hardtops, so what happend to them?

[ziggy]

hey folks. so i got this aristocrat speedboat. it has a slideing hardtop + it's removeable too. havn't removed it yet, but i might. so anyways. i've only had this boat for a fall and a spring. so far. i'm real hip as to the better environment that i'm boat in. ie. under cover from my hardtop. so why don't the mfg.s make these anymore. man theyz hip. ya can boat in high winds and hide from them. ya can hide from the rain. ya got shade. ya got privacy, theys closed bow so ya can sub the bow and have it just run off. the only draw back that i've encounterd is ya gotta duck to go under the top. hit yer head a few times, ya will learn. these hardtops seem to extend the boating season and the weather ya can boat in. my boat, being a 19' boat, ya got a place in the back to fish from if that's yer bag. ya, ya lose the bow rider part. but i don't see that as a big loss. had me a bow rider before. and only had folks use it speraticly. the bow riders i've rode in beat ya to death + it's wet and noisey. granted it's fun, but not for to long... so i wonder what happened. hardtops seemed pretty popular in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s but then they faded away.......now that i've boated under a hardtop. i think i'd find it a drag to be out in the weather.....my last boat was a fx140 pwc....snicker.......one extreme to the other.......maybe i just got wooped on the pwc.....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: hardtops, so what happend to them?

i remember them here in Fla. they got extremely hot in the summer. then then the competition started the rag tops that snapped to the windshield. and now that seems not to be popular. i remember the rag tops, got hot also in the summer, when stopped and no wind. when i was 10 or 12, fishing with my parents, 28* weather, i took the blankets and made a cabin stuffing the blankets under the top support poles. the sun coming thru the windshield warmed it up really nice.

 

[ziggy]

Re: hardtops, so what happend to them?

ah, i'm hip. the heat'll kill ya. i'm waitin to find out about that i think. in nebraska it get's to 100*+ w/ high humidity in the summer. will melt yer *****. no breeze at all. well. the pwc. ya just spashed yerself. the trihull bow rider i would end up puttin the top up. needed some shade some how. the hardtop i got ya can take the side windows out of too. seems like that'd be about like a regular vynal top. i resever judgement on that statement though. w/o knowing the facts about the heat and how the hardtop reacts. maybe it's an oven. i can see how a different hardtop configuration might be that way.....hence a/c in motoryahts i guess. but i'm talkin small pleaser craft. i still think a hardtop would be something that folks would like.......obviously i'm outa touch..... they don't make them anymore.......there musta been some reason. maybe it was to much heat........i'll find out i think and let ya know.......

i'm bummed, my aristocraft came with a rag top too. + the hardtop. i don't have the ragtop option..... might wish i had that.......



oops, edit........the bad words.......

 

[sturdavj]

Re: hardtops, so what happend to them?

Ah yes, hardtops those were the days. They were double deckers, I was small /young enough that I was allowed to crawl up on top and told to lay very still while Dad and my Uncles sat underneath pouring down ?Oly?s?. Hey do they still make Olympia Beer anymore ? I know Coors bought the brewery but I thought I saw a fellow in the store the other day with a half rack under his arm. Yes sir those were the days?.fishing from a hardtop, life was good.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: hardtops, so what happend to them?

When I was in Gulfport, MS, the next door neighbor had either a 15 or 17' hardtop....red and white with a 60 hp McCullogh.....when all I had was my little 13' Taylor craft and palsy 22 hp Scott. I really thought it was pretty. And today (timeframe) I have visited the Aristocraft www and am really impressed with the construction of the boat for the time.....'65.

I thought the sliding top was a great idea which gave you both of both worlds.

Mark