Tell me a story about your BOAT... If only it was one boat story to talk about.
Which one should I start with? Maybe the one that got me into this situation. Some of you might remember back in the day when the old school CGOA message board was still online, when Bruce Johnson was still with us and Tom Brown on the Carlson speed forums had everyone excited about going really fast in a 16.
Well that was the time I was 14 years old surfing eBay to find something I could spend my pocket money on. Not really knowing what I was searching for I remembered my dad telling me about the James Bond Glastron.
“Glastron” was what I put in the search engine, actually I’d have to sue eBay for putting up international biddings as well but it’s a addiction right? So this CVX 16 in the UK shows up. A total fixer upper but hey you have no clue when you are 14 right?!
Being pretty new on eBay I accidentally misplaced the “,” in the amount. Bidding more than 30.000$ for a bare CVX16 hull. Of course I was the highest bidder. “Daaaaaaad?”
Him being pretty new to computers as well it took us quite some time to find the “delete your bid” section.
I still ended up being the highest bidder though.
My dad loved the idea at first, if he wouldn’t have known back then all the grey hair this Glastron disease was gonna cost him in the next 15 years he’d probably jumped out the window right away.
Anyways, the boat being in the UK, us being in Germany we needed someone to transport it. Who would have thought that shipping a 16ft boat on a way too small trailer from the island to the mainland was gonna cost a fortune...
When the boat ended up here it was a total basket case. Full of snow, water, leaves and everything you can imagine.
Being this the first real boat restoration for my dad as well we started digging around the internet. That’s how I met you guys.
It was a Roger Clark CVX16, made in the UK. No HIN but probably an ‘85 , and the coolest thing - the only one worldwide known up until today that was blue and tan/beige instead of blue/blue. Really loved that combination.
Years passed by, teenage life was more important, going to high school in the US, I finally had the boat in the water when I was 17. Brand new Tohatsu 50hp engine wasn’t a lot of power but it was super fuel efficient (with gas prices being in the 8$ a gallon range). It pushed the boat with me and a half tank to 35mph which was a lot to me back then. I enjoyed the boat for several years until I sold it heartbroken being my first boat I bought from my pocket money. My girlfriend back then cried when it was picked up by the new owner. Especially cause he stated “I don’t know if I really like the color, just need a boat that’s not too high so I can cross below the bridges on our river...”
Of course it broke my heart to hear that but he paid the price I was asking without big negations. Never heard from him again.
Years later being an established Glastron guy I get a mail from an Hungarian living in Austria. He wanted my advice on a boat he’d like to buy. I didn’t see that mail until like 2 weeks later so I apologized and answered his questions. He replied that he bought the boat and send me some pics with it. Well it was my first boat he bought. Making its way from the UK to Germany and now hacking up the rivers in Hungary where they have a vacation home.
He has now equipped it with the 115hp Tohatsu, which was always my dream back then but not affordable for a 17 year old. They now use it for skiing with their other boat and I get at least 2-3 messages a year about how much he loves it.
I’m really happy that I still know where my boat is and that it’s still in the same color as I bought it in.
The end.
Of course being hooked on Glastron the next boat was a Glastron again. And who’s fault was it? Again! My dad... reading through the German boating paper there was a sales ad for a “Glastron 12JE”. Me knowing what it was I called right away. Asked the owner how much he wanted and walked to my car to drive 500 miles to look at it. Traffic and construction sites slowed me down so I got there right before it was dark. As I thought I identified on the very small and bad picture it was a CVC 18. And again in very bad condition... Why can’t I be the one finding this pristine barn find??
Interior and engine was “stolen” so he said. He was a metalworker before he retired and build the trailer himself. That thing weighed more than 3.600lbs! Quite solid for a 18 footer if you ask me.
Someone cut two big holes in the front to allow some light in the cuddy, the bow was faded very bad, no interior, no engine, no windscreen, nothing. Sounds like a good deal right? Well I had to think about it. Drove home, put into consideration how rare it was, that the Berkeley was still on it, that if I’d sell the trailer I’d have the money back I’d put into it, I called him the next day, negotiated the price a little further, drove back down and picked it up.
Started taking it apart (well the few things that were left). I found a condom wrapper in the cuddy under the love shack carpet. It looked like it was back from the 70’s. That was the moment I decided to get rid of the nostalgia on the ceiling...
Called our German importer from back in the day a few days later to ask if they still had some parts. Mrs. Tibus knew right away that they still had two brand new windscreens and two brand new covers. How did she know? Because they only ever sold two CVC 18s in Europe. One being a Volvo small block with a I/O and the other one being a jet. After telling her the HIN she verified it looking into the old custom papers even telling me the name of the guy who bought the boat brand new.
Got a real nice trailer for it that’s been sitting on for 8 years now not being touched...
Again... The internet and I think it was you Gregg, were the ones who changed the plan...
An ‘83 Intimidator popped up in California. It always was my all time favorite Carlson. Talked to my dad. He regretted not buying a brand new one at Tibus when I was a kid, telling me go get it. Send a few messages, the seller not really being very helpful or interested in selling it to a foreigner I messaged Andy who took a little road trip to look at it. Again, if you read this Andy, thanks for picking it up for me all those years ago.
I think I repeat myself but why the heck can’t I be the one finding a mint barn find?!
It turned out the boat was a full resto again, the biggest one yet. Gelcoat was crazed and broken everywhere due to the intense Cali sun. When I picked up the boat in the port I was thinking about just hooking up the brand new Bayliner that was parked next to it...
But hey, who can say their Glastron sailed through the Panama Channel right?!
I “enjoyed” the boat for one season. “Enjoyed” because (at that point I didn’t know) it had a wrong carb on it and I got 2.5 miles a gallon... Unbelievable I know that’s what everyone said. Until I took them for a spin. I always had an extra 26 gallon barrel as a spare tank sitting between the seats... Again, lot of fun with gas prices being at 8$ a gallon. But it’s only money right?
When taking a friend out, we call him the brain cause he pretty much knows everything about engines, right after I got it he fell and tripped and broke the windshield. Yeeeeey.
I ended up finding a brand new original one that was stored in the basement for years though.
After having fixed the fuel consumption my dad and I started the restoration the next winter by putting a new floor in. Then the real pain started. I sanded the entire gelcoat and flakes down to the bare fiberglas. If you’ve never done this before I highly recommend you never do. Cost me many years of my life inhaling that dust, cost me a fortune cause I had to buy the roughest sanding paper and had to use so many of them. In the end it took me more than 170 hours of sanding to get the result I wanted. From here on the next nasty work began, putting a few new layers of fiberglas on the bow and cracked areas, regeling it and having it painted in metalflake. Back then I didn’t know anyone that affordably would regel it with flakes so I just had it painted. So far it lasted for 8 years without any trouble.
A real cool moment was when we took out the tank and I found a Dollar hiding below it. One corner was torn off but we looked really close and ended up finding it. It’s now in a frame at home.
I got all the paper work, service reports and so on with the boat. So I googled some names, send some letters to the addresses I found and ended up getting one letter back from a really nice guy who had the boat in 85. He send me some pics from back then. On the pictures you could see that the first owner must have been the one putting on the non original cleats and cut the hole for the radio and the antenna. Now none of this exists anymore. No cleats either, I like the clean look.
The boat still had the original outdrive when I got it which lasted one season until I broke it. Sold it for parts, bought a Gen 2 Alpha and transom.
Did some mild things to the engine over the years, was scared I’d brake the new Alpha again, upgraded to a Bravo XR Racing outdrive. That’s what it currently has and I’m super happy with it. Just having trouble finding props for it as I love the Cleavers and they don’t have a FloTorq hub. Have to find another prop in the states for the next season.
Next project will be a complete overhaul of the original trailer.
I’m pretty sure I missed out on many fun things but don’t want to bore you either.
The end but surely more to follow.
There was a CV23 somewhere along the way but that’s a story for another time.