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I'm restoring/rebuilding a 18' tahiti tiger and would like more info on the company. What was the tie-in with Hawaiian, where was Bell Ind. located, etc. This is hardly a competitive boat (then OR now), but a fun project.
Who else has a Tahiti hidden away they will admit to?
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I have a Tahiti with a small block chevy and out drive and I am happy to say that it can hold it,s own up next to most jet boats and I realy like ****ing with the blown guys.
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Ricky,
The little Tahitis were a nice little boats, but your joking about ****ing with the blown guys.
Brent
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Mine has a 460 ford and berkley jet. I haven't had it out yet, that will happen after I tear down and check out the engine, reseal the pump and reupholster it.
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Originally posted by SPECTRABRENT:
Ricky,
The little Tahitis were a nice little boats, but your joking about ****ing with the blown guys.
Brent
Hey Brent, Bring your Spectra out on the Run What Ya Brung deal and see if you can keep up with it. http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
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DAve,
I sold my Spectra 20 to Flat Broke (less motor), the 509 is going to be turned into a 540 and it will go into my v-drive Spectra 24 XS.
I may go to watch, it should be fun.
Is your boat going to done in time?
Brent
[This message has been edited by SPECTRABRENT (edited March 05, 2002).]
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BB,
do a search for Tahiti and you will come up with a lot of info. You will also find a couple of threads about Tahiti/Hawaiian.
Oh yeah, I'm on my third Tahiti now, I've had an 18' Tiger, an 18' super Tiger and I now have a 21' Super Cruiser. I've been happy with all 3.
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Originally posted by SPECTRABRENT:
DAve,
I may go to watch, it should be fun.
Is your boat going to done in time?
Brent
[This message has been edited by SPECTRABRENT (edited March 05, 2002).]
You should go out. My boat will not be there. I'm riding with Risky.
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BBTAHITI,
in a nut shell, Tahiti was Dick Schuster, started in Long Beach, moved to Bellflower. Sold to Bell in about '68. Bell was a big company, Bell helmets, Bell speed equip. and so on. Moved to Cerritos off of the 605 fwy about the same time. Schuster and a guy from Bell, Jerry Groom (who didn't know a boat from dump truck) started Hawaiian by back-dooring material from Tahiti. (Hawaiian was originaly going to be called Tiki, and we even had sold a few boats with the name plates on them but Bell had a court order to make the name change.) Groom went to prison, where I'm sure he got to know what the term back dooring really meant, and Schuster stayed out of jail for reasons unknown. When Hawaiian went belly up, Groom fled to New York, and Schuster continued to build boats off and on under the Hawaiian name. Dick also bought the 'Sun Ray' boat company for his kids so they would have something to do. They nose-dived that shop as well.
When Hawaiian went under, they ****ed alot, and I mean ALOT of parts suppliers. Schuster, from the begining of Tahiti until the time he hooked up with Groom was a stand up guy that took alot pride in the boats he built. The early Tahiti's are build like tanks. I don't know what happened to him after that, except maybe greed. And I never understood why he hooked with such a dick headed prick as Jerry.
Dick never screwed his employees, in fact we were all making money hand over fist back then, we couldn't build enough boats, but I think there are still hard feelings to this day by some of the guys that took it in the shorts when the doors were closed.
I love Tahiti's, grew up with them so I have a soft spot for them. Great little boats.
[This message has been edited by old rigger (edited March 05, 2002).]
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My Tahiti is a 16 ft Hardin from "87" 350 sbc Holly 450 cfm stock Berk JE pump with aggressor "B" I am stuck at 4000 rpm max but I am planning a 383 , that may improve things some !
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I have a 1975 Tahiti Super Tiger with a 455 Olds that has been through a lot. It has been on the bottom of Lake Michigan, dropped of the trailer onto the middle of a busy 4 lane highway and has a bottom full of gelcoat blisters from being left in the water all summer in Lake Lanier. But despite all that it still ran 64.5 on the GPS
I think that Old Rigger's story about droping the boats off of dollies into the street was just their way of stress testing the boats under real world customer conditions http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
http://www.alltel.net/~jthieme/Dscn0552.jpg
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Originally posted by SPECTRABRENT:
DAve,
I sold my Spectra 20 to Flat Broke (less motor), the 509 is going to be turned into a 540 and it will go into my v-drive Spectra 24 XS.
I may go to watch, it should be fun.
Is your boat going to done in time?
Brent
[This message has been edited by SPECTRABRENT (edited March 05, 2002).]
funny how the trash talkers never seem to be able to produce a running boat heheh ..
