SEABUDDY
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Looks like it came from a PT boat builder from this angle

Elco made both electric and gas powered boats in its history of boat building. Elco made launches. They made cruisers which they often called Cruisettes. They made PT boats.

Charles Lindberg, the “Lone Eagle” bought a 38 foot Cruisette cabin cruiser from Elco for his honeymoon. Prior to his marriage he had the aft twin beds reconfigured to a single large bed. He and his bride, Ann Morrow used his boat. He had named his Elco cruiser “Mouette”. Similarly, other well-known successful people like Thomas Edison, J. P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor, among others, wanted these popular Elco boats.

Elco Cruisette proved to be a very popular model cabin cruiser since the title that goes back as far as 1915 when they advertised one of their cabin cruiser models in1915. Thomas Edison, J. P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor, the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia are among the others wanted these boats. They came in different sizes, such as 26’, 32’, 34’, 38’ and 40’ over the years that Elco used the Cruisette model name. The early ones were round chine boat designs. Only after W.W. II did the Elco company build hard chine pleasure boats. By the way, Elco built other or non-cruisette models from as small as a 18’ tender up to a 127’long yacht.

Elco bought a Hubert Scott-Paine design for a 70 foot British torpedo boat to use as the beginning basis for their PT boat design. They also used much of its design as the starting point for their entry into the Navy’s “Plywood Derby”. Most boats in this design contest were triple engine powered but one company used a quad engine boat in these tests. Neither this design (with its improvements made by the Elco designers) or the others won the competition for the US navy PT boat design in this series of sea trials, but the Elco boat was reported as first across the line. Elco did get a several contracts from the Navy for about 350 PT boats out of their results in the Derby.

The seabuddy photo images here show a post War 1946 Elco Cruisette that is 40’ by 12’5”. She is a rare boat as she was only made in a couple of model years before the company closed its doors. This cabin cruiser boat uses a v-drive system (or v drive) to get her under-the-aft-deck twin engine power to her propellers. Unlike earlier Elco Cruisette power boats, this boat shows the a PT Boat style vee bottom, hard chine planning hull.

She is an express yacht with her engines aft under the cockpit

This is a high powered classic fiberglass Hydrostream performance outboard powered boat. These hulls have been seen over 100 MPH at top speed even with lesser horsepower Mercury Marine outboards. Speeds of 107 MPH have been reported.

How did the Hydrostream boats go so fast? It was the bottom and hull design. Owner and designer of Hydrostream performance boats, Howard Pipkorn was an innovative boat designer concerning what went on between a boat hull and the water and the air it operated within.

He first used a vee-bottom boat design with a pad to get more of the boat out of the water at speed with his first designs. These hulls fly high on the water. More of the boat is in the air than in the water. Only the last bit of hull is in the water at wide open throttle and speeds. Say about a foot or a foot and a half.

Stability and control is the problem with a pad v-bottom hull design. The surface of the boat that is in the water is that short last aft foot of boat hull and it is only a narrow width of a piece of the center pad that the boat must be balanced on as one boats over the waves, chop, and boat wakes.

Next, Howard then added some sponsons to add in stability. This added to the ability to drive a Hydrostream boat more easily as the hull used the two sponsons and the center vee of the hull as the three points to balance the boat upon while running at wide open throttle. With more wetted surface in the water at speed this hull shape is not as fast, but outboard motor manufactures kept making bigger and more powerful engines.

As the quest for more speed progressed, Pipkorn decided to raise the bottom surface of the sponson location such that the sponsons were not level with the center pad. They were above it. Near high speed they are in contact with the water along with the center pad, but at wide open throttle and speed the hull rides with only the center pad touching the water. That made for a faster boat that is sort of controllable at most sane speeds and yet have the maximum speed possible with a given engine power when an experienced driver is behind the steering wheel. This is the Hydrostream Vegas XT hull shape.

Other Hydrostream performance boat model names are Vandal, Vixen, Viper, Ventura, Verado, Vector, Viking, Viking, V-King, AE-21, HST, Vantage, Venus, Voyager, and Vulture among others. Let me say “sorry” if I did not list your favorite.

Classic wood inboard runabout boat, Jersey Speed Skiff style

Is this a legal Jersey Speed Skiff for boat racing?  Is a boat made out of wood legal? Or, does the hull need to be made in a female boat mold? If it is a made out of wood racing boat, does the minimum weight rule apply? Does a portion of the boat bottom need to be flat?

This boat is bright varnished finished like a piano. It is finished and buffed to a perfect wood finish.  The wood grain within the rare wood selected for the hull and deck as well as the overall fit and craftsmanship of this wooden boat is superior when one gets up close to it in person. Only the of the hull part intended to be underwater is painted.

