Paragon Replica

My father, uncle, and I love the look of the early 90's Paragons. Four to five years ago we began looking for one but there were only a couple that came up for sale during that time and they wanted around $40,000 for each. We didn't want to pay that so we decided to build our own.

We started out with a 1996 closed bow Nautique with the GT-40 engine that we bought in 2011 and began the conversion process in 2012. We completed the project here in July of 2014 and I thought I would post some pictures of how it came out, explain what we did, and answer any questions someone might have if they wanted to tackle this, or any part of what we did, themselves. Overall we are very happy with how it came out and hope this may be an inspiration for someone else to try the same thing. Our boat is by no means an exact replica - we changed some things to look how we wanted and it doesn't have any actual Paragon badging, but feel it came out looking very Paragon-like.

One of my other reasons for wanting to put some information out on this site is when my dad and I first began researching the Paragon, there wasn't much information out there on these boats. We spent quite a bit of time scoring the internet for pictures and information to gather ideas on how to attempt to replicate the look. Hopefully these pictures and information help somebody someday if you try to do the same thing or something similar.          

There is so much to talk about on this project I'm not quite sure where to start. I'll post a few pictures here to start and when time allows over the coming weeks try to explain in a little more detail what we did. For today I'll start out with a few before and after pictures, and in the weeks ahead I will try to take and post some better pictures.

Steve




Before...

Agreed! We bought it not caring about the colors. We knew we were going to change everything. It had the GT-40 and only 230hrs so it was a good platform to start from.

Good job dudes!! Paragon is one of the best looking boats ever produced IMHO.

wow, quite a project...ok, I'll bite, without going into all the details, what did you do? Paint the bottom, overlay mahogany (?) on the deck, rip out and replace the interior? Is that seadeck in the floor? I assume if all you did was paint or re-gel the hull, and didn't change the power plant that the performance is the same (+ or - based on additional weight of wood materials)?

Very nice work indeed.

Its amazing that simply finishing this with wood gives this boat a whole new outlook and style.
something about green on green interior that i've always liked, A friend's 66 vette is finished with same colors, It is very sharp, much better in person than what you would picture if someone said they have a green car with green interior.

looks like you took an avg run of the mill boat and made it something anyone would dream to own. there are so many "i did it my way" hacks that just look awkward . I love it

Thanks guys. At the end of the month we will have it back in the water and will post some water pictures then.

Yeah the rounded windshield on the 96' we decided to leave alone. We weren't sure if it was going to look right not being wood but my dad and I both think it ended up looking fine.    

Wow! She looks great! Ditto on the more picture request!

I was thinking about Pete's reaction also but after all the original was an outside conversion too. And it's not like it's the last 96 in existence. I like the windshield too. Well done!

Very nice indeed.

Very cool indeed. Looks awesome. I'll be very interested to follow along and see how everything was done.

Damn Quinner that thing was immaculate.

WOW, That looks amazing. Would love to see some pics of it in the water!!

Gary S wrote: I'd disconnect my Mazda pickup while taking pictures too-

Was just about to say the same thing, you beat me to it. I think the tow vehicle was actually slower than the boat it was towing.