BBTAHITI I have a 1976 bubbledeck Tahiti. I'm not sure but someone said they were called "Thunder Tigers". Mine has been great for me. On smooth water it's really stable and rides great. It's still all original and you'd never guess it was older than most folks that post here. I have a BB Ford and a Berk JC pump. With the untouched original engine and full fuel it'll run 62.4 GPS which really surprises me because it is faster than a few "80 mile an hour" jet boats heheh.
Have fun with your project, just don't put so much money in it that you're married to it :=)
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572,
the trailer looks like it's been through a whole lot more than the boat has.
Bubbldeck,
I thought the bubbledeck Tahiti's were called Bubble Tigers, I could be wrong though.
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Bubbledeck,
Whos talkin trash?
I never said my boat was faster than Riskys.
My Spectra 20 is just an old family boat not a race boat. My Spectra could barely break 55 mph.
Brent
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Cas, I guess that they didn't make the trailers as tough as the boat. Actually the boat was regelcoated at one point in its life, the coast guard did a number on the deck when they hoisted the boat up to refloat it. Here are the original colors taken at my grandparents house on Coldwater Lake, Michigan many years ago
http://www.alltel.net/~jthieme/tahitiorig.jpg
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Geez, did Tahiti have any other pattern in the 70's? Both of my 18's had the same thing. I still like the lines of those boats...
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Originally posted by Cas:
Geez, did Tahiti have any other pattern in the 70's? Both of my 18's had the same thing. I still like the lines of those boats...
Hey Cas,
you just reminded me of a gel-coat story from 1976. We were at Hawaiian at that time and the Bicentinal was a real big deal then, remember?
Anyway our taper was asked to something out of the ordanary for a few 'special edition' boats, this was on the same hull as that Tahiti pictured above. Art was the tapers name and he later was a gel-coater. They wanted him to tape in a waving American flag across the decks of this these boats, and the rest of the hull was red white and blue. In fact that year we made tons of boats in the red/white/blue combo, very popular.
Art worked his ass off trying to figure out how to do it. Sort of unchartered territory at the time because as you pointed out, all the tape jobs were pretty basic. Had it been a straight forward American flag, it would not have been such a big deal, but this had to be waving and that sort of complacated it for Art. He finally got in nailed down and they shot, built the part and pulled it. Everyone in the shop was there to look at the thing and I can remember, even though it wouldn't have been my choice for a paint job, it was pretty cool. Everyone was oohhing and aawwing over it until my dad, an ex Marine, noted immediately that it was backwards. Art had put the stars on the right side and the proper way to have a flag displayed with them on the left. We all watched him struggle (including dad) with the tape process but it didn't occur to anyone about the thing being reversed. We still built the boat and sold it the way it came out of the mold, but I thought poor Art was gonna cry after all the time he had put in it.
On the other 'flag' boats Art made sure to get it right.
I wonder what ever happened to those boats. We might have even taken one to the boat show now that I think about it.
Again it was a pretty big deal as far as gel-coating goes.
Truth be told, it was probably not that great of a tape job compared to whats done today, and might look a little rough. Maybe I don't want to ruin the memory in my little brain by seeing it again today.
About the trailers, most of the local boats left on A&M trailers out of Bellflower or on a Wallstrong trailer. Both were built pretty tough, but were no-frill's trailers. The boats that went back east, and there were alot of them, were shipped without a trailer. The stories about loading the boats on the big trailers and the mishaps on the road are kinda funny too. We usually had 2 tractor trailer rigs on the road at all time delevering boats to just about everywhere.
[This message has been edited by old rigger (edited March 07, 2002).]
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Originally posted by 572Daytona:
Cas, I guess that they didn't make the trailers as tough as the boat. Actually the boat was regelcoated at one point in its life, the coast guard did a number on the deck when they hoisted the boat up to refloat it. Here are the original colors taken at my grandparents house on Coldwater Lake, Michigan many years ago
Hey 572, I grew up right around the corner from your grandparents. I grew up on Lake James by Angloa, IN. I have some friends that live on Coldwater and Lake Gauge in Michigan. The lakes in that area are so nice. Sometimes I wounder why I ever left.
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Superdave, you left because the lenghty wait for the boating season to come around http://free.***boat.net/ubb/biggrin.gif. I've been out boating last sunday and the one before,But today the temp dropped to -4 C WTF ?
