Classic Boat
Chris-Craft with a Racing History by Chris “Seabuddy” Brown
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uckily, the Chesapeake Bay has seen many 18-foot wooden Chris-Crafts undergoing restoration to bring them back to the water. This model is a great pleasure boat with a true racing history in its DNA. Back in 1935, the Motor Yacht Club de la Cote d’Azur (MYCCA) ordered 14 boats from Chris-Craft as a one-design inboard runabout to compete in Europe. These boats had a stock 18-foot Chris-Craft hull with a beam of five feet, 10 inches—two inches narrower than ChrisCraft’s other 18-footer, an open utility with a six-foot beam and a freeboard that was four to six inches higher. The deluxe runabout hull used for the 14 MYCCA racers also featured thinner planks on the sides, making those boats lighter in weight and slightly faster. At least one of those 14 runabouts won a race and set a record for average speed/ distance at 38 miles per hour for the 270-mile-long distance between Pavia and Venice, Italy, on the river Po. The race was won in seven hours and 39 minutes with eight fuel stops. That’s some record back in the 1930s! Both the 18-foot deluxe runabout and open cockpit utility models were pleasure boats built by Chris-Craft in Algonac, MI. The factory made 661 of its runabout model, more than double the 302 open utilities that were built. The runabout featured more deluxe cockpits, seating, and windshields during the 1932-1936 production timeframe. Planked boats typically have their fasteners covered with wood plugs (or bungs) from the same wood as used in the planks.
The runabouts, as noted above, were made with thinner side planks, and they were re-used on the boat’s first restoration. However, the screws holding the thin planks needed to be puttied-over, as a bung would not hold in the depth of thin planks after years of sanding them down for refinishing.
Over time, the putty would pop up on the planking, like sheet rock nail pops. So, on the next restoration, the old, thin planks were removed from the boat and used as a “pattern” for new wood of standard Chris-Craft thickness. While the boat lost some originality, the standard thickness planks took well to the original practice of covering the screws with
wood bungs. This thicker re-planking of the topsides, coupled with using bungs, solved the issues due to the thin original planking. When owner/restorer Chip Paradis of Havre de Grace, MD, bought this runabout, it had already deteriorated to a state where it had no bottom planking and incomplete bottom frames. This model called for a two-layer bottom planking in the standard Chris-Craft practice. The layers of planking had to be made from scratch using new wood, and that was beyond what Paradis was prepared to tackle on his own in his garage. Paradis engaged the Philadelphia restoration shop, Classic Restoration and Supply run by Chad Brenner, to help. Since Paradis keeps the boat in his garage, he spec’d a “trailer boat” bottom one that doesn’t require soaking before she’s put in the water to avoid leakage. This is also called a “5200” bottom. The new lumber is attached with fasteners and 3M 5200 adhesive in fitting the bottom. The 5200 product comes in a caulk tube which is applied (troweled) to the inner layer and framing. The 3M product allows for some movement within the boat’s bottom as she rides the waves, rather than “freezing” the planks as an epoxy bottom does. This movement is a desirable trait valued by boaters in a wood boat. It feels more like an old wood boat when riding the waves. Paradis loves old wooden boats. He likes restoring them, caring for what is perhaps “Waterborne Moving Art,” and riding in them on the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, he has acquired a second woody now and hopes to take most of 2017 and 2018 getting her back on Bay waters in concourse condition. This one wins at such shows. #
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PropTalk.com March 2017 65