Good luck, In my opinion, its a darn nice boat. I haven't been without one since about 1975. If you add a blown motor later you may have to make a few changes to get it to perform really well. Like blueprint the bottom and change the strut angle and location.
VD Cruiser or whoever is in the know,
Today I pulled the floor boards and realized that there are only 2 full length stringers. I assumed there would be 4, but I know It's typical for Howards to have the belly tanks which would make it difficult to have 4. Is that how all of these were layed up?
Yes, thats how both of mine were layed up. I think when Howard Brown owned the company he did them all like that. I haven't actually seen the inside of one made by the new owner. My 74 was more of a tank than my 83, lots of fiberglass in that boat.
HOwards - do have two full leanth stringers -- with fiberglass tanks -- If you ever have to put tanks in -- I have learned that you should cut the tops off of the old tanks and install the new tanks inside the old casings ( the belly tanks are designed as part of the bottom .) I have one with a very mild bb - with a 177 blower on it - still been messing with the set up as it was all mesed up - boat was origially set up with a 1000hp turbo motor - and replaced with a junk yard 396 when i took delevery of it -- ( took it out once and geranede it) I put the 468 in it and have been doing everything slowly ( money ) be interesting to gps it .I would estimate it's running around 70mph - and its set up on the fat side ( carb ) Its hard for me to tell as its a larger boat than i'm use to and they're not slot cars -- I have passed my old mans jet boat He had two people and i had 6 and 50 galllons of fuel - ice chest - skie's -- ect --
468 chev, alum heads - hyd cam - lightings mag, turbo 400 - c 500 with 15 in it ( origialy had 29s ) 11.5 x14 x1 three blade - looking for a 11.5 x15 three blade - i think you either set these things up as family cruisers to run mid seventies , or you move the engine up and set them up as ski racers to run the tripples -- but i'm still on a colision course with my wallet
Yes, thats how both of mine were layed up. I think when Howard Brown owned the company he did them all like that. I haven't actually seen the inside of one made by the new owner. My 74 was more of a tank than my 83, lots of fiberglass in that boat.
I think that you'd have to hold a gun to Gene's head now to get him to build a 21 v-drive, he didn't like building them when I was rigging for him back in the early 90's. And now that he's moved on to much bigger, faster, (not to mention his own design) boats, the the 20's a dead duck. In fact the molds were for sale a few years ago. Don't know if anyone bellied up to the 50K he wanted or not. I was interested in them until I heard the price tag. But that includes a few different decks for that bottom too and the tooling was top notch.
But to answer your question, the boats layed up by Gene the 'new' owner, comming up on 20 years as the new owner, were exactly the same as when Howard Brown was building them, very heavy boats with way more glass than any other builder came close to using (to me a good thing, they rode fantastic and were rock solid) and he still used the old fiberglasss floor tanks, which were layed up at the shop along side the hull and deck.
They're not belly tanks, belly tanks go between the stringers.
You shouldn't put something so beautiful next to mine. Dave, that thing is awesome and I'll i've seen is the stern. I've heard and read alot about it. Can't wait to see it in the water.
yeah, the only thing wrong with it is it's not mine. lol
Damn, its hard to believe Gene has owned that deal for 20 years, time sure does fly.
Old Rigger, what years did you work for Howard Brown, or did you ?
Only worked for Gene and Brett Park. They were partners in the beginning when Howard sold out, I don't know what happened to make Brett leave (well, I do, but it's old news, lol). Brett came from Cole and was a fantastic v-drive guy, taught me a lot about rigging them. My history was jets, I/Os and outboards before that with a few v-drives at Advantage mixed in.
When I was a kid Howard Brown lived 6 doors down and for time in the late 60's rented a house from my parents. I'd see him on a regular basis when I worked at Rogers, running up to his shop for one thing or another and shooting the bull with his rigger, John. Or Howard would be down at Rogers hanging out, spreading the bullshit pretty thick. Cool guy. All the boat builders knew one another pretty well in our little part of the world back then. All within a ride on my old stingray bike, on any given Saturday I could hit, Tahiti (see my dad), Weiman's (and later Rogers), Howards, Wriedt, DragonCraft, Don Kirbys glass shop, Gayon/Hill racing engines, Glen L designs (see what was being built in the wood shop), Chuck Sterns water skis, Brad water skis (still have my last old wood Brad) and so on. Let me tell you, it was a very magical thing to be a little snot nose kid, and hanging out in these shops and watching these men, some of who were more or less my heros, building boats, water skis and engines. It was almost a forgone conclusion that I'd be building boats someday. Which was fine by me. From the first time I smelled resin fumes when my dad went to work for Tahiti in '66, I was hooked.
Damn Rigger, that must have been too cool hanging out with those guys. Know what you mean about smelling the resin, when I went to look at the first flatbottom I ever bought,(a Stevens), it was in a wharehouse, and when we opened the door that resin smell was something I will never forget. Howard was quite a character wasn't he. I wondered why Brett left Gene, but never heard why. I met both of them at the shop when they were still together.
Only worked for Gene and Brett Park. They were partners in the beginning when Howard sold out, I don't know what happened to make Brett leave (well, I do, but it's old news, lol). Brett came from Cole and was a fantastic v-drive guy, taught me a lot about rigging them.
Brett was a ten. Good man. Whatever happened to him? Where did he go from there? He had skills...
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