheels (the kind that you put in a drill) and newspaper to get it to the point that it's at now. Also used a dremel tool to get the hard to reach spots. The manifolds were somewhat polished already from the factory but they did turn out very nice. If you have the same type Commander manifolds that are in the pic that TRBenj sent with the Malibu floor rebuild, they should polish up very nicely. Just might take some time. Cost is minimal, but I did use a number of tubes of Flitz. Seeing as you're retired, what else do you have to do? By the way, you don't have to be embara$$ed about anything with that boat. The pic's that I've seen are awesome and it's an honor to be able to able to see something like that, not to mention the guys that will even make it more impressive!!!!