Chris Craft Ski Boat

I bought this boat with plans to restore it. It is a very rare boat. In the 80's waterskiing was very popular. A lot of boat manufacturers saw an opportunity to expand their product line into the water ski boat market. With many years of inboard boat experience, Chris Craft created their own interpretation of a ski boat withtheir ownflair. This boat is a 1982. I think they made these water ski boats for 3 years, 1981, 1982, and 1983. They later made an inboard outboard that was 21 foot long and called it a ski boat. This was also an odd time in the life cycle of Chris Craft. They were transitioning through a change of ownership. Chris Crafts are famous for their beautiful mahogany wooden boats. The hull design on this boat shares a lot of the same design features as their wooden predecessors. The nose of the boat is much more blunt than many pleasure boats. The gunnels are nice and deep. The hull is a nice V shape.

So now, the obvious. It needs work. However, the good part is that it is half way there! I have helped a fried re do the interior and floor in his Ski Sanger. I have helped to gut a Ski Nautique from the 70's. A friend of mine and myself bought a Ski Eliminator that was in rough shape and brought that up to snuff and sold it. I have also tore the whole interior, floor, and stringers out of 1964 Hydrodyne ski boat and redid it all. That is why I was interested in this boat, a lot of the hard work is done. The stringers seem in pretty good shape. It is a 33 year old boat with wood in the hull so there are some spots that I would put some fiberglass and resin on to reinforce but the stringers seem in good shape as does the stern of the boat. The motor has been replaced. Originally this boat came with a Chevrolet 350. It currently has a 400 in it. It looks like someone was taking the motor out or just putting it in. There is a jack holding the engine up on one side. If you look for Christ Craft parts on classifieds board it is easy to find the parts that may be needed to mount the motor. The motor is also disconnected from the transmission. I pulled a spark plug on the motor and it looked OK. I did take off the fuel water separator, to minimize the chance of junk getting in the carburetor. There is oil in the crank case that looks OK. One other option would be to talk to the service men at Discount Inboard Marine, www.skidim.com. These are some of the best people to help with inboards. It may be possible to take out the motor, transmission, etc... that is in it now, and replace it with any motor, a new transmission, and set up. Then you can sell the parts from the Chris Craft motor and transmission on classifieds board. Or maybe you have a set up from another inboard, you could just swap them out. Also Discount Inboard Marine will be able to help you with any other parts that you may need for this restoration. It has a nice ski platform that did not come from the factory. The man that sold me the boat said that he had gotten it from an old Hatarus. I took it off to fit the boat in my garage and I knew that it would have to come off anyway as part of the restoration. The previous owner shared some pictures from when the boat was in the water in the'90's. I have one of them in the photo gallery.

The Load Rite trailer. The trailer does OK for the boat. It is a little tongue heavy. I pulled it to my house for about 3 hours with a Jeep Wrangler and it did OK. The tires still hold air but are dry rotted. It is a galvanized roller trailer. It is not really designed for an inboard, but it works. My friend and I do have an inboard boat trailer that I may consider selling, I just don't know right now. I have the title for the boat and the trailer.

I would consider delivering it to some areas. I live about an hour East of Charlotte, NC. So, possibly some parts of South Carolina I could deliver to also. If you are interested please ask. There will be a delivery fee unless it is very close by.

I am selling this because I have some other projects that I want to get to. I have had it for about 3 years and have not really been able to work on it at all. This would be a good winter project. It would be very feasible to start it in the fall and have it done by spring. I just don't have the time and want to actually finish some projects. So cutting back on one will help me accomplish that goal. Thank you for looking. I hope that you will bid on this great opportunity and not let a vintage Chris Craft slip away. It is not every day that you get a chance to own a piece of Chris Craft history at this price and be able to put your own interpretation into the outcome.

On Jun-20-15 at 15:52:51 PDT, seller added the following information:

On Jun-20-15 at 16:01:36 PDT, seller added the following information: