Leigh's 1975 Skicraft Clinker Deluxe - "HORNET" - Restoration Project

[HamaTime™]

Thanks man, yeh it's almost ready for a test-run up the river, getting excited now.

Close, it's 16 foot. It puts out a pretty small wake as most ski boats this era were designed for just that, skiing. But if you tweak the ballast a little (these Skicraft are apparently drive very nose-up without any frontal weight) you can get a small wake that's high enough for wakeboarding and very clean (I should also learn how to ski though, haha). The previous owners already had a high-pole and bimini installed recently so it's ready to roll. Next on my list though is the rear ski pole. It's too high. I'm gonna ditch it and replace it with a stainless tube with a milled ski bollard welded into the top. Wanna keep it looking low and smooth, and the current ski pole is old-skool (tall with two prongs sticking out either side). I'm keen to get this done before I put the swim platform on the back as the prongs in this one could do some damage to someones shins/legs when stepping out onto the platform if they're not careful.

Speaking of the swim platform, got two stainless brackets made up but they come back a tad heavy as they are something like 6mm thick stainless bar with 25mm square tube for a gusset.. Looks mint, but I'm not sure if I'll whack these on or get some aluminium ones made up instead to keep weight down.

Oh and Bunnings are making an absolute fortune off me buying so much stainless fixings. It's bullshit. Had to get all new hinges today for the engine cover and rear seat, and by the time I walked out, I was $105 lighter and had sweet FA to show for it :hmmm:

Also got something special uploading to youtube at the moment... :boxing:

Haha, my guess was pretty close!

Yeah I know a bit about the skicrafts, 2 of my mates have similar era ones. One a Hallett which puts out literally ZERO wake, the other tweaked a bit for more wake.

Yeah get a rear tow mount welded in, be alot better. However for skiing, you'd be much better off towing off the high pole from a mid mount (not at top of tower). Way easier to control boat and alot more appropriate for a skiier.

You planning on hooking up a Duckboard are ya? Very easy to do. Been meaning to do it with our boat (I have a share in an '82 Ramsay Wildcat with 3 of my good mates).

 

[Leigh_G]

Haha, my guess was pretty close!

Yeah I know a bit about the skicrafts, 2 of my mates have similar era ones. One a Hallett which puts out literally ZERO wake, the other tweaked a bit for more wake.

Yeah get a rear tow mount welded in, be alot better. However for skiing, you'd be much better off towing off the high pole from a mid mount (not at top of tower). Way easier to control boat and alot more appropriate for a skiier.

You planning on hooking up a Duckboard are ya? Very easy to do. Been meaning to do it with our boat (I have a share in an '82 Ramsay Wildcat with 3 of my good mates).

Yeah nice! I'm a big fan of the old Hallets, especially ones built in the 80's. Some of the best looking boats! Also got a big soft spot for the Gilflites and Ramsay Rebels.

Thanks for the tip about mounting a ski rope to the centre of the boat, makes sense, might have to look into either a mid pole or maybe a tow point welded onto the high pole halfway up.. ya got me thinking now lol!

Yeah keen on a platform but the tank is already in and at the moment I'm just amped to get out on the water in it. Was going to do one in raw timber, like teak slats, but were now.swinging toward plywood, cut and contoured to shape, coated in fiberglass and.painted, then add some sort of non-slip surface to the top similar to the foot grip **** u can get for surfboards.

Keen to see your rig mate, post some pics up!

 

[AndyT71]

My early '70s Skicraft Clinker Deluxe

Hi Leigh

I have been very interested to read about your skicraft project over the past few weeks. I am a fellow skicraft owner, and have had my boat for the past 21 years. As far as I know mine was built around 1973, and I am the third owner. It has a mid-mount 327 Chev with tawco dog clutch. I have attached a couple of photos.

It is really interesting to see your's take shape and it is looking fantastic. Have you got it out on the water yet? I took mine out to Lake Eildon on Christmas Eve, but unfortunately I am not as young and fit as I once was so I ended up with a really badly pulled hamstring after attempting a slalom ski step start (which over the years as been the usual way I prefer to take off)

Anyway, I just wanted to share some details of a previous modification to my boat. Many years ago we replaced the standard cavitation plate with a much wider and deeper stainless steel plate. This completely changed the way the boat performed, particularly in rough water. It was previously inclined to lurch up and down and bounce all over the place, but with the new cav plate it is much more stable and enjoyable to drive and ski behind. At the same time we fitted an additional fin under the bottom just in front of the ordinal one, which helped with turning and feeling more stable in general. We had this work done by Prop-shop Marine in Bayswater (Victoria) which co-incidentally is just around the corner from where these original Skicrafts were built. I have also attached a picture of these.

I look forward to your next update, and hope you get as much enjoyment from your boat as I have over the years!

 

[Leigh_G]

Hi Andy,

Mate thanks heaps for those pics, i love seeing other Skicrafts and the subtle differences across the years they were built. There's not much out there in terms of information, and I mentioned to Sabbath in his thread there's a blog called Aussie Ski Boats, with stacks of cool pics of older ski boats, and some very knowledgeable people on it, especially the creator of the blog, Ron. He helped me out with some info on my boat and sent through a collection of pics he had. The site is: AUSSIE SKIBOATS

Being a '73, does yours have a deck bridge or is it a walkabout like mine? Ron had ads from '72 and '74 and they feature a deck bridge that separates the cockpit area. I'm curious to know when they started to make the walkabout interior.

I also have a secondary fin on mine too, although it's a touch further afore than the one in your pic... I think? Although it looks identical!

Thanks for the advice on the cav plate too, I rekon I may look into this in the near future.. And now I know the reason why I see so many of the older ski boats with big fat custom stainless cav plates on them!

How are your stringers and transom holding up after all the years? Have you had to give them much attention? My transom feels solid, no soft or hollow sounding areas (touch wood, HA HA..)
When I was screwing in some new ally angle for my floor panels to sit on, my stringers had some rot and garbage in the old engine mount bolt holes, but a few cm up the wood seemed firm and the screws bit in nice and tight..

I was keen to take it for a test spin last weekend but got dicked around with rego and insurance inspections and paperwork.. So it was gonna be this weekend, but I'm probably going to be too busy to get out there, going to see Barnsey play up at Mannum. (yes.. that's on the Murray river... how ironic eh?)

Got the gauges, bilge pump and blower earlier this week, went up and tried to get em all wired up tonight, got smashed with mozzies and spat the dummy.. will finish it on the weekend in some actual daylight..

 

[AndyT71]

Skicraft nostalgia

Hi Leigh

Glad you liked the pictures. I will take a few more and post them so you can see the interior. Yes, it does have the deck bridge and front bench seat. There is probably some benefit in being able to seat 3 people in the front (good for the young kids) but on the down side it is a bit more difficult to get in without the walk around.

We had the bearers checked out a few years ago (seems like only a few years ago, but thinking about it now it was probably more than 10 years ago) I pulled the engine out and we cut out several sections of the fibreglass to inspect. All was good so it was glassed up and the engine mounts refitted and aligned. It has a different setup to yours with 4 separate fully adjustable alloy mounts rather than the angle sections I can see in your photos. I check the mount bolts each year at the start of the season and they are still holding firm.

I checked out the site you mentioned and found some really good shots. Thanks. I also recently came across some great info at the following site: Skicraft boats nostalgia

There is even a price list for the Skicraft Clinker Deluxe models way back in 1969. There are a few pictures of boats that look identical to mine, even the same colour. Speaking of the dates, I am not 100% sure mine is a 73. It could be a little earlier. Will try to post some more pics over the next few days, and I look forward to hearing about your first run out on the river. All the best, Andy

 

[AndyT71]

More pictures

Hi Leigh

I finally got around to snapping some more pics and have attached a few.

Cheers, Andy

 

[Leigh_G]

Thanks Andy, they're awesome! I have a little folder on my PC full of skicrafts, your's is now the most prominently featured one hahah

Been flat out lately so haven't had much time to jump on here. Managed to get the Hornet up the river on sunday, Australia day long weekend.
Only had one drip sneaking through the skeg mount into the bilge, so was pretty happy about that, but had an interesting trip from the boat ramp down to the shack, as I'd put the steering cables on the spindle backwards... When I took off, it almost drove straight into the reeds hahah, had to drive it a couple hundred meters opposite steering.. did my head in!

It definitely needs some ballast up the front, old owners had a spare wheel with a lump of cement up there when I bought it lol, gonna pick up some plastic water tanks they put in 4WD's and hook my old bilge up to my water pickup circuit on a switch, that way I can just whack it in the river, and fill the ballast to whatever I need, then when I'm done, I can drain it back out into the bilge and run the existing bilge pump to get it all out so I'm not towing all that weight home.

Anyway, went for a few laps but was having issues with fuel delivery and she would just go waaay lean off idle. Wouldn't take off when you fed the throttle on normally, just hesitated. Only way to get up and going was to pull choke back on 1/3 and jab at the pedal to get the squirters dumping fuel down the venturis. Once up and on the plane, she seemed to be able to cruise along with the throttle steady..

Pulled the carb on and off about 4 times during the day trying to figure out what it was, checking float levels, cleaning out and double checking all fuel circuits were clean and flowing fuel, all seemed fine. Even went to the point of dismantling the small in-line glass fuel filter I put on and drilled out the holes on the inner tube, thinking it may have been a lack of fuel pressure.. made no difference.

Thought it may have been a vacuum leak, but the idle is solid, and spraying carb cleaner around the manifold and carb base didn't show up any leaks...
Only when I got back up to the in-laws the other night I noticed the new power-valve Holley supplied with the trick kit is a 6.5" but the original was a 10.5", so there's a possible issue right there. As far as I have read, stock clevo's run about 21" of vacuum @ idle, which makes a 10.5 valve bang on the money. Is that the entire cause of the lack of fuel? I don't know..

Just gonna get my hands on a vacuum gauge, and sort it all out for good.. Should help me the get iginition timing spot on too. It's set at 6deg initial, I rekon it could go to about 9deg and will run better.

Got some pics of everything too, she looks nice in the water! Will chuck em up hopefully tomorrow, I think there may even be a video of it porpoising past lol.

 

[AndyT71]

Hi Leigh

Looking forward to seeing the pictures \ video now that you've been out on the river. Sounds like you experienced the joys of owning a boat on your first trip out - and that is that you never quite know what to expect until you get it off the trailer and fire up the engine. I've certainly had some interesting experiences over the past 20 years! But with a little bit of mechanical knowledge most trips have worked out well with a fun time had by all. You obviously have a firm grasp on the mechanical side of things, and given the extent of your rebuild I bet you know every nut, bolt and screw in your boat and will easily sort out any unexpected dramas.

All the best mate

 

[Leigh_G]

You're bang on the money mate, was an interesting day but overall pretty good fun! One of the highlights was taking off for the first time, I engaged the dog clutch and had it locked full-left to pull away from the boat ramp, but some idiot (me) had installed the steering cable back-to-front on the spindle.. She started swinging to the right and straight toward the reeds! Was a fun drive back to the shack with the steering reversed... lol

You're right about the nuts and bolts too, I guess it's one good thing about restoring a car/bike/boat, once you're done, you have an intimate knowledge of every single part that makes it whole. Makes troubleshooting just a little bit easier!
Haven't had much chance to get stuck into it over the last couple weeks, been so flat out. My father in law swapped the power valve back, and went over the carb a couple more times with cleaner and compressed air, as well as the manifold-to-carb spacer, and re-sealed everything again to be safe. I rang him tonight and he rekons it's running really nice now, no wandering when you hold the throttle @ 2k so we might be onto a winner here (vac leak somewhere, I think maybe even between the main circuit to the venturi booster, and the float bowl breather port.. even the new Holley gasket had sweet FA meat between the two outlets)..
Gonna head up Satdee and finish everything off.

As expected the boat rides very nose-up with no weight in it, especially at slower speeds (see video) so we have now bought two plastic water tanks to install in the front of the bow.

Enough jabbering, here's some shots/video from the test day (click for larger):






Kept engine cover and rear seat out most of the day to check over everything.


Check out the houseboat going past. it's called the "Boatel".. Has so much glass it needs two massive evaps.. lol


After we whacked my boat back on the trailer, went for a few sessions behind our mate's Camero Legend. Awesome all-round boats, good for a bit of everything and not a guzzle-pig like all the monster wake boats going round.


Chilling with some ice cold beers next to the fire-pit, this is the view across the river. Bliss.

Coming back into shore after a quick test run. I had the new exhaust flanges/water outlets welded up with a 90deg elbow internally to keep water flowing away from the exhaust ports, but it was throwing water too far down the flanges and causing them to get too hot. Because I use exhaust hose for dampening right after the flanges I was worried about them melting (they were smoking slightly here) and sinking the boat.
I've since drilled out the elbow with a smaller diameter hole to let some water wash around the inside of the flange. Problem solved.

[video=youtube_share;vzqjsQSONQ8]http://youtu.be/vzqjsQSONQ8[/video]
Cruising Past.

 

[Leigh_G]

Quick update, been messing with the carb and spacer over the last few weeks, trying to get it running better. Thought we had it fixed, took it back up for a morning session and under load it was still iffy. As it warmed up though it got better, and was quite driveable, until you gave it WOT, where it would splutter and cough before taking off. From a standing start she'd completely stall out. Still, managed to go for a couple wakeboards behind it and got a mate up for page few sessions on single ski. Pretty happy with the clean wake, not big at all but nice and crisp, enough for me to get a front roll over the wake (dropped the handle though..)

Got home and thought "f*ck it" and bit the bullet


Will whack it on tomorrow night. "Hornet" stickers get cut out this weekend and go on next week, just in time for a big 4 days of Easter skiing. Hope the weather holds out!