Can anyone help with what the hell is this boat?

S

SHANE1988

New Member
Joined
10 Jun 2016
Messages
1
Visit site
Hi, first post here as just joined!

Have been offered a boat and wondered if anybody knows what it is? owner has it up as a day boat but when i google search nothing similar comes up so thought id ask you experienced lot.
$_86.JPG
 
it looks a bit Dory Like without the proper cathedral hull.

Depedning on your intended use... ...there may be far better boats out there.
 
It looks like a Microplus hull for sure but without the cabin top, perhaps a variant. I used to waterski behind a Microplus 501(?) which had a top and that looks like a very similar hull.
 
Old speedboats are as "Cheap as Chips" if you have to buy one, buy an old Bayliner or another well known make as when you come to sell it you will have more enquiries and buyers wont need to put photos on a website like this.
I bought an old 14 ft Bayliner for £700 (no engine) Bought an excellent second hand 25hp with Guarantee (from Bill Higham) £1800 so for £2500 I had a cheap small boat.
 
Well, before everyone gets to slagging off the boat, there was a time when boats like this were very popular (along with John Seymore books, fondue sets, duck a la orange and brown / sliver / flock effect wallpaper). My experience of them was a kid on Loch Lomond where gangs of us blasted about having great fun over the summers. While Mastercraft, Bayliners and at least two Chris Crafts (that I remember) were owned by Glasgow's finest second hand car dealers, most of us had to put up with the lesser known hull manufacturers. We were men then even though most of us could not grow a moustache.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Well, before everyone gets to slagging off the boat ... My experience of them was a kid on Loch Lomond ... most of us had to put up with the lesser known hull manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Thats what I was getting at when I said...

ShinyShoe said:
Depending on your intended use... ...there may be far better boats out there.
Click to expand...

So actually if you want to water-ski on inland waters with it - its probably not that bad a boat. But bear in mind that means thats its resale market when you sell it so the price needs to reflect a narrow market.

Someone quoted buying a 14ft Speed Boat for £700 and adding an engine to get a total price of £2.5k. If I had £2.5k to spend on a 14ft Powered Craft I'd be buying a RIB of some description. Much more versatile in my opinion than this 1980's Porn Star Boat. But perhaps slightly slower than an out and out speed boat on perfectly flat water. I've seen perfectly flat water once this year. I've seen not flat water lots.
 
ShinyShoe said:
...

Someone quoted buying a 14ft Speed Boat for £700 and adding an engine to get a total price of £2.5k. If I had £2.5k to spend on a 14ft Powered Craft I'd be buying a RIB of some description. Much more versatile in my opinion than this 1980's Porn Star Boat. But perhaps slightly slower than an out and out speed boat on perfectly flat water. I've seen perfectly flat water once this year. I've seen not flat water lots.
Click to expand...

Some of these dory type things are so much lighter than a RIB, they are faster, use much less fuel, are easier to launch and recover.
OK boats for certain purposes.
And it's much harder to sink your own boat with your mackerel lines!
 
That thing, like most speedboat types looks eminently easy to sink in any significant waves - when, not if, the single old outboard gives up, unlike a RIB which should at least stay afloat waiting for Seastart !

Shane, if you do go for this boat, I'd urgently recommend a second Plan B engine - something like a Yamaha 4hp two-stroke would do but probably cost a lot more than the boat even secondhand - anchor with 100' of nylon line - 10mm would do or try Jimmy Green marine - and a waterproof handheld VHF ( mobile phones always conk out when needed, if around water ) and most certainly lifejackets for all onboard.

I am not being paranoid or suggesting a ' gold plated solution ', just realistic !

You may find better boats and deals elsewhere; unless it's really your thing try to avoid ' speedboats ', a sturdy cruiser will give weekends away and much more fun in the long term.
 
Last edited:
Sorry can't help with what it is but I owned one in the late 1970s. It was old then, so probably built in the early 70s or late 60s. Mine was fitted with an Archimedes Penta 50hp and when I could get the engine going went quite well and was good for fairly basic skiing. It does appear to have been well restored, but With a speed boat of that age you need to check the transom for cracks and water ingress that would have rotted the plywood inside the moulding. On mine the floor was plywood, so if not replaced is likely to be rotten. Sorry to be a bit negative, but if it is sound could be a lot of fun. They are a semi vee hull that doesn't give as good a ride as a deep vee, but quite stable. In fact I once saved a young ladies life who had attempted to swim ashore from her capsized dinghy. We were asked to help search for her and found her in the early stages of hyperthermia in quite a bad way. Two of us plus the casualty were on one side and the boat was totally stable whilst we pulled her aboard.
 
A friend had one of them, not a pretty thing for sure but went well with a 90hp. With old speedboats there are plenty of hulls kicking about which the trailers have rotted away and engines have died you can pick up for peanuts and half of them aren't bad looking boats. Hold out my last one was an broom Aquarius that was fresh water use all its life, it had a mint yam 70hp, got lots of admiring looks, cost me nothing but fuel and a coil pack in 5 years and all for 2k which I got back
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top