Winter Hits The Lower Mainland

You can't control the weather!

Record low temperatures and massive dumps of snow have wreaked havoc in Vancouver these last few days, but it hasn't stopped work on Paramount. If we were not in the barn, it would be impossible to continue working. We had expected lots of rain, but the snow arrived early this year.

In just a couple of days we went from balmy autumn temperatures to -14 C with 40cm of snow falling. Lucky it was the Christmas break and only one day was lost. We hope to launch Paramount this week, after the engines come back from the shop. We might be waiting for a few days for the snow to melt, the lift at Granville Island can't be used in a foot of snow. Rains are forecast, so we might be able to stick to plan.

Even False Creek almost froze over - the fresh water did freeze on top of the salt water around the docks and the geese were having to ice-break their way up the creek.

Here is Paramount snug in the back of the barn.

Meet Michelle, she delivers! Rain, snow, sleet or hail - this gal gets through. Here she is delivering a box from the chrome shop, when the courier companies couldn't! Lucky for the all wheel drive - she needed it!

The chrome is for the cabin top, so we can bed everything down, including the mast, and have Paramount ready to brave the weather when she returns to the yard for the engines to be installed and then she will be ready to go back on the dock.

This week we will be dyno-testing the two engines, getting them back in the boat and reinstalling the helm woodwork. The new headliner should be ready to go back up and Miss P will be looking like a lady again.

"Doctor Doug" Blue Ocean Yacht Services (BOYS)

Meet Doug. Doctor Doug.

The guy in the smurf hat. Don't let the hat or "Phil's" coveralls fool you his expertise is second to none. He's been running Blue Ocean Yacht Services for over 25 years at Granville Island, he has every tool for the trade and knows every trick. He can diagnose a problem and have a remedy prepared without wasting a minute. Hence the nick-name.



Here he is doing one of those "don't try this at home" things, pumping the gas from P's tanks to prepare for removal and replacement. When he got down to the bottom he didn't find the expected sludge and old varnish, the tanks were found to be clean and there was no need to replace at this time. His approach isn't a make-work attitude, it is an "if this were my boat" view.



He's so good you have to practically bribe him to work on your boat and the nicest boats are lined up all year round and all of the owners know Doug works best when the bribe is a premium beer. If you are lucky enough he will open a beer on board your boat at "Beer-O'clock" that's 5pm BOYS time, and ponder the task(s) at hand and review the work in progress.



As an owner you know you are getting the best work available and without compromise. Safety is always his first concern. Paying attention to every detail is his reputation. With his depth of knowledge jobs are handled with care and precision.




Doug has a sign on the shop door "No tools loaned" yet everyone borrows something from him at sometime and if he charged $25 a question, he could sit behind his desk all day working out everyone in the boatyard's solutions. He's the guy you turn to when you need to know.

Paramount's Mast

Attention to detail is what made Chris Craft - Chris Craft


Just visible in this picture - flying the R.V.Y.C. burgee, the mast serves three purposes, the anchor light is atop, the steaming light is mid mast and the horns are held near the base. Flying the flags and being a beautiful feature are the Chris Craft difference.

Originally painted cream in the workshop, the mast is constructed from two solid planks of mahogany, on an earlier Chris Craft it would have been varnished. It was the sixties and the all cream exterior, it must have been decided, that a mahogany varnished wood mast would look too old school. The temptation to sand and varnish it was pretty strong and some were horrified that we were repainting it.





The anchor light also known as the Jetson's Globe - streamline or "curved-linear" design at it's best. A replacement lens and bulb fitting are being sourced for the steaming light above.

This solid bronze mast base weights about twenty pounds, designed in the tear-drop shape that was uniquely Chris Craft, is at the chrome shop being plated, along with the other mast hardware pictured below. The chrome plate protects the bronze fittings as well as making all the hardware look like jewels.

The old wiring was in pretty sad shape, the glue had let go in the join of the two planks. The pencil markings were done in the workshop, to align the two halves whilst they were being shaped.

The cabin top handrail fittings were removed and are being plated for their return.

The two sides were bolted together with the bronze fastener, the wires run down the middle and water had been seeping into the headliner below in the main salon.

Below is the running light fixture, the aluminum plate is to stop the light from shining in the captain's eyes.

The base is hinged to allow the mast to fold forward on the cabin top for low bridge clearances and boat houses A large thumb screw holds it in place when it is raised upright, two arms hold it off the deck when it is lowered.

