Seabuddy / chris brown has now had one of these newest books for just 10 minutes on boating and Chris Craft boats in his hands to flip through the first few pages.

If you want seabuddy’s recommendation on this new boating book, here it is…get in your order quick!

Wives, friends, and everyone else that want a gift suggestion that will wow someone that you love, get this book!

Get one for your work desk or coffee table at home and make a solid connection with everyone that picks it up for a quick look through.

Just provide a comfortable chair and your new “best friend” looking at this new book will be entranced for as long as you want them to be.  

It is a great read as well as a dominate coffee table book.

Tony Mollica has out done his classic wood boat and boating history book efforts with this one… and he is a top writer on boating. The fact that Chris Craft family member, Chris Smith is right along with Anthony Mollica in presenting this marine book is a definite plus. The resources of the two authors and the photo archives of the Mariner’s Museum and others enrich the fact filled text with a wonderful support system to tell the Chris Craft story.

For instance, the weaving of the Chris Craft and Gar Wood story, as partners and then competitors, in the early boat racing years offers a special sub-story all on its own. Its rememberences and facts such as this one that causes seabuddy / chris brown to look at the book as a much more full experience than the title, Building  Chris – Craft, inside the factories as far too limiting for the material covered.

Format: Hardbound
Pages: 176
Length: 10.875 x 9.25
ISBN-13: 9780760335925
Catalog ID: 147136

A well kept classic Stauter Built with a matching very old outboard engine here. She and her wood boat hull have stood the test of time. While many Stauter Built are open skiffs for fishing, decks and center consoles are also built. Fiberglass trees your thing? Here is a reason not to use them in boats.

Chris Brown / seabuddy have owned both boat types of boat construction and enjoy boating in a boat that is suited to what I want to do on the water.

…Stauter Boats have become a bit of a legend in the Mobile area. Mr. Lawrence Stauter started building wooden boats on the causeway in 1947. Thirty and forty year old Stauter boats can still be seen running the rivers of the Mobile Delta today.

Stauter Boats are made to order and care is taken to ensure that today’s owners are receiving the finest quality wooden boats available. A well kept Stauter Boat will last a life time and will retain its monetary and sentimental value over the years. Some of the same patterns used by Mr. Stauter remain in use today.

All of the boats are built with Marine Plywood sides and bottoms, resorcinol glued seams, mahogany frames, and oak rims and are fastened with brass screws and brass holdfast nails. The spray rails run the full length of the hull to keep the boats dry in rough water.

Stauter boats are built in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be customized to fit the needs of the owners or to make a one-of-a-kind…

Chopped strand mat fiberglass is a glass mat made up of similar length hairs loosely bound into a mat that is hand laid into a boat mold and then resin that looks like honey is dripped and brushed onto it. As pictured above.

In either boat construction the mix of glass and resin are hand laid / rolled into each other to make a single layer of fiberglass.

As a side note, “hand laid” is an expression used at boat shows. Know which kind the salesman is saying is in his boat; hand laid / rolled out chopper gun or hand laid fiberglass cloth.

These two techniques are not the same.

A Chopper Gun mix has to be adjusted each time it is used and supplies are changed. That mix is can be rich or starved for resin, with each style introducing its own problems to the boat construction. That takes some skill and experience to achieve the right balance of glass and resin.

A mat of chopped glass needs its resin rolled into it, but the rich and starved  aspect is not as dependent on operator skill. Almost anyone walking beside and boat under construction can spot either a starved of rich area and flag it for correction.

A solid block of boat and yacht art in wood.

It is Lust on the water in a wooden boat.

The Riva Aquarama and Super Aquarama is the boat of Brigitte Bardot. Or Ted Kennedy (and friend) photographed with his swim suit down around his ankles before he got past middle age. Peter Sellers owned one. Leslie Caron has been associated with the yacht. Prince Rainer of Monaco and his family owned several. The Shah of Iran had his Riva air freighted to his local waters from the factory in the Lake country of Northern Italy.. The Riva Aquarama  and Riva Super Aquamara captured the LUST of boaters and landlubbers alike.

