TOPIC: CL albany NY Aristocraft Funliner

albany.craigslist.org/boa/2167255621.html

1964 Aristo craft funliner - $1 (Ballston Spa)

I have a 1964 AristoCraft Funliner fiberglass boat for sale. Before reading on I would like to bring to your attention i'm only going to deal with your interest if your local. My father bought the boat for the motor that came with it. The boat has been sitting since 91. I maintane it offten, and recently put a 40hp johnson on it. The boat has been pretty much gutted. The seats were rotted and rust got the best of them so I brought them to the dump. The boat is left hand drive like a car with a rear veiw mirror. The windsheild is plastic and has a small crack. It's not noticable unless your really looking for it. I requested that I'm only going to deal with locals cause the boat is very heavy, and not on it's original trailer. I don't know the length of the boat, if I had to guess it's 20ft or better. It has a removeable hard top. The bow has a door that slides torwards the back of the boat. If you look under the dash theres quite a bit of room. The boat and trailer are going to have to be re-registered. I put the price at a dollar cause it's only worth what the eye of the buyer sees. I will send pics apon request. After you recive the pics, and you happen to like what you see, the process of getting the boat is not going to be ASAP. Your going to have to get temporary plates for the trailer, or I can do it for you however things work out. As the boat sits it's sitting in the back of my grandfathers house, and the path for cars to get to the barn has not been plowed. I'm posting the boat now cause it's winter and every ones looking for spring and summer objects now while there cheaper. And my grandfather come spring is going to take a chainsaw and cut it in half, cause he's sick of it sitting and taking up space. I don't want that boat to go to the dump cause it's got good protental, and I think it's going to be a fun project. Feel free to contact me. Thanks for your interest, Morgan.


•Location: Ballston Spa
•it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests



PostingID: 2167255621

Just a couple pics the owner sent

Actually thinking about this one, any one know how big of an engine they can take? and are they wood reenforced or mostly glass?
Thanks
Jesse

100% fiberglass, with a wood "insert" in the stern where the motor mounts....they are 17 feet long and have a fairly complicated windshield to describe which I coined the term "bubble of trouble".

The prize of this find is the hard top, the seating that is missing could easily be replaced with back to back lay down loungers from boat US and snapped in place. Snapped or I should have said clipped, the original seats had "hook" and "spring" that allowed you to remove them to make room for fishing

as far as motor size...800 merc on mine and I have seen them with 100's on them.

the boat floats like a cork and turns on a dime if you know how to rock the boat before laying over the helm, the gunnels have the same formation as the bottom keel and the boat will layover to the inside in a sharp turn keeping the inside of the boat dry allowing you to be able to drink the water if you lean your head just a little.

Thanks for the info!
Any idea of value? jsut boat and Trailer? no papers..... .... . . yeah.

I have never had any luck registering a boat with no papers in NY. Brian Lawson (crosbyboat) never seems to have a problem, so maybe it's just me. For my part, a glass boat without papers ought to be free! At least the trailer can be easily registered - I've done that any number of times.

Frank

We have an AristoCraft Nineteen. The only wood I have on it is the floor that is then fiberglassed over. Aristocraft is still in business in Alpharetta (Atlanta suburb) GA. aristocraftboats.com
You can still get a windshield and seats from them. Nice guys, still owned by the same family. I think this is a boat that will continue to gain in popularity.

I agree but will see how it goes going to go look this weekend. may have to make it a Renken 18 I have papers for one but junking the boat lol.

Good luck Jesse, keep us posted. Frank

no papers..no problem...

when you go to look at the boat your going to want to look in two different location for some numbers to req it with.

directly below the steering wheel and or above the floor drain on the inside on the stern.

you take an etching of those, included that number on your BOS and your paper work for the registration with a copy of the number etching and it should float.

Sounds good I will keep that in mind when I look at it!
Thank you everyone for the input.

That is a VERY cool boat... I love the hardtop. You better snap that one up!

-Andrew

I have a 63.Good solid boat. No floor rot. Good luck

I ran a 1150 Mercury on our 1963 Funliner. With power trim I could tail dance it and get mid 40's. Nice boat, but sank it twice in salt water with heavy rains one summer (2 - 6" rain events) and said never again would I keep a boat in salt water and traded the whole mess for another 1959 Lark. Hard top is a nice addition. I think the holy grail for the Funliner is a hard top inboard/outboard.

