Exclusive Never Seen Slides Of A Military Chris – Craft Sportsman!
Looks like just three slides? Oh look closer!
Thanks to Alan at Katz’s Marina for sending us in some cool slides he had digitized. Slides are one of those horrible things that sadly will cost us many great images.But thanks to Alan, these are saved and shared. WOW! And I thought our little photos were small. These are needle in a hey stack items found on ebay. Has anyone ever seen these real images of a very cool military Sportsman. Well here ya go! Woohoo.
How cool is that rub rail. I so want to restore one of these
Is that fuel in the vent there? That aint good! Looks like yellow painted Covering boards and wood decks.
We have seen this image a bunch of times, and its a dead ringer.
now, doing a little detective work, and the slides are in holders that are of a design from 1950-1955 and the uniforms also feel like about that period. So here is the question? Why would the Airforce have a 22 prewar sportsman in use like this over 15 years after it was made? And yes, slides were used in 1941, but not with this design on the paper.
Note the huge light and long windshield. Love the red cross box. Looks like a pre war sportsman. This is an Airforce boat? Is the glass bullet proof? Nice and scratchy slide!
Here is the shot de scratchafied.
See the wrench, looks like they are repairing a prop?
Painted yellow! Wrench!, Small flag hardware! Large scoops.
Cool handles on the back of the forward seats
What sort of engine is in there? Is the red fuel in the vent a tell? Is it a diesel?
They used it for so long because those old CC’s were such damn good boats. Fifteen years is nothing! My CC is 70 and it’s still a damn good boat. It’ll outlive me.
I like the fenders.
Air Force….probably a rescue boat near or on an air base, in case someone ditched in the water. My guess…your turn.
So here is the made up history. See this boat has been at the base forever. She is called War horse or Old Gal by all on the base. But one guy is the big supporter of Old gal, he keeps her going as all the younger recuits make fun of her. He keeps telling them that she is a tank, yes slow, but always starts and gets the job done. Secretly the younger guys agree, but like to make fun of ” Chief’ who knows every nook and cranny of Old gal. I will add, she has about an inch of paint on her, and they all joke that she is held together with paint. Thats my take on it.
Used to be one in Idaho. Seen it while delivering an engine at the 2002 or so ACBS show.
Matt, I love how you find the cool stuff and dig into the details. Prop repair- definitely government work- one works while two watch.
Anything on WAC boats? Camo-kini’s? Troy?
There was one advertised in Maryland. I made an offer, I thought was accepted. I was going to mate it with a WWII jeep. I thought it would be great for parades. When I called to arrange to get it, the owner said he had sold it. DRAT !
P.S. Love the rub rails…there have been days when I needed something like that.
Could those rub rails be fire hose stuffed with something? Our first dock, early 1950’s, had flat fire hose around the inside of the boat wells and outside where friends would dock. The texture is similar. I still have a roll of it.
I don’t think it can be a pre-war Sportsman since the sub 24 footers were not called Sportsman until after the war right? It can’t be a Utility De-luxe because it is a military boat and they don’t buy anything deluxe for the regular troops. Someone must know the real name for this thing. Probably a horrible acronym like RUB-7 (Rescue utility boat model 7) or something like that.
It would be neat if someone could identify one of the men in the pictures. Then contact them.They would know. One of them might still be a woodyboater.
BTW, the center red stripe on the roundel on the bow dates the photos to 1947 or later. The roundel on the engine cover in the drawing with the center red dot was dropped in early 1942 so that is either an early war drawing or the artist didn’t know.
Target boat
Yes, that explains the bright yellow paint! Also the huge lines! And nervous airmen!
There is a thread on the topic on the boat buzz. These are also crash boats. The target boats would have been larger. This also explains the two huge life rings and the large emergency box and padding. I am now calling it a Crash boat! Anyone?
http://www.chris-craft.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=4559#p21834
Looks like we covered his passing as well.
https://www.woodyboater.com/blog/2012/09/09/this-weekend-we-lost-lifelong-wooden-boat-enthusiast-jim-mcgoldrick/
From Bill Basler on the thread. no photos attached though.
“Chris-Craft’s first war-time contract was for engines to be supplied to other builders, such as Higgins.That contract was issued in February of 1941. Within weeks, a second contract was issued for 27 Crash Boats, like the one above. These were essentially U-22s equipped for search and rescue. I have not done any research on this, but obviously a large search light was part of the equipment. I know these boats were built to carry stretchers, so I would assume there was some method of tying things down.
The particular press release (with the photo above) was written March 5th of 1941. By this time, Chris-Craft had already built 11 of the 27 boats. That means they had completed almost 50% of the 27 boats within two weeks of being awarded the contract…and that was as they were ramping up….AND…building civilian boats at the same time.”
We had one of these at Macatawa Bay back in the day. We used the windshield on a restoration; the best looking windshield don’t know why they didn’t use them on production boats.
Here is the BW photo, note, no boot stripe!
… the one who would remember this craft is the lowly airman who had to keep that chrome windshield frame polished!
Jim Magoldrick owned a 46 military spec CC U22 that was restored by Dave Lobb in the mid 80″s. It is assumed that the Army canceled the contact immediately upon the end of WW2 and since this boat was on the line at that time, It was sold for civilian use. This U22 had extra fasteners and other reinforcements. I believe the boat is still owned by the Magoldrick Family in northern Idaho.
That must have been the one I seen.
Not sure if this is the same family
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/sep/12/pioneer-family-member-dies-at-95/
Here is a story on the Magoldrick family collection .
https://www.woodyboater.com/blog/2011/07/09/live-ish-from-the-10th-annual-classic-boat-festival-at-sandpoint-idaho-friday/
i think the guy in the water is checking the serial number to see if s a missing famous movie boat that was painted white to hide it from discovery.
or removing the lobster trap from the prop. hope the key is out!
I recall doing this story on Rhonda Beth, which has some military history. I persoanly love the military colors and graphics. Though
https://www.woodyboater.com/blog/2009/11/10/a-u22-custom/
I’m pretty sure those are oar lock “blocks” on the covering boards aft of the forward seats. They give the height needed for the oars to clear the deck/gunnel and the right angle for the poor crewmember to stand up and row. Probably good for double duty as a machine gun base/support…
Those of us who had the good fortune to have known Jim McGoldrick were treated to wonderful stories and experiences whenever we were in his presence. Truly one of a kind!
The red dye in the fuel could be from 80 octane aviation fuel which was in common use at that time.
YES! That makes sense. I wonder what engine? Looks like a huge oil filter on there at the top.
Chrysler
I think the airman in the water at stern is “noodling”.
Here’s a second to the 80 octane fuel comment by Denis. Back then 80 octane avgas was red, 100 octane green and 115 purple (still is, if you can find it). Lots of dye is used in avgas so it will stain when leaking, and because the AF had plenty of 80 octane around for smaller utility aircraft it would be the logical stuff to run a low-compression boat on. Doubt if it was port wine in any case, and can’t imagine there being any aviation hydraulic fluid on board which is also cherry red.