In production from 1962 to 1996, she is a luxury runabout with a cuddy cabin, head, and the most luxurious sunken sunpad ver offered on a production boat over a generous engine room on a classic wood hull that conquered the Mediterranean.

There were several versions of the LOA of Aquarama Rivas. 26’ 3”, 27’ 10”, and 28’ 7” in LOA. But, below the waterline there was just two lengths, regular and 7 hulls that were longer. The other LOA differences are accounted by increased rake at the stem and transom and a little sheerline adjustment to provide more headroom inside the cuddy in later models.

The forward part of the vee in the hull bottom shape also was changed for boats / yachts built after around 1967.

She was carvel planked for the earliest boats and then a special, patented, curved plywood was used for the sides to get that “I can’t seen the plank seams look” of a Riva Aquarama. This was one continuous-piece full-length side made before the sheet went on the boat / yacht.

In production from 1962 to 1996, she is a luxury runabout with a cuddy cabin, head, and the most luxurious sunken sunpad ver offered on a production boat over a generous engine room on a classic wood hull that conquered the Mediterranean.

There were several versions of the LOA of Aquarama Rivas. 26’ 3”, 27’ 10”, and 28’ 7” in LOA. But, below the waterline there was just two lengths, regular and 7 hulls that were longer. The other LOA differences are accounted by increased rake at the stem and transom and a little sheerline adjustment to provide more headroom inside the cuddy in later models.

The forward part of the vee in the hull bottom shape also was changed for boats / yachts built after around 1967.

She was carvel planked for the earliest boats and then a special, patented, curved plywood was used for the sides to get that “I can’t seen the plank seams look” of a Riva Aquarama. This was one continuous-piece full-length side made before the sheet went on the boat / yacht

She is named after her hull length, not her LOA. Beam is 9’ 11”.Sleeps six and has a queen sized 56” by 84” berth in the master stateroom for the Admiral.

What is a window express? Regal puts more and bigger windows in the main cabin so the boating views and light stream inside.  Oversize forward deck windows (Regal boat exclusive) add even more to the airy and bright cabin environment.

…Marc Newson has partnered with Riva and their official designers, Officina Italiana Design, to reinterpret the ‘Aquariva’ (Super Aquarama) speedboat.

Newson’s design for the Aquariva vessel is unique in its conception, as well as the materials chosen. A wood-like, textile-based laminate (phenolic composite) was used for the deck area and instrument panel. This material was developed in the first half of the 20th century, and was a precursor to fibreglass. While having an ostensibly organic feel and aesthetic, it is significantly more durable than wood. To give the exterior a more high tech look, Newson utilized anodized aluminium, a material not generally associated with boats; this lightweight material is used in lieu of stainless steel and chrome brass, yet remains contextual among Riva’s glamour and classical design.

Respecting the DNA of the original project… Super Aquarama …created by Officina Italiana Design was paramount to Newson’s design for Aquariva. With this in mind, some of the changes he makes are truly innovative: the re-imagining of the transom (at the stern), the wrap-around, laminated glass windscreen, the split cabin door entry, the functionality of the lounge and dining area, and the re-introduction of separate driver and passenger seats…

The first boat is due in September, 2010 for the start of only a 22 boat production run.

The original Super Aquarama from the early 1960’s  boat that the 2011 boat /yacht is based on.

It’s a new location this year (Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD), so I can not speak for the layout, but seabuddy / chris brown was a featured speaker at the prior location for a few repetitive years over the 14 or so years it was in Solomon’s, MD.  

This is more than a boat / live aboard / coastal cruising yacht show. Its all that with a good selection of the right type of boats / yachts for these cruising styles. Diesels, “get home” marine power set-ups, port / window size for a bright main salon and galley,  anchor tackle ideas, spare parts kits, how to deal with at-sea medical issues,  and how to bake potatoes in the engine room while underway, how to get long engine life when you “under rpm” your cruising speed to save fuel (a diesel marine engine suffers short engine life (that can be avoided with proper instruction) when you cruise at 6 knots when you are powered for a 14 knot cruising speed).

