(Possible) first Roamer and I have some questions...

First off , you're right...pictures can be deceiving. You should take a look yourself.

As for the hull, although they may look good, that too can be a wrong assumption. Most often, when you go to fix the hull, you end up neck deep in s**t. I just went through it. In short, all turned out well and at least we know a ripple won't pop a hole right through the hull!

We sandblasted, patched, primed and epoxied our 37 Roamer Riviera this past spring. I'd be glad to give you some advide, just send me an e-mail.

All in all, there isn't a nicer boat on the water than a classic Roamer. They were THE boat to have 40 years ago-- the most majestic on the water. Today, nothing has changed.

It doesn't matter where we go with our Roamer, people cross marinas and streets to compliment us and take a look.

Buy the Roamer is my vote.

We checked and checked when we looked into ours. We were going to take it to Jefferson Beach but were told by numerous people to stay AWAY from that welder.

As far as I know, the only qualified welder is in Kingsville, ON. He is only an hour from you. He builds ships for the Canadian Coast Guard and did an excellent job to say the very least. We looked and looked and he was the only qualified "non- backyard do it yourselfer" in the Southwestern Ontario, Southeast Michigan area. On top of it, he is reasonable with prices.

I can get you his contact information if you're interested.

We boat out of Beach Grove Golf and Country Club in St. Clair Beach, ON as well as the Detroit Yacht Club...I hope to see you Roaming with your family. There is also a Roamer for sale at the Detroit Yacht Club. Let me know and I can get you that information too.

Let me know if you need help.

I'm the Membership Retention Chair at the DYC. I know Commodore Maisner very well. I've been looking for a decently priced boat like "Grumpy." It is a small world indeed.

Which info. were you referring to? The Roamer or the steel guy...or both?

I'll be at the Toronto Boat Show this weekend. But I can get it all together next week.

Mike,

You're right about the engines--283 ci GM small blocks, listed at 185 hp. In 1960, CC also offered a 275 hp, which I believe was a 427 Ford block, and a 225 hp Chrysler (318 ci??). The 283 came with either a manual reverse gearbox (don't know who made it) or a Paragon hydraulic reverse, model HF2 with a 2.5:1 reduction gear. It cost me $3,500 to have one transmission rebuilt a few years ago, and parts were getting scarce. At the time, a couple of people suggested getting a little later model tranny.

Are you looking at the Roamer listed in ************** that is located in Fairhaven? From the pics, that's a nice looking boat. Someone has put a lot into the interior. The helm is also rearranged and has some new instrumentation. But yes, the big question is what is under the deck and under the paint. It sounds like CaptainRoamer can give you some good guidance there.

BTW, I have a 1961 35' Sedan in Lake Erie at Lasalle (south of Monroe). My original engines were 283s, but somewhere along the way, someone replaced the blocks with 350 ci GM truck blocks. The heads and manifolds appear to be original. The hour meters show over 2000 hours, but they start easy, I get around 3800 rpm wot, and 18 kts downhill. When I can afford it, I cruise at 3500 which give me 15 to 16 knots.

Good luck on your Roamer pursuit. They're great old boats, and they turn heads.

Hal

We like the Toronto show a little better than Detroit, there's a ton more big boats. We like to look at the ones we can't afford and see how the other half lives!

My girlfriend and I will be working at the DYC booth at the Detroit Show on the first Sunday for a few hours. We put in a little time and get free admission to the show!

I can't believe you know the Maisners so well and they haven't recruited you to the club yet?

I'll get you all the info. next week and send it over. Again, the Roamer will be alot of work, but it pays off, believe me. We've enjoyed every second of ours. We may get rid of it and move to something in the 35' range. Our Roamer has an aft enclosure and the only way to get outside is to get on the bridge or the bow. We have too many 'summer' friends for the bridge. We're looking for a smaller one so we can give more free rides and hand out more free beer!

We usually bring the Roamer to the Gold Cup Races, if you're down this year, stop in and see us. We'll have a few cold ones for ya. We're the only 37 Riv with a motoryacht enclosure and she's called Country Club.

A couple comments about the motors. If it's an aluminum Roamer then twin 283s would make a fine power to weight ratio. Even with steel, on a 35' boat they're not too bad.

The 275-hp motor for 1960 would most certainly NOT be a 427, because the 427 was first produced mid-way through the 1963 production year. Therefore this would most likely be a MEL (Mercury Edsel Lincoln) 430 or 431 "Lincoln" motor, and they were rated at the 275 power range. Good motors,
but tough to find parts for these days.


Years ago I had a 35' Sea Skiff with twin 327 solid lifters, and it would fly. If you swap out those 283 motors, be very careful you don't get a set of generic gutless hydraulic "Taxi Cab" crate motors, with the only real gurantee being they come on a crate. Many times a repower with a motor that "looks" like a SBC will provide poor results.

Regards, Dogsharks

Thanks for correcting me on the 427 vs. 430 Lincolns. It wasn't ringing right when I wrote "427," but I couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Hal

I have the 283's in my Roamer and the manual reverse gear tranny's (paragon) With Chris-o-Matics
I rebuilt it all!! yes the tranny's were around $3000 each and engines were a little more. I have been very pleased ........ at WOT I get around 4200 rpm and around 32 mph. From what I can tell I now have around 225 HP (185 b4 rebuild) I changed a few things in the engines (hyd lifters for 1 and correct heads)!!! one things that is common and happened on my boat is over the years when heads cracked dpo replaced with 350 heads low compression.
There is something about lifting that hatch cover to show my engines (all Origanal) That makes it all worth it
Keep it origanal would be my input

Looks nice. Certainly alot of potental. Decent price too.

Hull Material 1960 35'

There is a site with specifications that include the 1960 Chris that you mention and perhaps it may prove helpful to you.
It can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/alloyed2sea/Express_35s.html
The information there indicates that hulls were fabricated in both steel and aluminum.
Best of luck and if you do obtain an aluminum hull, I suggest Westport Marina in LaSalle, Ont. where their docks are aluminum. They just finished the hull on my 46' 1968 Riviera and it looks like new.
I assume that 283hp would be produced by a 327cu Chevy engine block or larger(there were twin 327's in my 37' 1966 Owens Majorca.)

Keep us all informed. We'd love to know how it went.