Chris Craft
Parts, Supplies, and Accessories
Because there are easily over 60,000 items available and we get a few hundred a week on the online store you may need to give us a call and we will assist you in solving your problems and finding the right part for your vintage or other watercraft! Not only will you be getting parts and supplies shipped to your home but you will also be getting outstanding service for the same price and many times for less! We have Engine parts, safety related items, waterskis, wakeboards, refinishing supplies, marine cook stoves soup, nuts, bongo drums and nails! - you name it we can get it!
We also stock approximately 2000 board feet of African Mahogany, Philippine Mahogany and White Oak and a line of indispensable tools for the do-it-yourselfers!
We have a new pricing structure on fasteners making us the lowest cost suppliers for your fastening needs!
And remember, because of our Kentucky sales tax laws, if we ship out of state we collect no sales tax with no funny business! Depending on the size of your order we can often times save you money on shipping costs as well!
Spring Outfitting continued with more detail!
News Letters
Woodies Restorations Newsletter
May 2009
 | ||||||
Understanding why these are adjusted is almost as important as how to do the job!
In both cases the shaft packing's are what prevents the entry of water in to your boat! How you adjust each of these is the same procedure, but how much you adjust is different for the rudder packing than it is for the propeller shaft.
Rudder packing
The rudder packing can be adjusted to a point where no water enters the boat through the packing at all - but it can be overtightened to a point where the boat becomes difficult to steer. So when adjusting it is important to know the feel of the wheel before, during, and after the adjustment process is complete.
Propeller Shaft Packing
This one is a little different than the rudder packing. This one HAS to leak EVER SO SLIGHTLY!
The water that leaks in through the packing is the lubricant that keeps you from having too much friction at the packing gland resulting in the burning out of the packing material (so it will never seal!) and scoring or wearing out of the shaft.
When adjusted properly there should be just enough friction to cause enough heat to evaporate the water entering around the shaft. As you might imagine this is an elusive goal not often achieved! And you are right. This is Nirvana, and it only happens in Utopia. But this gives you the idea of what you want to achieve with your adjustment. If you are actually lucky enough to achieve this at some RPM that you wish to operate your boat, like say 2800 rpm for example, when the boat is operating at a lesser speed or certainly when it is at idle or the engine is off you will see some leakage and this is normal. It should be a drop of water every 20 seconds or so!
Building Memories
Family Boat Building Experience
2-1/2 days of supervised, structured, boatbuilding with your family
As Featured in Wood Workers Journal Magazine!
Next Event - July 30 through August 2nd
It is the middle of spring outfitting time and this newsletter is packed with tips to help you ensure you have a trouble free season with your classic boat. Many of us will be putting our boats in by the end of May. Last month we told you what to check and adjust, and how to check and adjust some items, In this months newsletter we are going to spend a little more time offering more detailed information dealing with those adjustments.
We are going to teach you how and why to properly adjust your:
- Propeller shaft coupling
- Propeller and rudder shaft packing
Along the way we are going to sprinkle in some announcements about some exciting changes here at Woodies Restorations. Changes that are being made to serve you better!
Prop Shaft Coupling Alignment
Why do it?
If your engine is not properly aligned to the propeller shaft two bad, bad things will happen.
First the shaft will be bending - ever so slightly with each revolution of the engine. This bending will work harden the shaft and cause it to eventually break. The process is the same as when you bend a paper clip over and over. Eventually the paper clip metal will work harden and fracture. The paper clip activity is a wonderful time passer when in your bosses BORING meetings! Anyway, we have all done it and we know the more we bend it the less number of cycles it takes to cause it to break, and conversely if we bend it just a little it takes lots of bending cycles to make it break. Us farm boys and girls also know this is how you cut bailing wire with your bare hands! Kink the wire and cycle it a few times and you're done! Believe it or not this is the same process that will break your prop shaft!
The second bad thing that happens is that the output shaft bearing on your transmission gets overloaded! Doubling the load on any bearing reduces its life by a factor of 8! You may not be doubling the load if the shaft is not aligned but who cares about the calculation! If you increase the load by one eight then you have cut the life of your bearing in half! Why take the chance?!?!?! You will generally see a seal failure just before the bearing goes completely out and you'll have oil in bilge! Do you have oil around the output seal of your transmission? You can arrest the damage and extend the life of the bearing and seal by aligning your coupling, but you are already on your way to a premature replacement of the seal and bearing.
First
Check your engine mounts - if they are not in good condition it is pointless to do this procedure until they are. For mounts with rubber pads bonded to metal ( like the Hercules engines use) the rubber should be attached to the metal. If the rubber has started to deteriorate or has begun to separate from the steel bolting pads then they need replacement. They could fail during the boating season and cause misalignment of the shaft and worse. The mounts in the video are in good condition. If your mounts are bad change them before you go to the water for the second step! Yes we can help!
Second
This alignment procedure should be done in the water. Wooden boats are flexible, in fact, fiberglass and other boats are flexible too! This procedure will work for either wooden boats, recycled pop can boats (aluminum), recycled 57 Chevy bumper boats (steel) or frozen snot boats (fiberglass). If you align the coupling while on the trailer the boat may not be the same shape as it is once placed in the water.
Follow the procedure in the video below... you may want to try it once on land just to get familiar with it - don't make any adjustments while the boat is on a trailer on land as they will probably change once the boat settles in the water.
We now have Six Wholesale Marine Distributors supplying us with Parts, Supplies and Accessories. Each Supplier has access to something in the order of 50,000 to 60,000 different marine items! We also deal directly with many of the manufactures of supplies and accessories. So it is safe to say we have access to more parts and accessories than you do when you look in a so called Discount Marine supply catalogs.
