Owens, a serious question and others

[Thad]

Speaking of crazyness I bid a couple of weeks ago on an e-bay offering of an Owens 20' outboard runabout with 115hp Merc, sounded good and looked good and my bid was not much but she's mine now. Dotty had made the "mistake" of saying "that would be fun" when I was working on a Thompson a couple of months ago. So last weekend I drove 1100+ miles each way to trail her back to Marblehead. This is a big 20' boat of the sea-skiff type, lapstrake with 1/2" plywood and solid mahogany rails. The boat is pretty much original and in solid shape, cosmetically pretty good. The interior has been removed (with silly cushy seats put in). The forward seat riser is still in place and the remains of the seat back connection to frames are visible. After the laughter and congratulations subside, I would like to know what the original seat configuration was like so I could restore it. The boat was sold as a 1962, but it is more likely from the mid-50s. Now that I have done a little research I'd say Owens was a pretty interesting builder. What say you?

[Donn]

Thad...you're probably right about her being a mid-50's boat, because Owens discontinued wooden boats in '57.

I've heard Owens referred to as a poor man's Chris Craft, but the several that I've fished from were perfectly fine boats...sturdy, seaworthy and handsome.

How about some pics?

[Alan D. Hyde]

Not to pry TOO much, but approximately what did you pay, Thad?

(I'm thinking that maybe we need just one more boat. Right now we only have the canoe, the Hobie Cat, and the Chris-Craft Sea Skiff.)

If you'd rather not talk about price, sorry I asked...

Alan

[Bob Adams]

Owens made wooden crusiers until about 1969, runabouts into the early 60's. (My boat shop was located in their old factory) There is an Owens owners club based in Maryland, they have the archival material for the brand. Type Owens boats in your search engine and see what you get. I'll check locally.

[Donn]

Owens Yacht Marque Club (http://www.by-the-sea.com/owenclub.html)

[Thad]

Thanks for those replies. I have done the search and read the history. I spoke with Mr. Lisle Grey of the Owens club, who gave me leads and information -- such as, around 1957 when tailfins were hot in Detroit Owens added little Mahogany tailfins to their runabouts (before they went to glass). Also, all the companies records and brochures were thrown in a dumpster when the company went out of business. He knows of no boats of this particular design around, however, but has seen an ad showing three runabouts pulled up on a beach from astern. If I can't come up with a useful picture of the inside configuration I will put in a Mahogany thwart and seat back like the other runabouts I know. The cockpit configuration is another question.