The five year restoration of a 70 year old Chris-Craft Riviera: Part three

A 70-year-old Chris-Craft Riviera 20 was finally sitting in Glen Archer’s workshop after several months of research, bidding at auctions, and shipping from the USA. Glen was at a complete loss:

“I had no competency, no skill in the trade, and really no idea. I just looked at it for four months because I didn’t know how to start.”

“Finally I called a good friend who knows a thing or two about boats, he came over and we had a few beers and set a plan in place.”

Learning to restore a boat from scratch

Glen realised he essentially had no idea what he was doing so he started Googling as he went:

 “There’s about half a dozen guys who post a bunch of informative stuff about restoring old vessels like this online. There was one guy in particular who wrote the bible on the restoration of these boats and it has been invaluable.”

 Glen used YouTube, forums, blogs, websites, online manuals and walkthroughs, and more, to learn at every stage:

“Every time I had to do something I’d research it for two or three weeks and learn everything I could then do it. Over the course of the entire project, I reckon I spent 800 hours researching”

 “Without the internet, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I don’t know how they did it in the old days.”

This method got Glen started and after a few weeks, he was making slow but steady progress, doing several hours of work a few nights a week and a day on the weekend to get it done.

Working toward a mental image 

Glen knew he had thousands of hours of work on his hands but a mental image of the finished product kept him going:

“I had this image of the finished boat galvanised in my mind. I knew what I wanted it to look like and I just kept working toward that.”

“That meant I had to remove numerous things other owners had added and changed over the years to get it back to how it was when it left the factory in 1950.”

After 18 months of working toward that image, Glen had made impressive progress. He’d replaced all of the timber at the bottom of the vessel using imported wood from Perth and it looked  amazing:

“Then I realised, the bottom is nice but now the deck looks rough. So I removed the entire deck and replaced that too then the rest of the interior needed fixing and so it went.”

On Glen went until he’d restored the entire boat. The work that he did included stripping the boat apart, rebuilding all the frames, replacing every single nut and screw, rebuilding and waterproofing the deck, bleaching, staining, 28 coats of varnish, interior retrimming, full rewiring, and a full engine rebuild - plus about 1,000 other little things:

“60% of the frame and timbers are new. I did everything myself with the help of family and friends. That is except for the engine restoration, it’s a 72-year-old flathead 6-cylinder engine with all the quirks that come with that. it was completed by a local skyline builder with the support of an American shop.”

“My young feller who’s very good with his hands got stuck in with me. The rest of my family helped where they could along with friends.”

Whimsical Mistress on the water

The restoration had taken far longer than Glen expected - it had been 4.5 years since he started and almost five since he started hunting for a vessel. So he decided it was time to get it done:

“We drew a line in the sand and planned to finish before the Rotoiti classic wooden boats parade on Saturday 4th February.”

Glen put in a whopping 150 hours in 4 weeks, working until 2:30 am for several nights to get it done. Then finally on Friday the night before the event Glen finished and stood back to look at his work:

“All I felt at the time was relief. I’d put in over 2,500 hours of work and 800 hours of research to build the boat and she was done.”

When the vessel was finished Glen was keen to take her out on the water right away but after spending almost five years working on her insurance was a priority. At the end of the day, he went with Mariner Insurance, the largest specialist marine insurance provider in New Zealand:

“Mariner Insurance are great, we have our other boat insured with them and it’s just easy and low-key.”

Once the vessel was insured and Glen had peace of mind he took Whimsical Mistress to Rotoiti with the family and popped her in the water for the first time in decade.

 She’s not a show queen

Glen went out and had a great weekend with the family and the boat had plenty of admirers but it wasn’t until the following Tuesday that it all sunk in:

“The sense of achievement has only just dawned on me. I take my hat off to anyone who has done this, it’s not for everyone. I definitely wouldn’t line up to do another one right away.”

“Your family has to be on board. You’ve got to have money in your pocket when you need it.”

Every time Glen talks about the boat his passion and excitement show:

“It really is sobering to see it finished. It’s beautiful, it really is, it looks so much better than my mental image.” 

Now that the boat’s done Glen says she’s not a show queen and that she’s built to be used. But when asked about whether he’d do another, he’s surprisingly keen: 

“Yeah, I’d be into a second one. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who’s in the right position to do it - you just have to be aware of how much work it is.”

Are you working on your own boat restoration or project? Or are you just dipping your toes into the water with your first boat? Mariner Insurance has been helping Kiwi boaties just like you and Glen with boat insurance for over a decade, with cover for all types of vessels - from 70 year old wooden cruisers to yachts, jetskis, trailer boats and launches. Get in touch today to arrange your cover and gain peace of mind on the water.