Pictured Barn Find original Chris Craft delivered to Decatur Illinois. 1940 25 foot sportsman. 12509, Shipped April 5th 1940, Green Leather , Name on side ( Chris Craft Sportsman) . Unfortunately, the gentleman that found and saved this boat has passed. I wonder how many Prewar 25 foot Sportsman boats are left?
Dang! Looks even rougher than Baby Chick.
I sure hope someone saves her!
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I can’t tell you how many were produced, but maybe the Mariners Museum can… give them a call.
Is there any hardware with the boat?
101 24 footers and 25 25 footers built pre-war
YES, Hardware is in the building next to the boat. Can’t vouch if 100% complete. But the important
pieces are there.
The 2 cardboard boxes are full of hardware.
Hmmm… Hate to be a naysayer, but that barn find is not an S-25 Sportsman since hull number S-25-001 left Algonac in 1946, not six years earlier. Besides her transom is the wrong shape and she’s missing the Sportsman’s rolling gunwales.
Additionally, the S-25s’ gauges are placed right of center, sort of nestled near the steering column.
Matt is so correct about all that preserving Baby Chick IV is demanding!
We will complete installing her new True 5200 bottom in a few days. We have already released all of her topside and transom planks. Every screw hole in the frames has been toothpicked and every one of the failed soft brass carriage bolts securing the frame members - that would be all of them - has been replaced with silicon bronze. The entire frame has received four coats of Smith’s cold formula CPES and three coats of Sandusky CC mahogany bilge paint.
We saved all but four sections of her original topside planks and none of the transom planking, and then re-stacked the topsides bedded in Pettit FlexPoxy and secured with Reed and Prince 1-1/4" flathead silicon bronze screws.
Here is the link to her preservation playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9jswQZjSK2i8wvtqSmy22U__BBNpPdO.
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Jim Staib is correct , 25 prewars 25 foot sportsmans were maid. Please see picture of build sheet. Second picture is completed hull number two with green boot stripe and green deck stripes. There are 8 prewar identified to date , this is the 9th so far found to be left.
The postwar sportsman you are working on is a little different than the prewars.
We have installed over 100 5200 bottoms to date over 4 decades and have seen many different processes and procedures. I would recommend replacement of frames that where subjected to saltwater causing dezincification
of the fasteners.
Thanks, steve
Pure Gold!
The number one boat for me of all time. The green green thing, yellow bottom. banjo wheel. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
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I drool over this one at Woodies Restorations Woodies Restorations -
Even though Molly-O(1939) is not a 25 sportsman, it is basically the same hull configuration, except for the Sportsman’s second seat 3/4 design. Molly-O has a center mounted live bait/fish box second seat. There were 7 of this basic design built for the CC family members in 1938 as 1939MY, each a little different design, for each family member. They all had the same hulls which measured 24ft 9inches. Today some people refer to them as 25 footers and some call them 24 footers…I have never quite figured out which is correct.
Conrad disagrees, is all I can say. Guess Conrad is wrong … well, maybe not. Sorry, Jim, but the boat in what I guess are your photos is entirely different from the SP-25 Sportsman. That Pre-War 25’s hull and cockpit layout is very, very different from the Post-War SP-25 Sportsman.
I wish I could find the story we did on this topic. Sadly I think it died in the great purge of 2023. From what I recall, there are two or three versions of the 25 Sportsman. The pre war ones up til 1940, then stopped for the war, ONE was made for the Army I think, possibly a left over hull. THEN, there was a run of them right after the war. Whiched used the pre war hull design with the post war design details. Like the bow etc. THEN there was the newer hull design. WECATCHEM is one of the transition hulls, and was the very first with the padded dash. I am a tad not sure on this following fact. But they would make a batch of 12 at a time. So there may be even more design tweaks. Someone smarter than I would know, and may splain why Conrad is right and wrong at the same time. Just ask my wife, it happens all the time with me. HA
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