I was able to raise the boat, and actually got the 1150 running again after the first sinking. Told people to leave it under water until I could get there. Raised it, flushed it, and had it running in less than an hour. The second time the same summer my mother in law hired a marina to raise it, and it sat for a couple of days, and that was the end of the motor.

Funliner's are nice enough looking, but nothing out of the ordinary unless the hard top is there.

Funliner's are nice enough looking, but nothing out of the ordinary unless the hard top is there.

I guess they are the next thing to a Bayliner compared to your stuff, not

crosbyboat wrote:

I think the holy grail for the Funliner is a hard top inboard/outboard.

Ok before everyone gets a bit testy, seeing my funliner had more polish aluminum on it then any other boat I ever saw, Crosby is referring to the 17 teen with an I/o like this one.

and there is a 17 teen's hard top is for sale in Naperville, IL that could be shipped to your front door, for $325.000

Funliner Roof Ad

crosbyboat wrote:

but sank it twice in salt water with heavy rains one summer

Had a nice sit down on the webcam with Bill a while back about that and either way you look at it the word "sink" kind of got him a little bewildered...he referred me to this picture, that's him holding the hose as a kid trying to sink this one for his father for a demonstration. He than asked a funny question as to rather or not the boat was modified or if someone may have replaced the integrated foam core that was in it under the floor and in the gunnels, all's I could tell him was I just didn't know....

the thing that got my ear bent with this one in Albany is the uniqueness of it, not because there it is sitting in the woods with a hardtop about to be cut up with a chainsaw (good luck on that one btw) but because of the left side steering.

Houston, I'd be worried that trailer couldn't handle that boat. The trailer's worth that,easy.

The partially submerged Aristocraft shown in the photo is a later model 19. I don't think the earlier models in question had the foam core in them and could easily be swamped with the wrong rainfall conditions.

Well I am suposed to go look at the one in albany this weekend I will post pictures on monday when I get back to the world of internet..., I was looking at the trailer its on looks tinny... I think I know where there is an IO with hard top siting outside Morrisville, NY on Eagleville RD was there in 2001 when I started college and its still there as best I know, used to run past it every day for Cross Country..

No google street view to show.. sry. but its here: 42.860361,-75.654683

classicfins wrote:

I don't think the earlier models in question had the foam core in them and could easily be swamped with the wrong rainfall conditions.

Which Earlier models? the "7 teen" as they called them, like the one I had?

Swamped and Sunk are two different descriptive terms, Swamped while docked I could see, Sunk and sitting at the bottom with all the dock lines snapped with broken cleats is really hard to image.

My 63 has an air chamber between the hull and floor. I think in 64 they started putting foam in the fins. I used to take mine to the coast and tie it up to a floating dock for a week at a time. There would come thunderstorms with heavy rain at night. The next morning the boat would have about 8"of water in the floor about even with rear seats. Before I installed a bilge pump would have to get underway and pull the drain plug out to suck the water out. That was always fun

mine was a 63, and the fins had the integrated compressed foam in the Fins which in order to mount the cleats one had to drill through it with a rather....long drill, it also had a bow drain that ran from just forward of the Foot-lip to just below the drain plug under the floor, looking at the posted pictures of this one it looks like a gem that needs a little shinning. you see all that original trim?

Mine was a '63. When I say sunk, I mean sunk. As in laying on the bottom in 6' to 8' of water. No way was that going to stay on the surface "swamped" as shown in the photo. Don't get me wrong. It was a nice boat, but to me there was nothing out of the ordinary in its design. There are many more interesting boats of the early 60's as far as design features. Got the boat for free, invested a lot of money in the 1150 with power trim, ran it for a few years before the sinking and had a lot of fun with it.

One thing out of the ordinary in it's design was it wouldn't rot out from under your feet like most boats with wood stringers and plywood floors from that time. OK I'm done now

your right on there...that WAS out of the ordinary.