The mast has been epoxied together, with a wider channel cut for today's heavier wiring. This week it will be reassembled and returned to the cabin top as we prepare to move Paramount to the yard for the engines to go back in and be relaunched.

Chris Craft Craftsmanship

The end of the wood boat

In 1968 they still built them like they used to; plank by plank from the keel up with the hull and interiors hand crafted from the finest Honduran mahogany. The cabinet makers would carefully choose clear grain boards from the vast warehouses stacked with forests of this fine timber.

As they continued to build wood boats at the original Chris Craft boatyard in Algonac Michigan, a new facility was building the "modern" fiberglass models in Pompano Beach Florida. Chris Craft had been building small sports boats in fiberglass for a few years, it wasn't until 1965 that they started to build their biggest boats entirely of fiberglass.

Paramount is "Styled in Fiberglass" and she is hull number two, the second that Chris Craft ever built in this size and the evidence of the transition between wood and fiberglass is found everywhere in her construction. Her helm station and interior are old school "wood boat" - the very next year (1969) Chris Craft went with "no maintenance Arborite - you never have to varnish again" - gone was the solid mahogany.

Restoring the Wood Work

After carefully removing the old varnish with a heat gun, all of the woodwork was sanded back to "new wood" - UV damage was sanded out to reveal the true natural reddish colour of the wood. In keeping with the original 1968 design the mahogany was all stained an even brown colour and 12 coats of varnish are in the process of being applied, with fine sanding between coats to obtain an overall mirror finish.

The large panels of the original veneer in the helm station had to be replaced, due to water damage and previous hardware installations and the resulting screw holes. Westwind Timbers on Vancouver Island were able to find Sapele ribbon grain mahogany - the closest match to the original Honduran.

Chris Craft 427 rebuild contnued...

One day I was walking down the dock and I overheard two women talking. They were commenting on a well dressed gentleman washing down his boat with great care. One women turned to the other and said; if I could just figure out how to put engines in the house, he might spend as much time on house work. The other lady laughed, as I did on my way to wash down the boat...

It is true, there is something special about engines. And the 427's are special engines. If you notice the stand bending in the photo above and the engine is a long way from all dressed. These are not your ordinary blocks.


FoMo only cast these engines in 1966, Chris Craft bought 1000 blocks, today Ford Racing has re-commissioned the casting of these blocks for their next gen race cars. Let's hope they are around to race them.



By the end of the day today the engine will be painted, Pete and the guys have it ready to go. You can see below that the firing order has been ground off the block. All the counter rotating engines were ground to ensure no mechanic in the future would wire the engine in the standard rotation order.

The port (left) engine is the standard automobile rotation with the prop turning counter-clockwise. The starboard (right-hand) engine is the counter-rotating with the prop turning clockwise. Both engines turn away from each other.

Wednesday we dyno-test this first engine.

Rebuilding Paramount's Twin Ford 427's

40 years since Ford won LeMans with the 427, and Chris Craft began installing them.

In 1963, 1964, and 1965 Ford Motor Company won 101 NASCAR races with their big block racing motors, against nine (9) by GM. The 427 was an awesome weapon on the tracks. It was lightweight, powerful, and reliable.

NASCAR wasn't the only place where Henry Ford II, "The Duce", intended to assert the power of American manufacturing. He wanted to embarrass Enzo Ferrari and the 427 did the job two years in a row at LeMans (and then it was outlawed from further competition).

New "modern" marine engines are made to replace every five to seven years.

Paramount with her 40 year old original 427 engines had become a little less than reliable this past summer. (To put it politely). Days before the annual two week family summer cruise, Paramount lost the starboard transmission as we approached her slip.

The first week of the holiday was spent tracking down a replacement Paragon gear and getting it swapped in and buttoned down, the weather was beautiful. We got her off the dock for week two as the clouds and rain socked in. The week was spent holed up in Silva Bay...

It was time to rebuild the engines!

Pete and the guys at Pacifc Parts were assigned the job.

The engines stripped down to the block and bored out 20 over, new piston heads and the complete "deluxe" rebuild kit was sourced through the online Chris Craft Commander forum website (as was the above info on the racing history) this owners resource has proved invaluable in the Paramount restoration.

The high chrome content is clearly visible in the shine of the cylinders.

The guys in the Pacific Parts workshop and their parts store are all impressed by the quality of the 427 block and are putting their best efforts into remaking the engine "better than new".

We are scheduled to dyno-test the first (counter-rotating) engine on Wednesday (December 17th) this week.