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Thread: stevens drag boat
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03-03-2013, 08:18 PM #3165000 RPM
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Hello again, Stevens Boat owners,
An interesting development has just occured, in that, for the first time in my records, I have found a Stevens boat owner who still has the ORIGINAL STEVENS FACTORY SALES INVOICE for his boat, and the owner scanned it and sent it to me. This invoice, I believe, answers a few commonly asked questions, but, before I make the call here, I am asking ANY of you out there who owns a Stevens boat and still has the original sales invoice, to contact me and send me a copy at the e-mail address in my last post. SpikeLast edited by Spike Morelli; 03-03-2013 at 08:21 PM.
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03-20-2013, 05:21 PM #317New Member
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03-20-2013, 11:38 PM #3185000 RPM
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Jrider44,
I don't think that's a Stevens hull. The deck, gunwales, and transom roll don't look like Stevens did their hulls. Is there a mold seam right down the middle of the hull in the center? ( look underneath, most easily seen around rudder/ prop strut/ shaft log area ) A real Stevens Silhouette will have the seam. From the factory, there is also a gel-coat "dart" on the nose, and another raised dart going down the transom center to cover the seam, however, this is most always sanded down when a re-paint occurs, but most painters leave the seam on the bottom "as-is". Got a hull number? Does the shaft log or turning fin(s) say "Stevens". Does it have cable steering, with the cables running inside of the stringers, not to the outside? Something's got to be Stevens about it to think that it might be one. Let us know!
OOOPS! Sorry, I just realized this is a jet, as I look at your post again. Makes me doubt even more that this is a Stevens, although they did make some jets.Last edited by Spike Morelli; 03-20-2013 at 11:42 PM.
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03-21-2013, 12:20 PM #319New Member
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It's a v-drive with engine mounted circle style(balancer forward) and driven off snout of crank. It's in storage right now but I think I remember a seam by the rudder and it has cable steering inside the stringers. Hard to tell in pics I posted but the transom looks just like the Stevens pics I've seen posted. Don't know where to find hull ID. Boats been painted but I'll look for the darts you mentioned.
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03-25-2013, 10:16 PM #3205000 RPM
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Jrider,
Sorry, my mistake about the "jet" thing. I did go to your post #202 to check it out, but the same photos are there, and I can't really get a difinative handle on the hull. A good couple of shots of the rear ( transom ) from straight behind, and from the side 3/4 would help, including a shot of the ends of the cav plates. A molding seam down the center near the rudder area, as well as inside cables, are traits of Stevens boats, ( Silhouettes only ). That seam should start from the nose ( under the dart) and continue down the center of the hull underneath all the way to the transom, and up the transom to the rear dart , ending at the deck cap .
Stevens "Silhouette" hulls were molded from a hull mold that bolted together down the center, allowing the bottom mold to wrap over the top edges , maybe 6" around the deck. Hence, the "mold line". The Silhouette deck was molded separately, and glassed on to the hull from the inside as a "cap". I'm told a few other boat companies used this method as well, but not many .
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06-30-2013, 09:56 PM #321Junior Member
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1958 Stevens SK ski boat
Spike,
I thought you might be interested in adding some history to the Stevens catalog. My dad and his friend bought a 1958 Stevens SK ski boat named "Budget Buster" in 1962 at the Long Beach Marine Stadium. It was made from wood, plywood, and fiberglass. It was on the registration listed as home-made but was Steven's third boat made. It was powered by a 1957 Oldsmobile J2 with three mechanically linked 2-barrel carbs on an offenhauser intake. It also had finned Offenhauser valve covers with two polished "wing-nuts" to hold them in place. It had a unique "target" on the side of the boat. It was the swoosh style down the side of the boat in aqua/turquoise but had the addition of a "barb" at the point. The engine was also in the same color, as was the accenting on the upholstery. It had a beautiful mahogany wood deck and stern. Exterior of the boat was white. The section behind the front bench was also done in the same aqua/turquoise upholstery. Unfortunately, the boat doesn't exist anymore as rotting of the keel was too much for us to fix. I think the time spent in saltwater corroded the screws and rotted the wood before we could stop it from being water worthy and safe. Much to my disappointment at the time (lack of money and no place to keep the boat) my brother had to destroy the boat. That was about 27 years ago. It was a direct drive - no reverse or neutral. It was a fun boat to drive and ski behind. I wish that it wasn't gone because "Budget Buster" had such history with our family and being one of the original boats Stevens made.
Robert McGuire
Last edited by remsurfer; 06-30-2013 at 10:03 PM.
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07-04-2013, 11:24 PM #322Banned
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nice boat looks like a clean boat
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07-05-2013, 07:50 PM #3235000 RPM
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Robert,
Thanks so much for sharing the "Budget Buster" with us all. That boat is so era perfect, and the skiing shots remind us all of just what these boats were built for....family fun. Nowadays, you put a V8 in a flatbottom hull and everyone thinks it's a dragboat!
I've heard that Mac Stevens was a fireman for a living, and started out building an inboard flatbottom just for himself. A neighbor saw it, and was so taken by the craftsmanship, that he asked Mac to please build another one for him, and this scenario played out a few more times with others, until Mac realized he could make a living building boats, so he opened Stevens Boat Company. It makes perfect sense that the first small handfull of hulls that Stevens built would be listed as "homemade". Your boat was the beginning of a legendary and well respected make of hull. The Olds J-2 , and early Cads were the engines to have too.
I especially love the third photo, of the boat coming at you in a turn, with a group of family/friends aboard, and pulling a skier. I can almost hear the old parallel-shaft v-drive whining from here...
