Here is some brief info on my recent purchase: I bought a 33 1/2 1967 roamer in sept. the owner before bought her as salvage, it was sitting on the bottom of the lake in her slip. She apparently sank, for unknown reasons. The original interior wood has been painted with white paint and I am most certain that there is plenty of wood stains beneath. I am not sure how much work I am willing to do to restore her to her original. But I am definately upgrading her to make her look closer to original as I can. I have no pictures to offer at this time, but will shortly download some. Is there anyone out there who would like to offer some advice or point us in the right direction. I have searched for pics of her but can't find any exactly....she has a fly bridge. She is either a 67' or 69' wife and I are second guessing ourselves..LOL! Dave
Great Roamer! Whoa! Now that one definitely earns you the classic Chris-Craft owner of the month award. She's one of the rarest (55 total made - from 1965-67) and most beautiful Roamers CC ever styled out of steel. And definitely hard to find good photos of - I know, been at this for sometime now.(Name?) Anyway, will post what I have. There are also a couple of other 33' Riviera owners in our group - hello out there! Have you found the hull# yet? Usually its stamped on top of the inside starboard engine stringer. It will be one of these: RXA-33-101 to RXA-33-120 (1965) RXA-33-2001 to RXA-33-2025(1966) RXA-33-3001 to RXA-33-3010 (1967) Keep us posted on progress - we all know this may take some time. Cheers! Eric Webmaster, CC Roamers "Tin Tonic" PS - A flybridge makes her doubly rare.
Don't give up on the painted interior. My Roamer Sedan had several coats of paint in the salon, and it was peeling like an old house. I stripped it, sanded out the stains, and stained and varnished it. It was somewhat time-consuming, but not that difficult. There are still little imperfections (like the hollow spots where I had to sand a little too much or dark spots where I couldn't get the stain completely out) but it looks good from a distance. I like to call the imperfections "patina." Hal 1960 (or 61??) 35' Regal Sedan
resurrecting a 'wet' boat Dave, How long was the boat submerged? This will have a large bearing on whether the wood will be able to be refinished. The grain will swell if the water was able to penetrate the old finish. That will require a lot of sanding and Marine plywood has only so much material to sand (less than 1/10 if an inch). However there are several larger issues. If it was submerged in fresh water (I assume it was by your location), and recovered promptly, then serviced immediately, the propulsion system should be recoverable. This leaves the largest concern in my mind being electrical. With a boat this age and having been submerged, you really should replace everything electrical, every appliance (110v and 12v), every switch, breaker, and even down to the wires. Every electrical connection will be suspect and if water infiltrated the old plastic insulation, the wiring will have started to corrode. Once the moisture is there, the corrosion will continue even after the surface seems dry. Just replacing connections may not avert future problems. And electrical problems can be very frustrating to diagnose. Good luck
Its been a long winter and finally I am able to reply back to you. The boat is still in renovations but I am eager to share some pics, but I am not that computer friendly and everytime I try they don't work. I will try to get someone to help me out and post more recent and updated ones very shortly. We have sanded and painted the hull (big dirty ugly job,haha), redone all upholstery, and yes shamefully admitting the we stooped as low as to repaint over the horrible paint job from the previous owner (too much work to strip, we do want to go boating this season, a boat isn't a boat if you can't enjoy it), althought we sanded and stained the bath. I am currently working on the back deck and head liner. I am sorry to admit we still haven't gotten to finding the hull number but it is on the top of my list for tomorrow! We have decided to name the boat "ROAMING CHARGES", we think this name will fit well, especially because of the cost of fuel. Dave
