Chula Vista Marina
San Diego
Contact me with your interests at uscgauxackley@gmail.com
A Quick List
1960 CC Conqueror
40Ft
X
12.5 ft
Gas
Two 350 Mercruiser EFI Engines
50 hours
2 Hurth Transmissions
50 hours
100 Gals Gas
35 Gals Water
All Newer Electrical
All Newer Plumbing
Sleeps 6-8
Electric Stove
Microwave
Refrigerator
GPS
Radar
Depth/fish
I will try to describe the boat and some of the things I've been working on since I purchased the boat in September of 2000.
When I purchased the boat it was clear that someone had kept the boat in very original condition. Normal things were done to it over the course of time like putting in carpeting and a change of engines and so on. What attracted me to the boat was the things that were not done to it. Usually boats of this age show marks of owners who have made a hash of the interior, bolted silly things onto it and drilled holes through it trying to update the boat. I couldn't find saw marks or spurious holes where there shouldn't have been any. Sure there were a few things done - but it looked as if the work had been done by a qualified boatyard. Add to this the fact that things that started out as brightwork mahogany were never painted over. The wood was there, and intact. It clearly needed work to get it to the stage I wanted to see, but that was my fun.
Safety was my first concern. And then I wanted the boat to operate reliably. So started my restoration.
The boat was hauled out and the bottom was inspected (after the initial survey.) The bottom was better than any wooden boat in the yard. This was encouraging. Newer prop shafts had been recently installed but the two screws were tired and I noticed some bronze oxidation at the edges. New prop screws were installed as well as strut bearings. The bottom was painted after sanding lightly two coats were applied by me. It was done thoroughly and correctly. The bottom had been painted several more times since then.
New electronics replaced old. Depth sounder/fish finder, GPS and Radar along with a fresh radio were installed. The old stuff was pitched.
The original compass was removed and refurbished.
The old batteries were tossed. New, fresh batteries and all new battery cables were installed. In addition, new switches were installed so that any engine could use any battery bank to start. A new passive electronic battery charger system was installed as well. As you all know, as one begins to replace and install new electronic items you discover that the electrical system needs to be upgraded. Fuse panels and tin-coated ABYC wiring with proper shrink tube connections had to be done throughout. All wiring in the boat was replaced except for a couple of wires that ran under the headliner. Even those had new connector ends put on. This includes the 110v system. I wanted a reliable system without the birds nest of rinky dink 40-year old wiring in my boat. Wiring was labeled and additional fuses were put into place. All the wire runs were attached to the frame and bulkhead as you would want. Old items like the fuse panels were removed and upgraded .
The potable water system also had seen it day. Old copper tubing fed water from an old steel tank in the lazarette to the sinks and heads. The tank was replaced with a white poly tank in the same location while all the copper lines were replaced with flexible plastic PEX tubing commonly found in new boats. Now the system is corrosion free. I also tossed out the "heat exchanger" sort of water heating system and purchased a stainless steel electric hot water heater instead. The sink taps at the galley were replaced with fresh new fittings that include a removable handle so that a bucket could be filled outside of the sink if need be. A nice upgrade.
Two new bilge pumps were placed in the bilge and wired.
The engines were old and not reliable. I had been caught at sea twice with a stalled engine failure and I had enough of that nonsense. I belive the boat was originally fitted with ChrisCraft 283s. When I bought the boat I found old ChrisCraft 307s with the original Paragon transmissions. One of them was badly leaking. The decision was made to replace both engines and transmissions. This was a costly decision but if the boat was to be useful it had to be done. This actually cost more than I paid for the boat in the first place. It was done by Sunset Marine which was located at Shelter Island in San Diego. They have since relocated. Professionals built up the stringers so that the drive angle would be right and installed two brand new Mercruiser 350 EFI fuel injected engines with Hurth transmissions. While they did an excellent job I decided to replace the dash gauges with new Faria gauges with stainless bezels. I redesigned the dash as you can see in the illustration on this page. The control cables were replaced with new ones by the yard. Now this was a sweet set up. The entire drive train except for the prop shafts was new! The fuel tanks had been redone sometime in the past and the hoses are in good shape so I left those in place. I had the gasoline in the tank "Polished" in the summer of 2007 to remove any corrosion that might be sloshing around. At the same time the stuffing boxes were repacked. Also in the summer of 2007 I had the original iron mufflers replaced with new fiberglass ones by the yard. Wow, you might think everything has been done. There's a lot more.
