'61 Speed Queen 16'

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Came across another one today, a brand that's new to me altogether.
It's a 1961 Speed Queen by Glastex. It was in storage for the past 28 years.
The former owner had begun to replace the floors, but took ill and never finished.
I actually bought it for it's motor, a pretty clean mid 70's Evinrude and had figured that hull would be scrap, but after a good look, it's not bad at all. The hull is in near perfect shape, the transom is rock solid and dry, and it appears that they built these without any wood? The transom looks to be laminated glass, the floor was glass with a wood core, but the stringers are all glass, sort of tubes formed out of heavy glass mat. It's really light, even for a 16' boat. Two guys can easily carry this boat. I'd guess it to be well under 400lbs total bare.
The steering is cable and pulley, it appears to have had wooden slat type seats. The rub rail is solid aluminum with no rubber insert. There is no flotation at all.
It came to me with an original 1961 FL title, so I would guess that it was a one owner boat.
It needs a new floor panel, which is less than a full sheet of plywood or glass, modern steering and a good buffing to bring back the shine a bit better.
Anyone have an experience with this brand? Info seems scarce for the 1960 to '61 models. fiberglassics shows 1959 and 1962, but nothing that matches mine exactly.
I really wasn't looking for another boat but I'll have to give this one some consideration. It's nice enough to be a really nice boat again.
Here's a few quick pics:
http://i37.tinypic.com/vxp8xt.jpg

http://i33.tinypic.com/wlvuon.jpg

http://i35.tinypic.com/r2jeyw.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/o93ig9.jpg
 

tashasdaddy

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
51,019
Re: '62 Speed Queen 16'

Re: '62 Speed Queen 16'

great find, well worth restoration. could probably handle that 70 real well. i love the lines of the hull. having the original title increases the value about a dollar.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: '61 Speed Queen 16'

It's the first boat I've had that is all glass, and it's super light, I moved it from my flatbed, to the boat trailer it's on for now by myself. Other than being full of bees, it's pretty clean. The floor will be pretty simple and the transom is rock solid. A search of Fiberglassics.com shows an Imperial model in 1962 but no info on the 1960-61 models. The Imperial is similar but not the same, it's the closest in hull design and style. That lists it as an 80hp max.
I thought the original title was cool, it's not often you see a boat this old still in original hands. It has no windshield, but did at some point, but my guess is that it was removed a long time ago. There's very little sign of it being there, but you can see the mark and holes where it was. The bow is clean, no holes for cleats or anything other than the light and two chocks that are on it now. It only has two rear cleats that were obviously added. The transom is also super thick, the cast cap that runs side to side was cut in the middle to allow hanging a newer motor, with the cap on, the transom is over 3" thick. From what I can see from where the motor cutout was made, the transom looks like many layers of glass laid up to form the transom. The transom was also never drilled for a motor, its motor was a clamp on bracket. It did have an aluminum kicker motor bracket on it.

This thing would fly with a 70 HP, it weighs less than my aluminum 16' boat, and is probably close to my 1989 Duranautic 12' V hull in weight.
I went to pick it up thinking the hull would be junk, so I drove there with an equipment trailer figuring I'd have to winch on a boat to just scrap, so we had to load it as it was stored upside down. We laid it on carpet padding and strapped it down for the lengthy ride home. I put the motors in the back of the truck.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: '61 Speed Queen 16'

After giving it a weeks worth of thought, I've decided to put this one up for sale, or trade. I've got too many other projects going that will keep me busy for the next few years. Storing this for that long isn't an option as I am simply out of room. If anyone in the NJ area is looking for an easy project boat, let me know.
I am too far into two other 16' glass boats and one aluminum that I don't wish to part with. I do wish I had found the Speed Queen first but I'm not going to dump a boat that I've got 100 hours of work into for a new project. My Glasspar is much lighter and I've just finished doing the floors in that. It's more of a fishing boat than the Speed Queen too.

The Speed Queen will need a deck installed, (the stringers are all glass and are in perfect shape, as is the transom). The lower hull is in good shape with no cracks or damage and the upper cap is also in great shape. It's still set up for rope steering, so I'd probably recommend modern steering.
The best part is how light this is and the fact that it's got such a heavy duty transom and splashwell for a small boat. The super wide beam width up front is another great feature as it should mean a very dry ride.
There's no trailer, no motor, just the hull as pictured above in my first post and I have a title to it. It will make someone a very cool vintage ride.
 

oops!

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
12,932
Re: '62 Speed Queen 16'

Re: '62 Speed Queen 16'

cool boat reel....

im havin a tough time figguring out how they got the hull out of the mold with that s stripe in it....mabe a 2 or 3 part mold...???

really classic
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: '61 Speed Queen 16'

cool boat reel....

im havin a tough time figguring out how they got the hull out of the mold with that s stripe in it....mabe a 2 or 3 part mold...???

really classic

I was thinking the same thing, that 'stripe' is about a 2 1/2" raised section which is hollow inside, it's open to the inside of the hull and the glass in that area is thicker. The hull is made of woven glass, not blown. You can see where sections were hand laid into a mold and where some sections are doubled for extra strength. The keel is made very similar too, but it's closed off to the inside of the hull with both a center fiberglass 'tube' which is one of 5 that form the wood free stringers.

That stripe on the side actually twists and goes from a straight protrusion to a downward angled chine. I was thinking that maybe they had a separate part of the mold that they removed after the mold release? Maybe a metal or wood insert that detached from the mold?

The cap to hull area is also different as it needs only a very narrow, although pretty heavy duty metal rub rail. The fit is perfect all around. The aluminum rub rail is only about 1" wide and completely hides the seam. It almost looks like the cap was glassed on but if you look really careful, you can see the edges meeting just under the rub rail.

I was most surprised to see how heavy duty the transom and splash well are on this. It's the first older boat of this size I've seen with a real splashwell area, my others all have small, short, added on splash trays that add little or no support to the transom.

The advertisements I found at fiberglassics.com say 'ALL GLASS BOAT' but the transom is most likely wood, and the floor was thin plywood. There's still a small section of floor still in place up in the bow and about an inch wide lip around the sides. The floor looks added or previously replaced, the lip around the sides isn't well adhered. I can peel off the layers of glass there without affecting the main hull. It's my guess that they didn't sand the sides when the glassed in the floor edges. There's also no attachment to the stringers and no foam. It looks like the floor just sat there with only the edges glassed to the hull?
I can see where it had a bench seat that spanned the inside of the hull, there are two marks from where it was attached at one time. My guess was that it was plywood with a glass covering. I'm not sure whether that was original or not. It's not one of their 'pass-thru' hulls that had the split seat or one that had a dual cockpit area, the upper gunwale area is smooth and untouched. It was always an open hull.

The hull is amazingly rigid for being so light too, there's no flex even with the floor out of this thing. I was really surprised when I realized how light it is.

Here's a better shot showing the inside of the floor and that side stripe:

http://i35.tinypic.com/mahwts.jpg
 
Top