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Superdave, Angola is where we would get off of the Indiana Toll Road to catch I-69 (now there's a great name for an interstate) to get to their house. Is Lake James the lake that is partially in Indiana and partially in Michigan that you needed fishing licenses from both states to use? I have fond memories of going up their as a kid and watching all of the metalflake jetboats spank all of the outboards and I/O's of the day and telling myself that someday I would own one (or 2) http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif I don't recall seeing any V-drives but there were quite a few direct drive Chris Crafts that were cool in their own way.
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Originally posted by 572Daytona:
Superdave, Angola is where we would get off of the Indiana Toll Road to catch I-69 (now there's a great name for an interstate) to get to their house. Is Lake James the lake that is partially in Indiana and partially in Michigan that you needed fishing licenses from both states to use? I have fond memories of going up their as a kid and watching all of the metalflake jetboats spank all of the outboards and I/O's of the day and telling myself that someday I would own one (or 2) http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif I don't recall seeing any V-drives but there were quite a few direct drive Chris Crafts that were cool in their own way.
Lake James is only in Indiana, I think you are thinking of Crooked Lake maybe. Yes, back then there sure were alot of jets running around. Tahitis and Avengers were not in short supply. I only saw 2 v-drives the entier time I lived there. One straight deck Hondo and a Blown Hemi Sanger Flat named The Snake. That boat was bad ass. I knew I wanted a flat after seeing that boat. I ended up owning 2 of them http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif And the 3rd is the v-drive schiada. Lovely sickness hu.
And I do remember all the woodies. Chris Crafs, Centurys and even wood Correct Crafts. Now everyone has to have a Correct Craft Ski Whatevertique to be cool. My brother has one. yuk!
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Originally posted by Bubbledeck2:
funny how the trash talkers never seem to be able to produce a running boat heheh ..
BBTAHITI I have a 1976 bubbledeck Tahiti. I'm not sure but someone said they were called "Thunder Tigers". Mine has been great for me. On smooth water it's really stable and rides great. It's still all original and you'd never guess it was older than most folks that post here. I have a BB Ford and a Berk JC pump. With the untouched original engine and full fuel it'll run 62.4 GPS which really surprises me because it is faster than a few "80 mile an hour" jet boats heheh.
Have fun with your project, just don't put so much money in it that you're married to it :=)
This is a pic of my Tahiti 80 http://fs8.dotphoto.com/MemberImages...5284CDF601.jpg
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Risky, That lil engine sure is cute http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by superdave013 (edited March 11, 2002).]
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Have fun with your project, just don't put so much money in it that you're married to it :=)
Bubbledeck,
I can't afford to get married to the Tahiti, I'm already married to my Mustangs. These 385 engines are a lot cheaper to build than the FE's in my Mustangs.
I've been collecting Tahiti photos off the web and am building a Tahiti web page. If anyone has pictures (or does NOT want me to rip them off the forum) let me know.
BB
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I've got a '78 Tahiti 18' with BBC. Had it for about 4 yrs. now and love it. Still has original colors(yellow hull with brown trim). Still gets lots of looks. Glad to see other Tahiti owners that are as happy as myself. Take care, good boating and be safe. Jake
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I have a 20" 1978 Tahiti MinDay Cruiser, 460 Ford and a Panther Pump. Love the boat, the pump is another story. Click on the link.
1978MiniDay (http://www.smactek.com.futuresite.re.../78miniday.jpg)
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BB Tahiti
Please post the url of your Tahiti Web Page in here, I would love to see it. Also I have a pic of a Schuster 17' with a 455olds and a Berkley 12jb-a pump Im looking at (cheap) any one know the model name of this one. Ill post a pic shortly.
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Miniday,
It sounds like you're referring to the Tahiti Tiger, it was the 17'6" boat that had the fuel tank in the bow. The 18'ers with a tank on either side in the rear was the Super Tiger. I think Tahiti also had Bubble Tiger and the boat you and I have is called the Super Cruiser. Since the Super Cruiser is 20'6" some refer to it as a 20'er and others refer to it as a 21'er. You can find a couple of pics of my boat at www.laidbackboaters.com (http://www.laidbackboaters.com)
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Hey Cas,
Don't the sell the Tahiti Tiger short. It's 17'10" http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
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Cas,
Nice website. By the places you frequent, it seems you live near me. Im in Sacramento. A beautiful little Hot Boat Lake many of us keep a secret is called Camp Far West Lake. Its near Lincoln California. There are always some interesting drags in the evening at 1/4 mile cove. Lots of camping to. About the old tahiti. Ill post a pic of it (after I go take it) and see what you think. Your boat appears to be the same color as mine. My boat is 20'6"
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OOPS! One addition. From what I recall the Super Cruiser is the one with the Small cabin Below deck. A friend had a 23' model. It has a small window on each side of the bow.
