question in regards to a great river marine boat

[caterj921]

I have recently found myself to be the new owner of a 1973 Great river Marine, model Delta. it is a stern drive with a 165HP mercruiser inline 6. I can not for the life of me find any information on this craft. I have searched the interweb for a good couple days, I have found 2 for sale a 73 and a 77, but nothing about the company or other specs or even any type of parts for the boat itself, found all sorts of stuff for the engine. could anyone give me a helping hand. the boat itself is in pretty good condition, just hoping that i do not have to have custom made covers and top and a few other items. i am thinking that after a small amount of cleaning and some typical maintenance it might be for sale, due to the rock river in my area is not to suitable for a deeper water/ fiberglass boat.

 

[Bayou Dave]

Welcome to iboats!!
Is this the one you purchased?

http://boats-from-usa.com/not-specified/great-river-marine-inc-183-25245

All I could find is this:

http://www.bizapedia.com/ms/GREAT-RIVER-MARINE-INC.html

 

[southkogs]

Welcome aboard caterj.

60s through the early 80s, EVERYONE ... and that's only a slight exaggeration ... was making trailer boats. Some of these manufacturers popped up for a few years, and didn't make a big enough footprint to be even remembered. That's not really that big of a deal though. Finding information on the original manufacturer is probably only valuable for historic reasons at this point.

MOST of your fitting and rigging would be made by someone else, potentially even installed by the dealer. You may well have to have a cover made, though there are some generics based on hull style. In my opinion and experience - the extra couple hundred bucks is worth it for a well made custom cover.

Boat manufacturers don't turn out the most helpful "user manual" for their boats. You'll be better off putting pictures up and asking questions here on the forums. The engine is different - you can (and should) get a good shop manual for it.

 

[ondarvr]

Like already said, there are hundreds of old boat companies that built boats for a few years, some longer than others, but there is little or no information and no parts available other than what you may stumble across by shear luck on another scrap boat of the same brand. Anything like canvas will be custom made, no way around that, other fittings can be matched up to newer offerings.

The engines are the only things with manuals and parts, only because they were purchased from manuafacturers that made many thousands of them over the years, they have little to do with the actual boat they were placed in.

 

[caterj921]

thank you all for the help, DRS4164 the boat pictured is the same model, but not the one I have. my wife found it locally, northern IL, at one time I made mention that I was looking for a larger fishy boat, was thinking a 90's aluminum bass type boat. she found this one and apparently the last owner really wanted to sell it. she got a what I think was a pretty good deal. it needs a bit of work, nothing extraordinary, but I should be able to get it done before spring. I don't live far from the Mississippi river and it would be great there, I live less than a mile from the rock river and spent a lot of time on it last summer with my 14' fishing dingy. I still have not decided what I want to do. I could see myself spending a crap ton of time and a bit of money fixing this critter up.

 

[southkogs]

It's a good looking hull, and if it's in good shape - maybe you have to do some cleaning, rather than big structural stuff - you may like it. That straight six feeding your Mercruiser is a great engine as far as I'm concerned. I had one in my last boat (but with an OMC drive), and I really liked how easy it was to work on and how reliable it was.

Old boats can suck a lot of time and energy out of you, but my last one was about that age and I really enjoyed it. It didn't really take much to keep her going strong.

 

[pontoonsaloon]

I think after you do a good solid cleaning you'll be amazed at how nice it'll look. As stated, those are good ole bullet proof motors. I had them and alot of friends had them as well. Change the oil,tune-up and you'll enjoy the summer!

 

[RLKGT150]

Just saw your post about Delta boats. I see its been a couple years ago you posted. I’m new to this site. Delta brand boats were built by Great River Marine Inc in Hannibal Missouri in the mid 70’s. My Dad and I both owned one. He had a 17’closed bow Vbottom with a 140 mercruiser and i had a 17’open bow tri hull with a 140 mercruiser. Dad bought his new from Dori marine in Fairview Hgts IL in 1973. I purchased mine used in 1980 it was a 1976 model They were very well built boats. Dad ran his till selling it in 1989 and its still running today. The plant had a major fire in the late 70’s that completely destroyed it and they never rebuilt. I was told that Great River Marine was started by a former employee of Mark Twain boats