Agreed !

Dave,

Major congrats for finding and acquiring a rare boat that should be a lot of fun. These are time machines, when you twist the key it tells you immediately "it's 1966" because those are straight pipes with no mufflers, unless of course, the previous owner either specified them to be installed by Chris Craft, or had them installed. From my discussions with Larry, I think you have the original straight pipes which makes this boat sound very husky.

The other day I chased a friend in a huge Sea Ray, who was curling the largest wake I've seen in quite some time. I ran right up onto the crest, held there like a surfer, and then gently powered over and the hull performed beautifully. Dry even without the windshield.

Seeing your photos without the windshield make me laugh. Here I am, with people all over the place now razzing me about the fact that I have no windshield, and now yours is off too, ha ha. The fiberglass classics are going into full swing. We are right there now. Wood boats are cool, expensive, and a lot of them are trailer queens or boat show queens, fewer and fewer really being used daily. ACBS has just recognized boats of 1968 and older as "MODERN CLASSICS" which is a big step for ACBS. I served on their International Board of Directors, Charter Member of their largest chapter, Chapter President, and conducted a lot of boat shows myself over the years, and I can tell you there is an attitude about fiberglass that has been whittled away over the years, still there, but now we're legitimate in ACBS with early fiberglass Skiffs, Corsairs, Lancers, and of course COMMANDERS too!

Our boats have an interesting place in the Corsair Sport Boat history, coming out of Cortland, New York. Ours are the same hull as Glenn's transdrive Corsair, except for the top casting. You'll note these bottom hulls are the same, but the top deck which was glued to the hull at the rub rail, is different on Glenn's early Corsair and our Skiffs. All very cool boats. The one Glenn has appears to be an early (very rare) top casting, it's actually the only one I've seen quite like it. I think the raised nose rail was a feature they tried for a while and then changed.

These were not premium offerings, note the wood grain vinyl dashboard. They were utility models, and that's what I need for my boating style, and they're just easy to live with. The Skiff (and Lyman) designs just look salty. They're reminiscent of many historic Lake Erie boats of the past, the Maine Lobster boats from the past, many purpose built boats that had a nice bow flair for a reason. Nobody in Tennessee has seen anything like it, ha, it's just plain fun to take it out. They're good performers, have a little history associated with them, look good, and are just plain fun. The restoration process was also a blast for me, great fun too.

Keep us posted on your progress, let me know how I can assist. You know I've got a lot of pretty obscure photos of original seat construction,etc., in the event you want to go back to the original style.













How about those engine stringers?
Hey, this is some good action huh?
Sure beats watching TV !!








regards,

Paul