Rise of the Buckskin Beauty

SWEET!

Keep us posted Joe.

Joe,
nice find! it didnt look that big - until you see a pic of it behind the Tahoe!

Cool boat Joe is this the one Tom Amato had listed on here ? Keep us posted as you get started on it.

I met him once at once of the ACBS classic boat shows in North Carolina.
There was a blue sportsman 19 for sale too. This one looks way better.

Looks good wet,shines like new. Polishing that up will sure give you a workout Joe. Might be worth it to bring it to a get together and get everyone to donate a half an hour! Here proof that CC built wake boats before wake boards were invented You can count on one hand the people who own half of Correct Crafts '60's production

Nice Find! Great pictures, keep us updated!

Knowing you... I can only imagine that one day it may break 60 MPH
bj

Party Boat

She'd a thick bitch, cool boat

I finally shuffled around enough stuff and bagged and tagged enough parts to resume actual work in my shop. I am hoping to have three boats in progress this winter (which should ensure none of them actually get done).   A 1970 holman moody powered IO for a friend, my 1995 GT40 - SN basket case, and this 1965 20ft debonaire/sportsman.   For purely logistics reasons (it is sitting on the trailer for the 95 which is on blocks out front) I need to get the 65 torn down and on a dolly before we get into the snowy season. Because I didn’t want to tear into this rusty beast



Before I finished my coffee on Sunday morning - I decided that I would take a few minutes to sand down through some of the mold on the front deck with some 220 grit then give it a quick hit with some wet paper up to 1000, throw a polisher at it and see if the gel really was going to have some life left in it, or if I would sand through it trying clean it up.

Here is the port side deck:



And the test patch on the starboard



The deck is far worse than the hull so it looks like after a couple hundred hours of sanding and polishing this thing will be shiny buckskin once again.

I had hoped to confirm that the engine would run before removing it from the boat and putting it on a stand for gosh knows how long.. but after I took off the air cleaner and looked down the carb throat to see this



I figured it wouldn’t be worth hooking up a battery to, the engine is major crusty anyway so minimally it would need to come down to a long block to prep for paint. Without running it, the plan is that once it is down to a long block if it looks good, spins easily, and passes a leak down test… I clean it up, put it back together and hope for the best. I should be able to spot any major bottom end issues or valve issues and if the leakdown isn’t so bad that should cover what I can’t see, if it isn’t good then I will pull off the heads and go from there. So at that point no reason not to take it out and tear it down.

This boat is way too tall for a cherry picker.. luckily I got a cheap
steel beam and chain lift off craigslist a few months back.. even so without removing the carb and putting the load leveler as close to the lifting hooks as possible without bending the valve covers this wouldn’t have cleared the gunnels, even after I pushed the boat back and lowered the tongue of the trailer

     





With the engine out I started to tear it down the check some of the vitals.





It is definitely a 1965,



the hard to find exhaust manifolds appear to be intact and original,

As crusty as it is, it shows every indication that it has been recently worked on. It has one replacement head, newer gaskets all around, the velvet drive has been painted, all bolts have so far come off easily, and most importantly I could wobble it back and forth by hand.. I have most of the accessories off and left it hanging to drain the oil, when I get it on a stand with the valve covers and oil pan off I will post some better poly REMOVE.

That is a Beast of a Motor !! Very cool boat

Some like it crusty

Well I had a few minutes last night to put the engine on a stand and get a look inside. Inside she looks pretty darn good for sitting around unloved for the last 5 years or so. After giving it a preemptive slathering of assembly lube and a couple squirts of fogging oil this engine turns over as smooth and easy as any freshly assembled engine I have ever put a breaking bar to.   A couple spots of surface rust here or there where it was a little dry

Just for reference here is a typical wedge type head with inline valves



This is the poly head

Port head –



Check out the crazy pushrod angles that make that valve position work
Valley-



View from the front – nice double roller but it might be a little loose .. so if I am lucky the timing set might be the only thing that gets replaced other than gaskets



Wide shots





Bottom






I was happy to see that there are reproduction foil head decals available --- although I am almost tempted to buy the 235 hp version..

It has a very large boat to push around- so I am thinking it could use the daily pep talk - besides even though Reidp will never actually get his fury 235 off the floor and into a boat every time he sees my fury 210 hes gonna snicker a little bit.