1972 Crestliner Norseman 19
Mark Haller
Crestliner Retro Boat Restorations
Viewer Photos
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7/08 Our Excellent Crestliner Adventure The Quest We have lived a half-mile away from the St. Croix River for the last 15 years. On occasion, we’ve rented a pontoon to enjoy what we believe to be a very special body of water. However, we hadn’t taken the boat ownership plunge until the spring of 2007. My father had two Crestliners when I was young, and perhaps it was memory of boat brochure fantasy that kept me focused on finding the right Crestliner. We never considered a new boat, and never considered glass. I fantasized about an old wood boat, but quickly ruled that out. We wanted a “project”, and we wanted a bigger boat to be able to tolerate the bad wake behavior of the clueless, entitled big plastic boat crowd. We also wanted a lighter weight boat we can muscle in and out of the water, as we had no desire to pay insane fees for a marina berth. We looked at a 1980 vintage Saber that was too big. We looked at a myriad of others that were too small. I discovered Craigslist.com, Iboat.com, and a whole host of other places to hunt used boats. Thanks to the internet, we found exactly what we wanted, a 1972 Norseman 19’ runabout, pictured below. |
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We purchased this unit for near scrap value. The 115 HP Mercury “Tower of Power” was your typical hard starter, but a rocket on the water. The floors were rotten. The steering console was rotten. The seats were rotten. The hull had major dock rash, and the gunwale rail had a few major dents, and the paint was just nasty. We thought we won the lottery. Within a month, we had replaced the floors, removed one of the fuel tanks, replaced the carpeting, seats, rewired everything, re-balanced the 3 carburetors, new battery, overhauled the electric winch, rewired the trailer, repacked the bearings, and cleaned it up best we could and took to the water for the summer. Mary and I had at least 40 launches and landings last year. Weekends, evenings, afternoon hooky – we couldn’t get enough. Midway through the summer, the stench of two-stroke drove Mary nuts, and the amount of fuel, both combusted and leaked, drove me to trade the motor for a 70hp Johnson (Suzuki) four stroke. We were now officially “invested” in a boat. Our many excursions led to numerous discussions about restoring our boat to its previous glory. I’d never abandoned my appreciation for the art of older wooden boats such as Lyman and Thompson. A plan began to unfold. We would customize our aluminum boat to take on the majesty of an old woody. The Project We knew we’d need paint and some minor hull repairs, so we began a search for the right shop. We settled on Imperial Boat Repair in Hudson. The project began by stripping everything off the boat – every fitting; every piece of trim, every screw came off. We decided to use a combination of marine plywood and mahogany solids for the project. Four sheets of okoume 1/8” and two sheets of 1Ž2” okoume were acquired. We cut cardboard templates for each of the desired wood “skins” to be bonded to the aluminum. Those templates were then transferred to the okoume. Each piece was cut and sanded to fit. We then re-built – again – the console, crafted some step/seats near the transom. The boat was then delivered to Imperial’s shop, and our shop was turned into a finishing booth. We used Interlux Red Mahogany stain, and an oil-based spar varnish. |
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Bonding
of the skins to the aluminum presented me with a challenge. Bond retention,
flexure, shrinkage and expansion were considered. Factoid: aluminum
has a similar coefficient of expansion as mahogany. We settled on
3M brand 4200 adhesive. We wanted a strong enough bond, but also wanted
to be able to remove a panel if damage or any other event required
it. The 3M 5200 so beloved by the marine world is very permanent.
Any removal would require grinding the adhesive and wood off the aluminum,
likely causing further damage. The aluminum surfaces receiving panels were not painted. Those surfaces were scuffed with course sandpaper and prepped with acetone to remove any residual waxes. Also, the underside of the wooden panels were scuffed and wiped with thinner or acetone to remove gloss and provide mechanical bond porosity. Very little adhesive was used. We focused application on edges, and single or double, or triple beads (less than 1/8”) of adhesive – depending on panel width. |
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| The
shape of the hull and natural warp of the treated thin plywood created
a challenge in attaining skin-to-skin contact for bonding. We avoided
our YMCA membership with the creation of about 500lbs of sand bags.
Crestliner combined structures with cosmetics by using a thick section
extrusion along the fore-deck. Naturally, these rose above the surface
of the skins, and we had to create “caps” of solid mahogany
to cover these. One of the hardest parts of this project was to build the windshield. Scribing the contours and translating those to mahogany and cutting it accurately was very time consuming and difficult. Numerous compound angles threatened sanity and sobriety. We didn’t waste too much lumber, but we didn’t always get it right the first time either. But, we got it. We also dabbled with steam bending for the deck-rails in lieu of replacing the stainless railing. I’d never done much of this before, so each new step required experimentation, new tools, and countless trips to Menards or Fleet Farm for supplies, stainless fasteners, tools, and odd stuff. Toward the end of the project it became very difficult to coax my first mate into the garage to help. We discovered her tolerance limit of all things shop during the last coat of spar varnish. She never really gave up, but it was like having the kids home again and asking them to mow the lawn or shovel the driveway. That said, I could have never done it without her. I have no end of praise for her patience with my fleeting quest for perfection and her perseverance in telling me I was about to do things wrong. My oldest son arrived just in time to take charge of rewiring and re-stringing the controls. This too was a gift, as my ability to crawl in cramped areas has long since waned. Our winter project stretched into July, well beyond the planned date. Some minor health and work details got in the way of what was already an unrealistic schedule. Nevertheless, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the winter. The Almost Finished Project We had our maiden launch on July 2nd, 2008 on the St. Croix River. We got a lot of nods and waves and thumbs-up from folks. The first person to approach us and engage in a discussion asked if it was a 1952 Thompson. Mission Accomplished. |
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There are indeed a
few purists sins committed that may offend those wedded to Crestliner
purity, and for that I apologize. The wood, the Century bow light,
and curse of all curses, the upper hull color of New Lund Green.
Then there are the insults to those who spend fortunes and decades
on 50 year old masterpieces that in this size range would weigh
in excess of two tons. Sorry, I can’t apologize for that, nor
for the non-vintage outboard. At 1200 RPM she sips about a half
gallon per hour at 8 mph. At 3800 RPM, she is well beyond plane
and cruises at 23 mph and consumes a fumeless 2.5 GPH. Full throttle
of 5500 revs delivers a smart 34 mph (GPS’d) – skipper
and first mate – about 5 GPH. The folks at Crestliner in Little
Falls report the original hull weight was 880 pounds. I estimate
the added weight to only be 40 lbs for a dry – motor-less and
rigged weight of 920 pounds. |
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