25 Years In A Barn, 4 Winters Of Work, 1 Amazing Correct Craft!

25 years in one place, She is ready to GO!

Long time fellow Woody Boater and our go to T Shirt maker Alan Arrighi has been working on his dream boat for some time, we are very excited to share Alan’s story! Happy Sunday, this is what it’s all about. Take it away Alan!

Introducing the 1955 19′ Hurricane model. 1955 was Correct Craft’s 30th anniversary and most of the line up was enhanced with a yellow detail on the hull that resembled their anniversary logo. The Hurricane is an unusual model with the sloped transom and the Arrow motif on the foredeck, the double planking also made it rather expensive so their were not that many built. Finding the history of an old Correct Craft is difficult as I’m told most records were lost to a fire I believe in 1969. So we don’t know how many were made or how many still exist but this is the only example of the boat I can find anywhere, I’d love to know if there’s another one out there in Woodyboaterland.

We purchased it about 6 years ago and have spent the last 4 winters doing a complete restoration. I have always wanted to build a planked wood boat but had never found the right boat when one morning over coffee I saw this boat advertised on a ski boat forum I frequent. The sloped transom caught my eye but the fact that I’ve been a waterskier for 35 years and this was a Correct Craft ( of Ski Nautique fame) made me think I needed to jump on the opportunity. A phone call and 750 miles later and we were on our way back home with her. Turns out the boat had been put in a barn in 1975 and left there until it was purchased for restoration in 2001. That owner disassembled the boat but then feel ill and it sat once again.

This was originally going to be a new 5200 bottom and refasten the topsides but once we started pulling the boat apart it became obvious the boat had been repaired several times before with 5200. This made saving any original planking futile so we were forced to replace everything. Bottom, topsides and deck were all replaced with new inner ply and planking so the entire boat is now 5200 water tight and solid as a rock.

Of course we had other surprises when dismantling the boat as we had to replace all transom framework and build a new stem. One of the biggest challenges was the fact that we bought the boat already taken apart, we had to rent a uhaul to bring back piles of rusted dirty old boat parts that were all supposed to go in that hull. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle I spent hours reassembling hardware and figuring out mechanical systems. This was my first restoration of a wood boat so there were many hours reading, researching, sourcing parts and materials, etc but in the end we’re pretty happy with the results and I think we ended up with a pretty decent amateur restoration.

The power plant was another journey all together, the original power was a straight six Grey marine 100hp and had been replaced with a 327 v8 Grey that “Ran when the boat was put away in 1975”. In reality the motor was junk and needed a full rebuild and since it was not even an available option in 1955 we decided to search for a replacement engine of the correct vintage. We ended up finding the premium power option for 1955 in a 331 CI Chrysler Hemi so a quick 2500 mile trip and a long weekend down to Florida secured that for us.

Here are some great photos of Soul Mate all finished!

LETS GO!

Amazing stuff, Thanks Alan!