We have price shopped for you and have over 1000 of the 60,000 marine items on our online store and are adding more items every day! Now you can shop in your PJs!
Don't forget! Make sure if / when you raise or lower the engine in front or in back that you do not make the prop shaft come in contact with the shaft log! It will add load to your engine, and load to your transmission, possibly cause your transmission to slip ( and eventually need adjustment or rebuild) or WORSE it can wear a hole in the shaft log!
And the winner is!
Jeff Simmons!
Congratulations on winning $200.00 in merchandise or services!
Remember we had a Funny Boating Story contest last month! Jeff wins with this story that sounds like a Whopper but is a True Story! This is awesome!
I bought my 1959 Chris ski Boat in 1976 while in college. Saved my summer job money and bought it late that summer.
Used the heck out of it through my final years at IU on Lake Monroe. When I got my first real job the boat followed me for the next 10 years until it was stolen from the storage area where I lived in northern Kentucky near Cincinnati. That was in 1985. My Dad Ray bugged me for years about finding that boat. He even paid the cost to sue the storage facility for leaving the gate unlocked. It was not successful. My Dad died a few years ago, but until then he bugged me about trying to recover the boat.
Fast forward 22 years and a bunch of gray hair. One evening May of 2007, sitting on the computer a bit bored & tired of scanning for horse memorabilia on eBay, I decided to punch in & search "Chris Craft" just to reminisce I guess. Flipping through the old woodies I saw a boat just like my old Chris listed as a 1962. The small photo said it was probably older so I clicked on it and looked. Yep, a 1959 just like my old boat. Same wood, same dash, same upholstery even the same weld on the manifold where I had a crack repaired in 1982................WTF?.
Yep, MY FREAKIN BOAT!.... after 22 years, it had barely changed, certainly less than I had.
KY State police impounded it because the hull & engine numbers were missing. There were two very PO'ed ladies that had to give up my stolen boat they had innocently acquired. But, even then, I still had to prove it was mine. Police theft reports from 1985 and old registrations were gone. I did have a couple old photos but I needed more. What I found was the old lawsuit and depositions that were used in the failed suit against the storage company. All neatly filed, notarized and archived in Frankfort, with an entire description of the boat and the theft in 1985. The suit that my Dad, Ray Simmons had paid for and the boat he had nagged me about finding for 20+ years. That was the clincher, & all the proof that the State police needed to release to me as the rightful owner. All thanks to my Dad paying for it years ago. He has had the last laugh.
Last Fall, after full restoration, my boat freshly christened "Ray's Revenge" hit the water with me again.
Jeff Simmons
Unfortunately for us, we didn't know Jeff and we didn't get to do the restoration on Rays Revenge, but suffice it to say a really nice job was done by The Wooden Boat Shop in Cincinnati, OH. Congratulations to Jeff for wining the $200 in merchandise - He is having us Re-Chrome some step pad frames and getting new rubber inserts!
Notice the State Trooper!
Why adjust your propeller and rudder shaft packing?
This photo shows the shaft log bolted to the keel of the boat and it has the packing gland sometimes called stuffing box attached. Since water is used as a lubricant to cool the shaft and packing material thus reducing wear on the shaft this packing gland should "leak" at about the rate of 3 drops per minute at the point where the finger is pointing.
This activity was featured in Wood Workers Journal and we have had inquiries from all over the nation!
Our Next session is quickly filling up - we even have a family from as far away as Wisconsin coming to our next event!
Don't be too late to sign up!
Click here to be contacted for this event!
Chris Smith - News!
There are a couple of things happening concerning Chris Smith, grandson of the founder of Chris Craft!
First!
If any of you have ever heard Chris tell his stories of life in the family and the factories of the Largest Builder of Motorboats in the World then you have missed out on some great and humorous history lessons, and just some plain old fashioned wisdom about life!
Whenever Chris has spoken to an event people wonder and ask "Is anyone writing this down?" For years no one did, but now Chris's daughter, Joy. HAS written it down and a book of Chris's stories is available on our online store for $25.00 + 4.95 shipping and handling! Learn more about the family that built your Chris Craft. If you have a cruiser it is likely Chris actually managed its construction!
Second!
Woodies Restorations is in the planning stages of a RENDEZVOUS featuring Ask the Expert time One on One with Chris Smith
Save the date that is tentatively set for August 14th 2009 through August 16th, 2009 at the Lake Cumberland State Dock!
Stay tuned as the plan unfolds and if you have any interest or suggestions please call me or e-mail me and let me know!
Click this link to put yourself on a mailing list concerning this event. This will ensure you get the latest and greatest information as the event plans unfold!
We once got ready to transport a boat that had been in the water a year. Upon inspection of the insurance to be prepared if the unthinkable were to happen during transport we found the owner had only port risk! So the boat was not properly insured while in the water, let alone on the road to our shop. So we didn't transport for about a week!
Now if you have never heard of Port Risk you might need to give Melinda a call so she can explain that term to you! Who is Melinda you ask?
Melinda Esau is an insurance agent with many years of experience in the marine industry. In fact her husband, Brian, owns a company called Personal Performance Marine servicing late model conventional construction boats from all around Lake Cumberland. So she thinks boats on a daily basis!
Melinda can write policys with Hagerty Marine Insurance on boats from Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky! You will find that Melinda can help you select your insurance coverage needed, and provide the personal and professional service you need and deserve to save you time and effort getting your boat properly insured!
Give Melinda a call for your insurance needs!
She's not just another pretty face!
Office phone # 270-866-2345
Cell 317-409-6310
e-mail [email protected]
OK, so you think you are ready to go to the lake! Are you properly insured?
270-866-2628 [email protected]
