New Project

[craigjudge]

Just thought I'd share my new project boat. It's a 1975 Lancer 19 and is completely original. So far I have not found one replaced or non original piece on the boat. She's spent her life on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. I was a little skeptical buying a boat off ebay but this one turns out to be better than was described. She's got very solid floors, hull, and topsides. Upholstery has some seams that have come apart but otherwise shows very little wear. Bimini top has no tears and seems original. The motor was winterized last November and the boat put in storage. Over the next few days I'll be getting the motor in shape and firing her up. She'll be getting a full blown restoration over the winter and will spend next season on the lower Connecticut River and Long Island sound. Stay tuned!

[Don Ayers]

Looks like a great find. Hope you have a good time bringing it back.

Welcome aboard.

PS First time I have seen a CC engine painted white but I know very little on this model and vintage.

[Wood Commander]

Cool boat. I too bought a 19' Lancer on ebay some time ago and it also ended up being a good deal. It was a 1968 model with a Chevy/Chris Craft 283F and a Volvo 280 outdrive. A great boat.
I was impressed enough with it to look for a 23' Lancer when I wanted a bigger boat with a cuddy cabin.

It looks like you've got a Marine Power/Chris Craft engine, sort of a version of the old "F" series. It looks like it's flywheel aft, is that correct?

Since your boat is a 1975, I think that would fall into place fairly well chronologically.

Just out of curiosity, I try to learn more about the engine history whenever I can. I'm fairly much up on the Hercules/Chris Craft stuff and have been inside the old Hercules plant in Canton, Ohio. And I've seen and played with a fair amount of different small block Chevy/Chris Craft V 8's.
But I am interested in learning more about the Marine Power/Chris Craft applications. For instance, yours is one of the white Marine Power engines. Some of them were blue like the previous Chris Craft V8's. So I'm trying to figure out time lines or model breakdowns on things like that.

Marine Power appears to have been the last Chris Craft link to company involvement with the powertrains before they totally farmed it out to Mercruiser. Starting, I think, with the Scorpion line in smaller inboard/outboard sportboats. And I'm assuming the larger boats as well.

[craigjudge]

In my limited online research, this is the only 307G I've seen painted white. By my calculation, it was the third Lancer built for the 75 year although the cockpit plate indicates it was built in November of 75. I'm also trying to get a grasp on the meaning of the characters in the hull ID. 0RFZ-19-3023T. I was hoping to get to use her for a month or so but when I fired her up I noticed no water coming out of the ports on the Penta 280 outdrive. Not sure why. Any thoughts?

[Wood Commander]

Just going off of bad memory cells, I think my 19'er was ORAZ 19 blank, blank, blank, blank something or other. Sometimes the 2blank, blank, blank, blank or 3blank, blank, blank, blank can mean later consecutive years of the same model.

I almost bought a Lancer based 23' 427 powered Commander that had a different alphabet soup, although I think it was built in NY. It might have had a V suffix. And my 23'er is a little different than the 19'er but in the same vein, maybe ORBZ 23 blank, blank, blank, blank or something like that, I'd have to look it up.

Some Chris Crafts from later years (60's and 70's) had an additional letter suffix that may have denoted what plant the boat was built at.
Lancers were a Cortland, NY Corsair Division product.

[Paul P]

That 19 is the "poor mans XK19" or "Super Sport Commander". It is the same hull as the 1969 19' Commander and the XK19.

It is no coincidence they called the boat the XK, just look at the windshield on a Jaguar XK-120, 140, or 150 and you'll see what I mean.

Dick Avery cut down the freeboard, added the top plate, and made it into the Commander/XK19. From a performance point of view the boat should handle the same as the outdrive model XK or Commander, as those boats came with V-drive and Outdrive. Very cool, good looking boat.

The 307K and KC came in two versions from Marine Power. A 200 horsepower KC and 215 horsepower K version, and the only difference was the 200 had a downdraft 2-barrel carb, and the 215 had a 4-barrel.

The boat appears to have been offered with 283FLV, 307Q, 307B101, or 305GLV so the specs I quoted for Marine Power may be a bit off, but the 307Q was a 200-horsepower motor with 4-barrel.

Nice find.

Paul

[craigjudge]

This one actually came with the 307GLV. Not sure on the HP but it seems to be enough. I splashed it toninght for the first time and I'm impressed with the performance so far. It was really the first sea test so I didn't go too far but so far so good.

[craigjudge]

Got it in the wet last night..runs good but she's filthy. I'll be shaking her down for the next month prior to the restoration.

[Paul P]

New boat.....old fuel, old fuel filter, old ignition components, dirt in the carb, old impeller, get a spare distributor cap, all these things can strand you on their own, and sometimes they work together!

Fun boat........good luck with it. Should be pretty fast too!

Regards, Paul

[craigjudge]

I agree. This one was properly winterized lastnovember by the marina where it was stored. has new distributor...etc. I'm not using her much this season. Too late and not I'm not familiar enough with thisparticular boat. I've restored some checkmate boats in the past but unless you go up to the 28' model, they're not good for anything but lakes. The CT river gets lots of traffic and can be quite rough on it's own..forget long island sound. from everything I've read, the lancer should be pretty quick, handle some decent chop, and have a classic look all at the same time. Everytime I see one for sale for a couple thousand or even hundred bucks, I think "what am I missing here?" I remember 20 years ago, certain muscle cars were cheap and ignored. I'm talking cars like non ss chevelles, mid 70s vettes and such. Now, they demand top dollar. I know a 1975 lancer is no corvette but it's rare, beautiful, quick, and cheap. Close enough.

[craigjudge]

after spending some time on the river I have to say I love this thing already. Wish the season was longer.

<br>Notice the Lancer 23 in the background.<br>