1961 Chris Craft Continental Bottom Job

[ahineman]

I have just had my Grandpa's 1961 Chris Craft Continental passed along to me from my cousin who has owned it for the last 20 years. He refinished it and kept it in great shape. But it has been in dry storage for 5 years now.

I took it to a boat yard that was recommended to me by a few folks. I want them to do the bottom. The planks are solid - total bottom job 10 years ago. There is no paint. It seems simple to me....strip the caulking, recaulk, check planks to make sure they are solid, paint with antifouling paint. No sandblasting of existing bottom or anything like that.

After spending 5 minutes looking at it with me las week they said it would probably be about $95/ft. That adds up to $1,900 which is about twice what I expected.

Is this quote high? Or is this about the going rate? They are supposed to call me later this week or next to give me a final quote. Thanks in advance for your help.

Thanks
Andy

 

[Ned L]

Re: 1961 Chris Craft Continental Bottom Job

I don't really kknow about the cost, though that seems like a lot to me. I'll ask the question, if she had a new bottom put on ten years ago what all needs to be done? What kind of bottom was put on? Original would have been either double planked mahogany, or plywood inside & mahogany outside. I would make sure that anyone doing work on the bottom understands wooden boats & what kind of bottom is on your boat. If the new bottom is planked as original (fore & aft planked with about 1/2" or maybe 5/8" at most thick planking), it will probably have dried out a lot & will be showing open seams. Any caulking that is done will have to be of a kind that stays very soft so that it can squeeze out of the seams as the wood swells, otherwise you can end up doing a lot of damage to the planking. When the new bottom was put on there should have been almost no caulking used or needed, so there really shouldn't be much of anything to 'strip'. Definately NO "SANDBLASTING".