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78miniday,
what year is your Tahiti. Sounds to me like it might be one of the old deep V 16's. Lot's of times they were refered to a a 17.
[This message has been edited by old rigger (edited April 18, 2002).]
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oh yeah,
just found some pictures in my dad's stuff, 1971-2. One of them is of the very first 21' Tahiti in our drive-way. It was called the 'Boss 21'. This one has it painted down the gunnals to advertise the fact. We were on our way to the river with it.
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Originally posted by OLDSQUIRT:
Hey Cas,
Don't the sell the Tahiti Tiger short. It's 17'10" http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
OldSquirt,
Sorry about that, I guess 4in means a lot in some areas http://free.***boat.net/ubb/eek.gif
Cas,
Nice website. By the places you frequent, it seems you live near me. Im in Sacramento. A beautiful little Hot Boat Lake many of us keep a secret is called Camp Far West Lake. Its near Lincoln California. There are always some interesting drags in the evening at 1/4 mile cove. Lots of camping to. About the old tahiti. Ill post a pic of it (after I go take it) and see what you think. Your boat appears to be the same color as mine. My boat is 20'6"
Mini,
I'm in Sonoma. I've heard quite a bit about CFW but have never been there but will check it out one of these days. You ought to join us at the Tower Park Run Aug 23-25. We have about 30 boats coming and quite a few people, mostly from the Banderlog message board and this one. As a matter of fact, OldSquirt and Old Rigger will both be there.
If you're interested, let me know, it's only $54.00 for a campsite for the weekend. It's going to be a great time!
oh yeah,
just found some pictures in my dad's stuff, 1971-2. One of them is of the very first 21' Tahiti in our drive-way. It was called the 'Boss 21'. This one has it painted down the gunnals to advertise the fact. We were on our way to the river with it.
OR,
I'd like to see those pics. If you get a chance, can you post them? If not, bring them up to Tower Park so we can check them out.
Steve
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Oh yea Mini,
We'll be up at Rollins Lake June 15th through the 21st if you're interested in making a little short trip.
Steve
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I've got a '78 18' tahiti bubble deck I've had for about 4yrs. now and love it. Bought it as a turn key with a BBC Berk. pump looking forward to seeing you all at Tower park in Aug. if not before somewhere. Jake
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My neighbor has a 18 or so Tahiti with a 4cyl and an outdrive. He was looking to sell it(its a basket case) untill I showed him the article on the same boat featured in readers ride in HB a few months ago. Any special info about these boats. He has the motor torn down for stronger rebuild with plans of running light boost with a turbo.
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DEEZ NUTTS,
if your buddies boat is like that one in HB a few months back, it's a 16 footer. They built tons and tons of them from 1965 on. Up until last year, sombody was actually still building them.
When I saw that boat in HB, I just about flipped because the thing was so clean. I called Orange County info on a hunch and got the guys # and called him up. I told him that my dad worked there starting in '66 up through '74 or '75. As we talked he walked out to his garage and was telling me details about the boat. I told him how to identify the markings to see if my dad had built his boat and as luck would have it, he did. All riggers had to sign their boat in case of warranty work. The boat's never been down except for a rebuild on the motor. Original gauges, wiring, carpet and so on. Never so much as a leak. The guy has kept excellent care of it.
There was actually 3 different molds for the litle 16. The outboard is pretty obvious. The jet and I/O molds were different although both were used for the same thing. The I/O like the one in the article has a transom that is raised, it has a certain amount of crown to it to allow to raise the X on the out drive. This hull came later. The early I/O's used the hull with the flat area above the transom, which was really the jet hull. I have a buddy that has a '66 I/O in this hull. The other one is better. All the bottoms were the same. Actually, there were 6 different decks for the 16 when you count in the one's with the wrap around windshield. It was offered with all types of power too.
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I have a 1975 19' Tahiti that has been converted from a closed bow to an open bow. I love the boat and the low freeboard and the updated look of an older boat. Here are a few pics.
http://free.***boat.net/cgi-bin/imag...4.JPG&img=&tt=.
http://free.***boat.net/cgi-bin/imag...3.JPG&img=&tt=.
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Originally posted by RiskyinElsinore:
I have a Tahiti with a small block chevy and out drive and I am happy to say that it can hold it,s own up next to most jet boats and I realy like ****ing with the blown guys.You could'nt touch any jetboat sm. blk. or big,and certainly not a blown.Get a life!