Today we harvest two long years of painstaking preservation of the almost completely original 1952 Chris-Craft Riviera 18 Runabout. Save for several tiny Dutchman patches, her wood is entirely original, as are her upholstery, hardware, gauges, Iva Lite, windshield, steering wheel, and on and on.
We did have RAYCO fabricate a new tank. The burgee is after-market and stern flag is period, but not original. That’s it.
Her Chris-Craft Hercules KBL power plant’s 131 HP should push her along quite satisfactorily.
Pearl Craft of Perth, Australia preserved her steering wheel. Richard Sligh made the Iva Lite new again, as did New England Plating for all the hardware. George Beer and his team at American Metal Polishing transformed the stainless into jewelry.
Tomorrow she will debut at the Lake Champlain ACBS Chapter’s 30th Annual Antique and Classic Boat Show at the Community Boathouse in Burlington, VT.
We cannot wait!