Besides the 20 plus seminars some exhibits are…

Captain Chris Yacht Services

Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Coastal Climate Control

Haven Harbour Marina

Helmchair.com by Llebroc

International Marine Insurance Services

John Deere Marine

Landfall

Lee Chesneau’s Marine Weather

Mid-Shore Electronics

Phasor Marine

Quickline USA

SeaKits

The Waterway Guide

Washburn’s Boatyard

Zimmerman Marine

Hours are 10 to 5 or 10 to 4 each day and additional information for your best use of this MD event at (888) 487-2953 ext 12.

This Lyman is often considered the top example of a wood classic open cruiser. At 26’ 2” with a 9’ 1’ beam and a deep cockpit she is a strong candidate for very large Bay or Great Lake boating. With two berths forward, a dinette, small galley, and big helm station a couple can go boat cruising for a week in fair “cruising” comfort while enjoying one of the finest riding experience ever achieved in a under 35 foot boat.

Her single 250 Hp Chevy based marine engine gives a low to mid 30 mph speed to beat out a storm or make Rockhall from Annapolis a short hop with the low fuel burn rate of a single engine.

The hull is an expansion (longer, wider, and higher) of the Lyman 25 model. She a lap strake style of boat construction or a “clinker built” boat. This one is a 1968 model, the second model year for this Lyman open cruiser.

Made during a year of new ownership and management for Lyman boats and just five years before Lyman ended building wood boats, she is a well restored example of what Lyman boats are all about.

Please note her matt-finished teak deck factory option, the inside cockpit siding treatment and the comfortable seating. She is a beauty.

Seabuddy highly recommends the hardback book that got me into Lyman boats; Lyman Boats; Legend  of the Lakes by Tom Koroknay ISBN 0-9749705-0-6.

His Resorter is powered with a gas Norberg engine. This is a rare combination, as the Cal Connell “Crusader” Cadillac 331 cu. in. engine was coming to market via Century Boats in both Coronado and Resorter Century Boat models and it was a lighter weight engine so it delivered speeds of 60 mph in a prototype Resorter (these Cal Connell modified  gas Cadillac engines powered similar cut- down family boat designs to over 67 mph in race conditions).

This Century Resorter 20’ is a 1953 model. One of 87 made that year by “The Thoroughbred Fleet” as Century boats were nicknamed from 1950 on. Peterbilt is a apt name for a classic wood boat Century Resorter  owned and restored by Peter.

Century Resorters were made in Manistee, MI in the 1950s. They were properly called utilities (walk-around the center engine box) rather than a runabout (fully decked over designs such except for the seating areas). These Resorters were all single planked  hull sides and bottoms backed up by a narrow batten behind the plank seams using mahogany wood in the boats that offered a little more speed and performance compared to its Chris Craft contemporaries. They came in 16’, 18’, 19’, and 20’ lengths over the years.

Chris Craft built Roamers in Holland, MI until about 1975-76 when the Roamer Boat Division was moved to another Chris Craft plant in Pompano Beach, FL by Dick Genth, then President of Chris Craft. Dick then closed down the division a year or two later because a back–log of unsold yachts. The last Roamer’s made were 74’ by 18’ 3” yachts that weighted over 100,000 lbs. (the 37’ was a 20,000 lb yacht). Genth, a well respected boating industry man, made his mark in boats that were sport boats. These models often took about 55 man hours to build and the 74’ was a “over 25,000 man-hour yacht”. By the way, Bayliner beat out (for top sales) both Wellcraft and Sea Ray later on by getting those man-hours down to only 37 in their most popular models. Genth closed down any boat model over 45’ by 1979, and shifted all of the company to Brandenton, FL and then got G. Dale Murray to buy the company with himself and others, where his friends had gotten Chris Craft a government Industrial Revenue Bond for a new boat plant (the Pompano Beach factory was sold off for residential housing). G. Dale Murray, et al, went bust a few years later.