TOPIC: I found a good one !

I stumbled upon a 1964 HyrdoSwift Landau in May this year. I wanted to get a "quick fixer" for Summer, and was hoping this might be it. The boat was being advertised for $500 in our local Craigslist. It had no motor, but I could tell that it once had a Merc inline sitting on the transom. The boat was dirty, had junk seats, cracks in the windshield, wasp nests in the bow, and the gelcoat had a ten thousand cracks. But what really surprised me; the transom had no signs of flex - no signs of delaminating, and the floor was just like concrete. The tires on the trailer were rotted. The paperwork was "iffy" and the seller's story kept changing as the morning progressed. I decided to offer $300 - knowing the seller would say no. That would keep me from bring home a "new" project - when i already have too many back at home. Bad idea - the seller accepted my offer. So now I have to pull the boat from the weeds - figure out the tires for the trailer - all the time thinking "my girlfriend is going to be pissed if this boat turns out to be junk"

Well - it turned out to be not such a bad deal. The 90 mile trip home went without problems - AND the wasp nests got sucked out on the way! I pressured washed the crud off the boat, pulled out the indoor / outdoor carpet and junk seating, then scrubbed the boat with AJAX. LoL this gelcoat will not rub out.

I bought some new seats and made bases for them - gluing the bases to the floor with 3M 5200 only. I replaced a couple cracked spars in the rim of the splash well. Plucked a merc 700 from the back yard, and plopped it on the transom. Got the paperwork squared away at motor vehicle dept for $100.


This thing turned out to be a completely solid boat. It was the first year of the Deep V for HydroSwift - and it rides through chop like a dream. We have had a great time with the boat this Summer, and it's GREAT to have a "beater" boat that I'm not worried about getting a scratch on.

So remember - just when you least expect it - something good will come your way - if you are ready for it.

A guy needs one every now and then congrats,,keep her smiling Bill

Ya..... She was tired of seeing boats in the back that didn't work and wanted to go boating. I'm lucky it worked out... she likes the shade from the hard top... and feels safe in it, so I'm happy too. Thanks,

Bruce

It's a great looking boat Bruce! Nice find. It's the world giving back to you since you share your boat knowledge so freely to others!

Hope to see you at one of the next GSG events.


David

Isn't that the boat you had at Shasta? Bring it and you better half to Tower Park event in Oct. She will love it.

Jack

Thanks David and Jack - appreciate it. The Shasta meet in June was our 1st time out in it. We are trying to coordinate vacation times to see if Tower Park is possible.

Great looking boat, that hard top is really cool!

It's good to see a happy ending. Got lucky on a low ball. Seems every time I buy a knock around beater for trashing about in it winds up getting rebuilt and sold

nice! What seats did you install? Those look nice but simple.

When Bruce first told me of his latest find and sent me some pictures, my first thought was how nice that old boat will ride. I saw that deep V hull, and told him that she will be the best riding old fiberglass boat that you have ever owned. What a sweet hull design. At Shasta, we cruised around a while with Bruce and Dana and the Hydroswift boat looks really nice at speed and pretty quick too.

Way to go Bruce. You’ve gotten some bad luck in recent past; glad to hear that finally you get some good news and that this one worked out better than you thought. Beater boats are great for outings like these.

BTW, like the hardtop too.

Eduardo and Mercedes

Yeah, that's our friend Bill, GlassparNut, and his mighty G3, Bruce and his '64 Hydroswift, and our '59 Bell Boy 265 Hardtop. Picture was taken earlier this year at the McCloud Arm in Lake Shasta.

Thanks guys - I got lucky on this one. 99% of all the old boats available are completely rotted. This boat is a 1 percenter, it seems. Too bad the gelcoat looks like a dry lake bed.


The seats are by Wise. I paid about roughly $360 for them online. While they are better than some, I'm certainly not impressed, and I can't recommend them. They are just the old standard back-to-back fold down lounge seats. There were advertised a large deluxe seats, yet they seem as if they are sized perfectly for a child. These aren't large seats by my standards. The original 1964 seats were much larger. I don't know who makes more appropriate seating these days - but someone must make seats larger than these "kiddie-size" models. And if these cost almost $200 per, I'm guessing that big seats will be in the $400 to $500 range

Eduardo - great pictures! Thanks for sharing them. And you were right - by far, it is the best riding vintage boat I have owned. It goes through heavy chop like a hot knife through butter. It is VERY tippy when not going forward though, which takes some real getting used to.


Bruce

Hey Bruce, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. If your always on the hunt it is never luck when you turn up something great.
Boat is really cool, love the top.

You might look at building the seat you want and having it upholstered the way you want. I have never used my back to back lounge seats as lounges and I for sure don't ever plan on sleeping on them.
Looking forward to seeing you both at Tower Park
Jack