One of the challenges I faced was leaks. No not from the bottom, but from the windows. The boat doesn't leak from the bottom. Because of age, almost every one of the 27 pieces of glass on this boat leaked somewhere. If I was going to restore the boat I first had to stop any damage from leaks. It would be of no use to put a nice finish on the mahogany only to have leaks destroy my work. This is where the woodworking part of my adventure began. I started at the top. I removed the bridge windshield structure and took it to my shop. It was completely disassembled, new wood replaced rotted wood and then it was reassembled. The windshield frame was stained and refinished and the glass replaced and sealed. While the windshield frame was off the boat I took the opportunity to refinish the helm dash area. This includes the area under the windshield structure. The dash extends under the windshield frame and forms the salon roof deck. The weather side was Fiberglas, but the Fiberglas stopped at the frame. It didn't go under it and I felt that if water got trapped in there it would sit and rot the wood. The dash was just plywood. So I extended the Fiberglas all the way through under the frame and to its final aft edge. Now when I finished the frame, it could be mounted right on top of Fiberglas covered wood. This would now be watertight.
Photos and restoration Bits
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The "Jetsons Light"
New Stainless Steel Horns
Close-up of Mast Detail
Mast Detail - Custom Canvas cover for mast and horns keep the Brightwork bright.
Click on this Thumbnail for a scan of the layout.
Click on thumbnail for a larger view.
Those familiar with ChrisCraft models of this era have seen the anchor design cut out in the galley doors for ventilation. I copied the design and etched the glass to repeat the pattern. It's very subtle but a classy touch. You can barely see the anchor at the end of the arrow.
The aft cabin bulkhead nightmare: In the aft cabin the aft bulkhead that holds the sliding door has two windows, one on each side. I don't know what the designers were thinking but the wood grain in these bulkheads runs vertically. The windows were just cut in. That means that as the water from rain pools on this slanted bulkhead it would sit and wait for a break in the finish and then wick into the end grain thereby splitting the wood and causing constant leaks. There is no way to repair this problem and the other models of this vintage all have the same problem. I couldn't end the window leaks on my boat without designing my way out of this problem. The solution was drastic to me. Cut out the bulkhead and replace it with horizontal grain mahogany and just delete the windows altogether. There was plenty of light coming in through the aft cabin side windows plus the aft sliding door already has a window in it. This was the largest wood working job so far on the boat but I trusted my skills to tackle it. When the project was finished I found that it wasn't the nightmare I thought it was. The finished product would have made ChrisCraft proud. When working on the structure or the wooden part of the boat my philosophy has always been to make sure the area I worked on ended up superior to the original either in design or integrity, and to make sure that if ChrisCraft had had access to the new methods and materials of fabrication they would have approved of my work. Ant addition to the boat has been designed as if it were drawn and designed by ChrisCraft in 1960. I'll tell you more about how this works in the salon and galley areas when I describe them.
Click to enlarge
This is actually a thumbnail you can enlarge. The photo was taken in the summer of 2005 when the decks were repainted. Notice the stanchions were removed along with all the hardware. Backing plates for the stanchions were inspected, repaired or replaced.
Click to enlarge
Here is another photo of the deck from another angle. The grey part is a coating called "Duralast" and has proved to be an excellent choice. It's been on the deck for three years now and still looks pretty good. It can hold the dirt, so a good cleaning now and then helps, but the non-skid properties seem unaffected by age so far.
Above
Taken Summer 2005
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My son, Chad - a hard worker and the best
electrician around.
Three photos above show the bulkhead and windows in the aft cabin. The bulkheads were replaced without windows because of design flaws in the original construction. More info is revealed in the narrative on the left.