Don't get me wrong, there some good design features. The best was the seats, which my 63 had the orginals. They were wide, and folded down fully, and there was a small removable cushion that filled in the gap. You had a better than 6' long and nice wide seat to lay out on. Molded beer bottle holders in the seat backs. Seats were filled with a long strand plastic of some sort, that if it got wet could actually dry as compared to foam. The front hatch slid on rails and provided a nice flow of fresh air into the cockpit on hot days. Mine actually had a sliding soft top. Set up the same as the hard top, it would slide back about 6-8" on the rails on the gunwales and tabs on the windshield. In my opinion, which we're all entitled too, I just didn't think it was a pretty boat. But since I got the thing for free, and found it solid as a rock once I cleaned it up, and put it in back in service in salt water, until it sank. I had photos on my old computer, and I'm sure there some in the archives here at FG, maybe even of the sinking.

Well good day all, I hope you all had wonderfull weekends. I did end up buying this boat, its missing the bow light and hardware but for my uses it will be fine, seems to be in good shape otherwise, a little butchered from years of Radio/ speaker instalations but overall nice original black finish didnt seem to be any crazing, trailer is home made and poorly at that but I have another, Got there and they did have paperwork for both the boat and trailer so that made me happy. I will see if I can get a picture up. As far as the left side steering some one had moved the wheel over to that side. Does any one have a good picture of the Bowlight and cleats that are suposed to be on a 1963? Thanks!

this was the bowlite on houston's 63.

Judging from the marks on the bow thats what should be there

S: CONGRATS , way to go Albany. . You get my vote of the day for hardtop score. .. Hey there is a BOWLIGHT on E-bay right now located in NEW YORK for $16 bid at this time . Check the bowlight thread below where you posted a few hours ago. !! LINK is there.
Good Luck. . Even on paper work , ownere can re-apply for Lost title. Just a delay, but Nice Score. Good picnic boat.

you want -A- picture of the bow light for a funliner....hehehe

The easiest way to get that home would be to use a 'u-haul" auto hauler, just ramp it on using a dolly wheel

congrats jessie,that is a cool boat ,i have liked them from the time i came to fg nd saw houstons,very cool score,john

I love Aristocrafts, the funliner looks really cool. I've always wanted one. I want a lot of stuff (boats and cars, trucks too), no room and not enough money though.

Congrats on the score, tons of potential there. Can't wait to see her fixed up.

stashm2, if you still need any more pics let me know. I'll help any way I can. I think you'll like the boat. They're a good all around craft. Is the windshield alright?

Thanks all, Good on the pics of the light and hardware at this point but will likely ask latter, THe windsheild is in .. ok shape has a cracked corner but will be ok for my uses it will never be a show pice just a cool "daily driver" I will have to add a Radio and speakers because some one has cut holes for them already... and that should cover most of the damage to the dash... some one added speakers to the top of the dash where they can fill with water... not sure what to do about that... I will post more pictures when things get warmer and less white... so I can get it out of the woods... Then I will be able to see what I have to work with!

THe windsheild is in .. ok shape has a cracked corner but will be ok for my uses it will never be a show pice just a cool "daily driver"

Yeah, mine had two cracks at the top for decades. I recently got VERY lucky and found a guy parting out a 63 that apparently had been stored in a garage all it's life. Got the windshield,cleats and the original seats(still soft). I still can't believe I was able to get this stuff. Been looking off and on for a windshield for 30 years

I hope it cleans up well! hard to tell sitting in the woods with a foot of snow on and in it, ... just initially looking for hardware at this point so watching the E-bay and looking around!

My Aristocraft has the same bow light with matching cleats. The blue boat, I can't remember the manufacture, has a nice flag post and different set of cleats. Also a manufacture called Pipestone used that light on its boats. They are around and if I find one I will let you know. It is one of my favorite bow lights.

Hi All,
Aristocraft Funliners are very well made boats and exude the era of the 60's.
If you find one in good shape at a reasonable price, it will be a good find.
I have an original 1963 Funliner.

woodboat
Corinne
(in Dixie)

stashm2 wrote:

Well I am suposed to go look at the one in albany this weekend I will post pictures on monday when I get back to the world of internet..., I was looking at the trailer its on looks tinny... I think I know where there is an IO with hard top siting outside Morrisville, NY on Eagleville RD was there in 2001 when I started college and its still there as best I know, used to run past it every day for Cross Country..

No google street view to show.. sry. but its here: 42.860361,-75.654683

Just an update on this one, Drove by yesterday on my way home from Syracuse, it looks to be an 8-Teen or 9 teen with a black outdrive, ... was mostly a pile of snow so couldnt tell more and wasnt worth a pic with the snow.