Cobra Cobra. The Official List Of All 15 Cobras To Be At Lake Dora
Cobra! Photo Alan Johnson
Just in case you have been living in a bilge for the past 6 months, you may not know that this years specialness at lake Dora is the 60th Anniversary of the Cobra. And today we have the list from Terry Fiest of all the Cobras showing up. This will be a once in a lifetime event.
Alan doing his thing!
If you drool over these amazing Cobra models, this show is a MUST ATTEND! If you like laughing, woody boating, having fun in the sun, and a cold beer at night, well….. why are you not already on the road?
Today’s header, note the absolute perfection! All the screws are lined up, the bungs perfect, paint, varnish. the entire boat is like this! Courtesy -Katzs Marina
Slide in and lets go Woody Cobra boating
The photos today are from the preparation at Katz’s Marina from Bob Kays, and Alen Johnson lettering. Here is the list.
LIST OF COBRA OWNERS AND BOATS THAT ARE PLANNING TO ATTEND THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY COBRA CELEBRATION AT THE 28TH ANNUAL SUNNYLAND ANTIQUE BOAT FESTIVAL
SETH KATZ——-BR-21-017—–BR-21-055—–BR-18-032—land display and access to launch as needed
FRANK BAUER—–BR-21-030—water
STEVE MARINI—-BR-21-021—water
BOB BOARDMAN—BR-18-011—water
JACK GOULD—–BR-18-002—land
LARRY COX—-BR-18-003—Land or water
STEVE WINDOM—-BR-21-006—–BR-18-010—one in water and one on land
DAN DIEHL—BR-21-012—water
PETE BEAUREGARD—-BR21-033—-water
CLARK SMITH—BR-21-045—-BR-18-024—-both on land
JOHN MURPHY—BR-21-014—-water
Just 8 more days til we start having fun!
This is going to be AWESOME!
I wish at least one of the Cobbossee Cobras was making the trip.
Still a lot of snow up here.
Getting packed up today, leaving Friday am. Heading to Charleston S.C. for a couple of days with my son and his family, and do some boatin. See you all Thursday afternoon, for the big party.
No boat this year, looking for a boat ride or two, hint, hint…
Impressive list…Looking forward to seeing Clark Smith there…Haven’t seen him in some time…
Clark…did you ever find that elusive Cobra you spotted sitting between two junked cars ?..See you there.
Terry: You convince that guy in Sarasota to take his Cobra out of the car museum for a day or two ?
A couple of years ago my 19 yr old son was delivering a customers car from Atlanta to Long Lake, Maine when he stopped at a rest area in Penn, or NY where he noticed a fully covered woody and asked the driver?/owner? where they were headed with the 21′ Cobra. They were amazed he could figure it out being fully covered. Not amazing to us w/b’ers. We think its the one in Cobbossee Troy, they were headed to Maine.
I think that was Guy and Connie. They are actually looking for a place on a lake (maybe Cobbossee) but last I knew she was on a trailer.
The Cobra in the museum in Sarasota is BR-18-001. I have been talking to him and he is actually trying to sell it. It was at an auction last week and didn’t sell. Its headed down to south Florida the end of the month for another attempt to auction it off.
I love so many Chris Crafts, from many decades, but I gotta say, I have always found the Cobra to be U-G-L-Y, “it ain’t got no albi…it’s UGLY!” I know the late ’50s were an especially fins, fins, fins and more fins era, and that combined with “hey-what-about-adding-fiberglass-too?,” a boat like the Cobra results. But honestly, I’d take any 1930’s-1960’s barrel back, sportsman, or runabout over a Cobra, 8 days a week.
I have always wondered about the Cobra appeal. It is not just that the fiberglass hull is on the wrong side, or the big fin, I find the various lines and curves of the boat to look more like a hodge podge design by committee rather than a uniform piece of art. It is easily my least favorite of the runabouts, yet they remain popular and fan favorites and obviously hold a good value in the marketplace. Anyway, you are not alone, but we definitely seem to be a minority.
So, what is the feature boat for next year? Give us some lead time so maybe I can buy one and restore it in time 🙂
I’ll take all that kind of “ugly” I can get.
I’m with you Greg! All the way.
hidden in the Thumb of Michigan is 21′ Hull#001 “Cobra One” on the hullsides, with a caddy V-8. The boat is perrrfect!! I saw her a few years ago when I work on the owners 18′ cobra hull # 003 or 007 can’t remember.
Are all the Cobra’s that were manufactured accounted for, or are there more to be found?
Extremly nice restorations, we’ve have never seen these Cobras here in Sweden!
I’m just curious regarding the screws….here in Sweden Philips screws are like “forbidden” on classic wooden boats! We use the slotted ones in every place that are seen at least!
What did the Cobras have from the beginning?
Chris Craft used straight slot screws until WW II then they switched to phillips head screws. I did see an untouched 16’barrel back from 1941 that had both in it but not certain that was the transition year. Century used primarily straight slot screws. I know that large boat companies also used straight slots, they used large screws in the decks to hold down cleats and other hardware and did not want water sitting in the top of the screw which would happen if it was a large phillips.
Thanx for quick resonse, Mike! 🙂
reed and prince, a phillips looking screw.
Frearson, to be more specific was the name of the recess,they were manufactured by The Reed & Prince Co.,just saying.
I had presumed that the new owner of Peter Bailey’s former Cobra (Hull No. BR18-020) would show up at the Dora Cobra Fest. 🙁
Back in the day Peter exercised the old girl wherever and whenever possible.
It is interesting that only 9 are listed in the Hull Registry in the Chris Craft club, and hull BR-18-045 is listed twice there. Can someone take down the pertinent information next week and get them all in the registry?
Also, for the record, I LOVE the look of the Cobra’s, and have always coveted them since I first saw a picture of one as a kid. One is for sale, does anyone know the asking price?
For those of us who don’t have the Ovaltine Chris Craft decoder ring, what do the letters and numbers signify?
Walt I believe the 18 signifies the 18 foot model and the 21 indicates the 21 foot model the number after the hyphen on both boats indicates the sequence that each boat was built on for example 18 – o20 would be the 20th 18 footer built in standard production run. I believe that there were a couple demonstrators built first so hull number is not 100 percent accurate
Each Size Cobra(18 or 21) had a Prototype, the designation is BR18-00P and BR21-00P. The numbers continue with 001 etc. So there are a total of 52 18ft. Cobra’s and 56 21ft. Cobra’s.