Note that the hull sides are in the carvel planked style as is the deck, but the bottom is a stepped or clinker built style for good aeration when the boat is under way. These longitudinal steps are there to make the wood boat hull bottom free up from the water, or air out somewhat. It makes for easier quick boat turning as they allow this wood boat to bank into a turn, not tilt away from it. Of course it will slide around as much as really bank and turn on the water.

These seabuddy boat image photos were taken in Germany so its European based engine would also need an exception for displacement if racing within a legal class of boat racing in the United States and Canada. Seabuddy does not know of a correct size gas engine made in the European countries that meet U S Jersey Speed Skiff racing rules.

Hull bottom classic wood runabout boat showing stepped clinker style

Aft located single cockpit of a classic wood runabout boat

Monterey boate bow rider running well fast, high on plane, and dry

Here is one of the most popular bow riders being offered today, the 224 FSX model by Monterey boats. She is a 22’9” LOA boat with her dock side float and water access swim platform included in the measurement. The beam is a full width 8’6” wide. Couple this great riding hull with a 300 horsepower stern drive and have fun on the water.

Many folks do not really take the time to understand that the most important part of a bow rider boat is the hull and the amount of time and testing that went into making it the best it can be for your use. One boat builder may advertise that they will float if you have an accident. That does not say anything about how their boat planes, is a spray-free, dry riding boat, or that it turns well. Oh! How about quick to plane times? You need to decide what is important to your family and then seabuddy suggests that you try out or test drive the top two boats for your needs.

How about room up in the bow cockpit? Then, do you have good grab handles, storage space(s), drink cup holders, good seat back comfort, speakers for your music for Mom and the kids to use? The bow seats are the kid’s seats in most boating families and they often will spend their time up there, in their own cockpit compartment, away from the their parents. Kids close the center opening part of the windshield and forget that anyone else is on board. Boating is freedom. Kids want it just like parents do. Monterey’s 224 FSX (FSX=Facet Series Extreme) offers it.

The boat builder gave you a big enough fuel tank for all day fun, as it’s a big 55 gallon tank. Check what the other boat offers. It a deep, safe bow rider boat that is designed to be able to carry 1,900 lbs. of people and gear according to C.G. regulations.

If you think that you want fun on the water, arrange to go on a test ride on this boat. Seabuddy thanks Monterey boats for the use of their photo in this article.

classic Chris Craft Cobra boat only( forward) cockpit

The 21’ Cobra Chris Craft was the same as a 19’ Racing Runabout from the waterline down. Chris Craft boats liked the sales of the 503 boats that they built of their 18’ 11” Racing Runabout model that they added to the hull design above the water line color stripe so the Cobra classic boat measured 20’ 10” and the boat at the deck rub rail was widened from 6’ 1” for the Racing Runabout model to 6’ 9” for the Chris Craft Cobra. They then added either a big block Cadillac V-8 or a Chrysler Hemi. It was one fast classic boat!

While the Racing Runabout was a success in the number of units and the number of model years (1948 -1954) it was offered, the Coba only sold 55 units. Why? Some say price. Some say it was too special. Some say it only had one bench seat where the Racing Runabout had two benches in two cockpits.

When seabuddy boat tested a Racing Runabout the three on board was divided two in the front cockpit and one in the aft cockpit. It seemed natural for the size of the three of us. Our restored classic had a well running in line engine. It was the right engine for the Racing Runabout. The boat was lighter, however, than a Cobra by about 400 lbs. This weight coupled with the different engine made the goal of knowing what it feels like to drive a Chris craft Cobra by testing a 19’ Chris Craft Racing Runabout on a wide open lake a false test. One note, I did love the ride and handling of the Racing Runabout.

These are seabuddy photos of a 21’ Chris Craft Cobra, but they do not show the 19’ boat I tested.

wood Chris Craft Cobra inboard runabout with its signature tail fin

The Allison Grand Sport boat with an older Mercury Marine engine

Allison boats may have the fastest sport boat (speeds to 80 MPH) made for this game changer Mercury marine four stroke outboard. This engine is right on or over the edge of what the boat can run according to Allison Boats. It is a hand crafted composite boat that uses metal, fiberglass, PVC coring, Kevlar, and AME resin to get a 5 seat deluxe sport boat that weights under 980 LBS. without an outboard motor or accessories like a battery, fuel, or boat gear.

It is a race boat derived hull design from race winning Allison boats coupled with a pleasure boat deck and cockpit that gives ultra high performance to this sport boat. She is 20’ 3” in length over all, with a centerline length of 19’. The beam is 87”. It is a true high performance sport boat.

The most recent 150 Horsepower four stroke outboard from Mercury Marine is said to be a tough, small, light (for a four stroke) engine that beats its competition. It is a high displacement outboard. It has the displacement that is similar to other outboards that develop over 250 Hp. That gives high torque and that gives a fast out of the hole shot times or fast 0 to 30 mph acceleration numbers (it also has a torque curve that is in the same class as a two stroke). That is saying something for this new four stroke. Many of the engine and drive parts are oversize. That gives it more durability than other outboards. It comes with a full warranty, including a no rust aspect to the warranty.

