Re: Looking at a 1968 AristoCraft 9Teen
welcom automobiliben.
The current owner says it has a Buick V6 in it,
that could be. it has an omc drive. which were mated with buick v6's in the era.
it appears that there aren't any seats in the back. Is this correct?
could be, by looking at the pic of what appears to be an oversized sun deck on her, ya'd almost have to assume it don't have the back two seats. guess ya could have the owner take a different pic of the inside, or maybe just ask him. he may not know much about the boat, but he can see if it has seats or not i'd think.
one observation i see is that 'that' boat has a whale tale on it. + non adj. trim tabs. both would be after thoughts. generally used to try to keep porpoising down. or keeping bow rise down. or getting up on plane faster, w/o bow rise. i guess, i would question why. most nineteens i've seen don't have these mods. however i have seen smart tabs used. on my ninenteen. i usually run with 2 people on board. with 2 people, i've not needed these mods. now, i have run with three and i'm ok with the oem set up for three. go up to 4 people and i start having trouble getting up on plane and i do have pretty good bow rise with the extra weight of 4 on board. if them extra 2 people are sitting in the aft seating. i really start to have problems with getting on plane and bow rise. i've had 5 on board and didn't like it. i would not run with 6 even though that is the max cap. of the boat. no more seats. i'd have to look at the safety cap plate, but i think it's not listed for people, but by weight.
another comment i'll make is. it's got an omc drive w/ a buick v6. neither of these are gonna be supported (hard to find parts) and ya may wanna take this into consideration. if there were two things easy things to avoid when making a boat purchase. staying away from omc would be one. and not having a merc 470 engine. the 470 has several known issues.
to bad that boat has the omc in it. it looks like a pretty good find short of that.
if it don't have back seats, that could be a draw back too. while i don't like having folks sitting in the back while i'm underway, i sure do use them a lot when i'm floating around. guess in thinking about it. my ol lady does like to sit in the back sometimes while underway. even shifting her weight from the ft port seat, to the very back port seat is enough to make the boat handle differently to include higher bow rise coming onto plane and slower time to plane. and that's just one person@ about 130-150 lbs.
good luck in your quest. cool color on that one. i don't see that green on very many. to bad too, i like that color green too.