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07-06-2013, 03:55 PM #3245000 RPM
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1959 Stevens
I thought I would share this with you guys. This is a 1959 Stevens flatbottom, complete with 390 cu.in. Cadillac with four Stromberg 97's. The boat was bought brand new by Bob Lambert from Stevens in '59, and was used for skiing and dragging. I'm posting two pictures here...the first is a good shot of how beautiful it was, even sitting on it's trailer.....the second photo is at the Perris Drags, in '63. Way cool.....
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07-06-2013, 08:31 PM #325Junior Member
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Thanks Spike for the kind comments and additional insight into the maker of the "Budget Buster". The '59 looks a lot like our boat, including the beveled "step" at the base of the transom. Ours was on a single axle trailer that had running boards that went out to the rear of the boat. What I thought unique in design was an arching rod of steel that ran along each exterior rail front to rear. And of course it had the removable light bar (ours made from metal, not mahogany). Your comment about the whine is one of the many "sounds" I relate to this boat and to skiing in general. I've found a YouTube video that comes close to reminding me of our boat. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJ3MUwtjlI) and that whine is present. The sound I remember most was, as a kid, being out and about with my brother riding our stingrays and hearing my dad fire up the boat getting it ready for a trip. We couldn't get our bikes back to the house fast enough to see and hear that J2 sputtering water out the exhaust pipes that went through the transom. I was so enamoured by the spectacle that every time that boat was fired up, even as an adult, it made my heart skip a beat and send a rush through me. The picture that you commented on was me driving and my older brother skiing on Lake Havasu Memorial weekend in 1983. We were part of a college church trip. Our college pastor loved skiing, but couldn't ever get up on a single ski (being about 6'4' and about 230lbs). All other boats he had skiied behind didn't have enough power to get him out of the water. I told him that he would be able to behind the "Budget Buster"! And he did! He was beyond words the first time we got him up on a single ski! The other sounds I recall was the starter always kicking out with a whine, always making us on our trips a bit nervous we would have to paddle back to shore. It somehow always got us going. The swooping strip that is so trademark, suffered some cosmetic damage as we had to replace the fiberglass on the wood deck and transom needed to be reworked, thus the missing name and image on the transom. Thanks again for the kind comments. As I am trying to put together a photo album on the boat, as I find more pictures I will post them. I know there is one of the "Budget Buster" on the transom I want to share because that was as much a part of the era of the time, going from boat to boat checking out the names and motors.
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07-09-2013, 06:00 PM #326Junior Member
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I apologize to everyone for some misinformation on the "Budget Buster" I once owned with my brother. I came across some documentation that corrected my fuzzy memory. I had said the boat was a 1958 Stevens hull with a 1957 Oldsmobile engine. I was wrong. It is a 1957 Stevens hull with a 1958 Oldsmobile placed in the boat in 1962 and it was the second hull built, not the third. My dad, Robert R. McGuire and his friend, Don Morgan, bought the boat in April of 1963 from a Floyd B. Chambers from Norwalk, CA. I hope this clears things up for keeping everything historically accurate.
Last edited by remsurfer; 07-09-2013 at 06:09 PM.
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07-15-2013, 09:30 AM #327Junior Member
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07-24-2013, 04:31 PM #328New Member
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Nice to see so much interest in the Stevens boat, I am not a frequent visitor to this site but I have 1970 Stevens bot it is not a true flat bottom, I will put some pic's on line later but I bought her when I was 21 and today I'm 56. She hasn't been in the water since 1989 because I was roping. But now She will be a project. My "Delta Harley". Original colors, Purple with White stripes, Fiberglass Saddle Tanks.
There is a lot of work to do but I think 2 years and she'll be ready for the water again.
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08-08-2013, 07:25 PM #329New Member
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Awesome to see old pics of wood Stevens flatties. My dad bought this 58 Stevens (Hull #162) in 1967 from a machinist in LA who I believe rigged the boat. It was originally named The Cat's Meow and painted white with a blue stripe similar to what it's like now. The boat was our family ski boat and was in regular use through the mid 80's when keel rot assigned it to my garage. (I had become the caretaker of "the boat") After sitting there for about 10 years my brother in law completely restored it and replaced the original Hall Craft parallel V-drive with a Casale and the fixed plate with an adjustable. It has always had the 364 Nailhead Buick with three twos on an Offy manifold. It runs 13% over gears and is good for an honest 50 mph, which is plenty for this hull. It's hard to find anyone who knows much about early Stevens wood flatties and even harder to find one still alive and working. If anyone out there has one I would sure like to know about it. Looking forward to hearing from anyone that may know where any old bones are buried
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08-09-2013, 10:53 AM #330Junior Member
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Spikeike,
I love your old boat. The hull looks just like our "Budget Buster". I agree with wanting to see or know of where the old "wooden" Stevens hulls are. Our boat suffered the same condition as yours with a rotting keel. I only wish we were able to have garaged it at the time to save her. I would love to get some dimensions of your boat as I am thinking of making a scale model of the Stevens wooden hull. I need the following: distance the beam is from the bow; width across at the transom (top and bottom) and width of the transom deck; freeboard (at transom, center section); distance and width of the cross member; exit distance of the prop shaft, location of fins; distance of freeboard at widest point (beam) to chine line and at transom and across to other side chine line. Width of cockpit area (L&W). Distance between internal framing. Distance of engine and v-drive placement...etc (or any other dimension I forgot to ask for.) Good pictures with a ruler showing scale would suffice. Any help with this would be awesome.
Robert (remsurfer@yahoo.com)Last edited by remsurfer; 08-09-2013 at 10:57 AM.