Seabuddy thanks Allison boats and Mercury marine for the boat and outboard motor photo images.

2012 Mercury Marine four stroke outboard

seabuddyonboats photo of Gar Wood Chris Craft 33 ft "Baby Gar"

Here is a great story about Antique and Classic boats. Gar Wood raced his 33 foot Baby Gar V and her sister Baby Gar IV both built to a design by Chris Craft’s Christopher Columbus Smith. She and IV raced down the Hudson River alongside the Twentieth Century Limited train on the river edge RR tracks from Albany to NYC. She beat the train! The race started at 6:53 A. M. on May 27, 1935 as the train rocketed by the boats. It ended at 9:50 A. M. when Wood pulled into the pier in NYC seventeen minutes before the train passed.

Truth be told, the faster Baby Gar V broke down and Gar Wood had to wait some seven minutes for the IV to catch up so he could transfer to it from V as V had proved to be the faster boat. This happened about half way, around Poughkeepsie, NY.

She is a boat with a step (or an athwartships break) in her running surface. Chris Craft and Gar Wood had promoted the idea of a bottom step to increase speed in a runabout. They are usually credited with making the refinements that made it a useful race boat feature.

Another aspect of this Baby Gar is her engine. Gar Wood was a rich man in the 1920s and raced boats as his hobby. He had gotten World War I aircraft engines as war surplus at bargain rates as he had bought piles of them at a time. These engines were known as the Liberty Engine. Light weight for that time, they were offered in boats by Gar Wood at horsepower rating from 400 Hp to as high as 550 Hp.

Baby Gar V is one of the 65 boats called “Baby Gar”. All had these Liberty Engines for power that had been designed by Packard Motors and Hall Scott Aircraft Engines.

Photo Mercury Racing 9 liter 1,350 Hp gas super Turbo charged engine

It is a four cam, port fuel injection, turbocharged, 9 liter, 6,500 rpm redlined marine engine that comes with a warranty. Special exhaust tuning and electronics keep turbo lag out of the picture. She gives reduced time-to-plane acceleration and continuing push you back into your seat back punch all the way to a boat’s  top speed.

The engine has a bore of 4.57 inches with a stroke of 4.21 inches for a displacement of 552 cubic inches or 9 liters. The full throttle operating rpm is 6000 to 6500 rpm. It has a sequential fuel injection system.  With the multiple turbo set-up the compression ratio is 7.8 to 1. She meets with EPA and CARB emissions requirements for 50 state boating enjoyments.

This engine is so strong that Merc Racing had to invent new propellers to handle the power. The entire driveline and its dry sump M8 surface style stern drive have also been strengthened.

A M8 surface-piercing stern drive with a Mercury Racing hydraulic transmission handles high torque and power levels with ease for improved handling and exceptional performance

MTI came out with a 48 foot long with a 10’ 6” beam catamaran that matched up perfectly with two of these engines. It was displayed at the most recent Miami Boat Show and wowed the Very High Hi Performance crowd attending that show. Twin gas fueled engines was the popular way to power many of the Go Fast boats this year.

Seabuddy says many thanks to Mercury Marine Racing for these photos.

48' Cat from MTI with with twin 1,350 Hp gas Mercury Marine engines

Bow on view of the new 2012 center console fishing 50' boat

She is a center console fishing boat that is 50 feet long and goes 60 MPH with twin engines. That is different. Now, part of the speed comes from the racing heritage of her boat builder. Some speed comes from their Nor Step ventilated hull bottom. The final component of this performance center console fish boat is the high tech hand laid fiberglass construction using tri directional and bi directional fiberglass materials.

Nor Tech Hi Performance Boats uses only 960 total horsepower (twin 480 Hp. diesels) to get the sixty mph top speed. That kind of performance in a full fifty foot boat that weights in at seven and a half tons and in a fully found luxury boat is amazing! Yes, the beam is narrow (9’) for good offshore rough water performance at speed, but the speed numbers verses the size and weight numbers speak for themselves.

Is more speed possible? Yes. Add more horsepower. Heck, even add another engine. Nor-Tech Hi Performance Boats has done this hull with triples. They can do it with outboards. They are a custom boat builder. Name it and they can do it, and will do it with a routine that will startle you on how easy it is during the boat build with them. Just ask that they use their Nor Tech vented boat bottom. The proper coring and reinforcement is an important part of the culture of their Hi-Performance boat building.

Is this one too big of a center console fish boat for you? Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats builds center consoles in many other boat lengths. Call them.

Looking back at the Center Console of the 60 MPH Nor Tech 50' boat