Opinions, Thoughts and Ideas

To start with, I apologize for the long post, but I'm at a fork in the road and I'm looking for opinions and ideas.

Brief history of life with boat:

My wife and I have a ’71 (we believe, not 100% sure) Correct Craft Mustang. It was her late husband’s boat. This was my first and only boat and I have worked with. Over the years, I have been doing all the maintenance and service myself. Between Google and Youtube, I’ve found how-to fix about anything. It has been a lot of fun to tinker with and boat around. We get compliments every time we head out. The hull is in good shape (could use an upgrade with paint), the reverse turn 302 and velvet drive are running strong. From what I know, with the exception of an RPM gauge and new carpet on floor and doghouse, everything else is original. I have never used aftermarket parts.  I’ve had the starter and alternator rebuilt be a local, now retired, rebuilder. He enjoyed my requests because everything is reverse and required his attention to the details. We have always overwintered it in garage and covered it with a tarp in the driveway during the season.

Current situation:

End of the season last year, I wasn’t home at the end of the season to look after the boat in the driveway. It was covered as usual in the driveway before I headed out. When I returned, somehow the rain got into the boat (no rips or tears in the cover) and the plug was still in the boat. Needless to say, there was a couple feet of water in the bottom of the boat (1/2 inch above the floor). After draining the boat and checking the motor and drive to make sure that was ok, I start looking at the interior. This is where my dilemma starts. Being as frugal as possible over the years (wife’s late husband and me), all the compressed plywood (flooring appears to be ok, just all seats) really enjoyed the soak. It has splintered into the individual slivers.

We have had a lot of fun with this boat over the years, but our situation has changed a bit over the years. We are getting older and the children have grown. The skiing days for us are over for the near future, but tubing is still something we do. We use it more like a party boat but with the doghouse in the boat, space it limited to only 1 couple. We also have a grandbaby (9 month old) we want to introduce to the boating life.

So today I sit here trying to come the best solution and here is where I’m asking for your opinions.

Option 1:

Pay someone to do it all. We went to a local shop to get a quote for the costs to have them do it for us and they said 6-8k and they couldn’t start until September.

Option 2:

I have the ability to rebuild the structure of the seats myself. It would be move plywood because that’s what I do, cheapest way possible to accomplish task. But the skin has to go. Frames have been rebuilt over the years and original skins have nowhere else to staple and hold. We found C&S Marine (Quote/Contact/Order | C & S Marine (candsmarine.com) that can redo the skins after the rebuild. At this point, no clue what total cost would be and thinking still quite a bit of money.

Option 3:

Throw in the towel and get a boat that matches our current lifestyle.

I’m leaning towards option 3, but this leads to the next dilemma. Since this is such a niche boat and being a cheapskate, I’m not sure what to do with the Mustang. Moneywise, I’m guessing I could get more if I part it out. Having owned and maintained this boat, I know there are several folks that need one or two pieces here and there and is very difficult to find original parts. Knowing there are folks that have nostalgic love of these boats and have the money, time or space to take on a project boat and bring it back to glory. I know this is a niche within a niche.

So, I’m just throwing out the questions to you all to see what your thoughts are if you were in this situation. Option 1, 2 or 3 and if option 3, should I part it out or as a project boat?

Again, sorry for the long post, but I feel I’m at a fork in the road of two major Interstates.