The photo below shows a close up of the exterior view of the bulkhead with the windows removed. Notice the vertical grain and the unavoidable splitting of the wood.
The photo below shows new solid mahogany installed with horizontal grain. No finish at this stage though. That came later.
Above shows the almost finished exterior bulkhead without windows.
Below shows the starboard side with the hardboard removed and the frame painted. The iron muffler you see was replaced with new fiberglass in summer 2007. The starboard bunk is fitted atop this cavity. Take a look at the photos
New photos of the aft cabin taken may 2008 below.
Starboard bunk bulkhead looking aft. Click on thumbnail for a larger view.
Another view below...Click on thumbnail for a larger view.
C
Close-up of forward end of bunk shown below.
Click on thumbnail for a larger view.
T
This shows finished aft bulkhead leading to the
lazarette after refinishing and replacing old windows with new mahogany.
Click on thumbnail for a larger view. 
Below photo shows before image of the same area.
The helm decks have been refinished and a new dash console with new Faria gauges installed. A new second area dash console has been fabricated to hold the AF FM radio, the newer VHF radio and mounts for the radar, GPS, and Fish Finder. In addition, a new cabinet storage area was fabricated using the old air-conditioning fairing after the condenser was removed. As noted above, the windshield structure and glass has been completely removed and refastened, as well as sealed.
I'll write more later and post pictures of the
stuff I've talked about here. So, come back and visit the site again for
more info.
OLD DASH Click to enlarge
Helm Dash Restoration
I have started with the dash at the helm only because I had a ready set of before and after photos. I didn't know I was going to do this or else I would have documented the repairs more closely with photographs. I can tell you that it is very hard to work on a boat and stop to take an "in-process" photo.
On the left you can see the original dash configuration. Few gauges and non reliable; new ones were fitted when the new Mercruiser 350 MPI's were installed. Birdseye maple dash provides a classy background for these new Faria instruments. The white box was removed and holes filled in before the new layout was begun. Port and starboard separation was made more obvious as additional gauges were added. Note too, that the keyed ignition switches we moved so that swinging key chain elements would be out of the way. Stainless bezels surround white faces with convex glass lenses make this set-up first class and easy to maintain.
NEW DASH Click to enlarge
Details: Solid 3/4 inch birdseye maple with varnish sprayed finish. White casing was finished with final coats of epoxy white appliance enamel bought at Home Depot. Finish has now been on 5 years without signs of any deterioration or discoloring. It looks like gelcoat. Of course all the wiring internal has been replaced and carefully laid out and labeled on-wire tags for future identification. No need to trace wires here. Wires were again labeled when they passed through a bulkhead. For restorers, this is a plus for future repairs the last guy who wired you boat left undone. The wheel was rechromed as well.
This is the salon port side. You can see the finish is gloss and in process. Since the photo was taken a few years ago the salon is much more complete today. I have installed four cubby holes that now have doors. The doors have been designed with hardware to look as if Chris Craft might have done it this way if they had thought of it. The photos below show two cubbies port side salon and the one below is starboard. The photo to the left is a close-up. All are thumbnails. To enlarge, just double-click. Extra space is always welcome on any boat.
Hatch Rebuilding
The first picture show the old and new hatch side by side close-up. Because the original had only two layers of mahogany and were screwed together, you can see the cracking that occurred at the arrows. When redesigning the cover I used three rings,
The first drawing shows how I laid out the wood pattern. Edge-to-edge epoxy glue joints were used as a first step prior to cutting circles. I did that three times to achieve a 3-layered hatch design.
The next drawing shows how these were assembled along with the bronze ring, glass and plated trim grille. The dark lines indicate where the joints lie.
The photo showing the finished layers is upside down - red is the inner, smaller ring, the green is the bronze trim ring, the yellow is the lower exterior wood layer while the blue is the top wood layer.
This sandwiching was epoxied together without screws and has withstood three years of continuous use without cracking the varnish or deteriorating in any way.
The final full photo of the hatch shows the finished piece (before I re-did the decks) It stands a little prouder than the old one but by only and inch, a small price to pay for a hatch cover that is intended to last.
