Boat Buzz

Hello everyone,

I’m new to the forum and new to Chris Craft boats. I bought a 1963 constellation and I’m having a large pond built at my farm to put her in. She’ll be an art studio / get-away spot there and won’t have room to drive. She’ll be tied up to a peer. This boat is in good shape but certainly needs some TLC. I’m thinking of pulling out the engines and generator since she’ll be shore-power only at her new home.

Anyhow, I was writing to see if you all have any advice on where to start. Thinking about rebuilding the fly bridge for starters since I had to have it disassembled at the boat yard to bring the height down and get her home.

Attached are a few photos.

I’ve been documenting this as well as the pond construction on my blog: dbfarm.org

Very ambitious project. I looked at the blog and seen snow. I would start by winterizing the boat. Will the pond freeze?

The pond design calls for a circulation pump so the top may freeze although it won't freeze solid. It definitely doesn't get that cold for that long here in the pacific NW.

Oh and here are some pictures this time (tried to upload previously and failed).


In the water


Interior, salon


At the farm

I should probably explain why the boat is going into a pond in my yard and not into a large body of water where she can fulfill her true purpose; here in WA it is not uncommon to find people living on boats. Seattle has a large lake in the middle of it called Lake Union and for a long time people have lived on boats in Lake Union. In the past twenty years or so home prices in Seattle started to rise and the city became increasingly concerned about people living on increasingly elaborate boats (some basically barges with luxury homes on them) and not paying actual property taxes. Therefore, they passed a law that all live-aboards after a certain year (2014, I think) would be counted as homes for the purpose of property taxes and any that had been occupied before that time could keep paying $50 a year or whatever it is for boat registration. So... this has created a secondary market for grandfathered live-aboard "plaques". Needless to say, this particular boat was a live-aboard in lake Washington and the previous owner wanted to transfer their plaque to a newer, larger houseboat. That meant that this one had to be "destroyed" or otherwise guaranteed to not come back into the water in WA state. Initially I thought about wrapping the hull below the waterline in Tyvek and dropping her in the dirt but that just didn't seem right for such a stately craft and so that's where the pond plan came from. It counts as "destroyed" for the state's purposes since the boat is confined and yet she gets to float on....

As a result of these limitations, my renovation will be fairly limited to structural concerns and cosmetic upkeep. I will likely gut the mechanical equipment completely. I imagine there's a market for that (two beautiful Chrysler Marine 330s). Also, the work I do on the boat will be done in a manner that is fit to her new home as opposed to cruising at top-speed on the open sea.

The pond has been shaped, the liner goes in on Wednesday and the boat gets moved in on Friday. On Saturday, the boat will be bead (glass) blasted from the deck down to take her to bare wood. In the meanwhile, I'm pulling all hull fittings (rudders, props, exhaust, etc.).

Once she's bare I will treat all of the hull wood with Smith's CPES, then plug holes, then fill w/ two-part filler and / or 5200. Then the painting begins.... since the boat will be in a relatively small pond (50x100) for the rest of her life and the pond is filtered by the plants that are in it ("natural pond" with "bog filter"), I'm trying to decide what type of bottom hull paint to use; I want something that doesn't have biocides and is non-ablative. I've been thinking about a rubberized paint like Durabak-18 polyurethane. Any thoughts on this?

Well... the boat has been sealed up and painted and is in the pond now and the pond is filling. So. Slowly. Countdown to liftoff...

Hmm... photos never seem to upload on here, so here's a link to my website: https://dbfarm.org/2020/10/19/filling-t ... so-slowly/