23 foot Chriscraft.

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

I have oneof these coming to my shop for some planking work and an engine rebuilding.

It's from the early sixties and it's planked in lapstraked marine plywood.

does anyone have any experience with these?
is there anything to look out for?

Thanks,
-Thad

[Alan D. Hyde]

That means it's a Sea Skiff, made in Salisbury, Maryland.

The Curator of the Chris-Craft collection at the Mariner's Museum is Jerry Conrad. He has an assistant named Katie. You can reach them at www.mariner.org (http://www.mariner.org) or at (800)565-6846.

They have the original plans and shop drawings, owner's manuals, etc. They will also have a "hull card" for this boat that followed it through the shop as it was built. All this can be forwarded to you for a modest donation to the museum.

"Chris-Craft Seam Sealer" between the strakes is Thiokol, which is the same thing as 3M 5200.

It is common in these boats for many of the steam bent oak ribs (frames) to be cracked at the turn of the bilge.

Alan

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

Thank you!

[Dale Genther]

Alan, I don't want to be nitpicky, but I thought thoikol was a polysulfide sealant such as Life-Caulk. 3M 5200 is a polyurathane. 5200 is as much an adhesive as it is a sealant. Life- Caulk is more of a sealant than an adhesive. It could make a big difference when it comes to taking things apart.

[Alan D. Hyde]

You may be right, but Danenberg and others who have worked with it claim it had strong adhesive properties.

I'm not enough of a chemist to know.

Others here will doubtless have some useful knowledge...

Alan

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Alan's right... the thiokol mix they used was highly adhesive. don't know the properties either.

Thad, if it's a 283F motor.. some things to look for. First, the intake manifolds corroded away UNDER the heat shield. They also cracked on top of the same exhaust baffle. You can block them off if the choke is not used, I chose to have mine cast iron welded and it worked very well. Make sure you have the intake hot tanked and take the heat shield off and inspect it.

If originality is not crucial, a Weiand stealth manifold can be used, it is aluminum, and low profile.

[ishmael]

Pretty sure it's a polysulphide, but I don't know precisely what that means.

My faminly owned a slightly older and larger version of this boat for almost forty years. I did some work on it the last ten.

It's a very sound method of building, but some problem areas on ours included some rot in the transom framing up top where water had leaked through the seam on the aft deck. Some rot in the after end of the rail cap caused by the same seam. A few punky frame heels, and tiny bit of rot in the top of the stem. Neither of the later two problems required more than injection of git-rot, but I rebuilt the aft deck, part of the transom frame, and the aft section of one rail cap. Oh, and next thing on the list if the boat hadn't been sold would have been to replace one side of the motor box. The aft end of one side had delaminated from being banged around by years of lifting.

Best of luck,

Jack

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

Well, that aft deck is pretty soft...

as far as originality goes, The owner wants it to be as close as can be...for a low price.

[ishmael]

The transom and framing on ours was of Phillipine mahogany, and when the seam around the aft ply deck went (eventually taking the ply with it) water was allowed to leak into the frame, rotting the top member. I'd think if the aft deck is shot you can count on some transom work too. You might also find problems with the inwhale, as I believe the deck is glued and nailed to it. None of it is terribly difficult, but if you end up scarfing pieces onto the inwhale it would be a bit time consuming.

Do I remember you mentioning some re-planking? How are the planks bad, and where are they located? Some of planks have very little shape and no bevel, but some will be considerably more work if the hull shape is the same as ours. It's been awhile since I've looked at one of these, but that's what I remember.

Keep us posted, and feel free to e-mail. If I can help, I will.

Jack

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

but of course :D The price that Rob Henckel at CC parts asks for one of those intakes is 275 US.
The weiand can be bought on ebay for about 100 US and painted CC blue. By the buy, instead of buying CC blue by the can for the engine, I had the local autobody paint mixer make me up a quart for about 25 bucks and I painted it on by brush. You can also get him to put it in a can for less than the CC blue.

[ishmael]

One other thought. It's difficult to know about the transom frame. From what I could see and poke at before I got the deck off it looked fine, but the deck seam falls right on the seam between the framing and the planking on the transom. On ours the top piece of framing had rotted along that joint and so the damage was hidden. Luckily the fungus didn't get into the transom planking--for some unkown reason.

It might be worth considering time plus materials for that part of the job.

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

The planking needs attention on 5 planks, all at the bow, 1 to 2 feet abaft the stem.

There are also 2 sets of philapine mahoghany frames that need to be replaced in the bow.

The transom mahoghany veneer is sanded through in places.

It looks like some refastening will be needed, also. I gues I will use machine screws and nuts, as I don't think what they used to fasten it is still available. They look like machine screw set into a threaded hole cut through a flat square of bronze. Much thinner than a nut, though.

[Alan D. Hyde]

Typically, they screwed through the strakes into the ribs (steamed oak frames) and riveted through the overlapping strakes between ribs. That may be a rove you're looking at.

The frames in the bow are sawn mahogany back as far as the end of the cuddy (as I recall), then oak thereafter.

There is a tendency for the deck just outboard and abaft the window frame (at the corner, where the athwartship window meets the fore and aft triangle window) to be punky.

Alan