Found an unsold 1974 31' Commander Sports Cruiser

Not a barn find or an impressive restoration, a fairly common boat, but this one was never sold. It sat in storage in Sturgeon Bay until 2020, when I brought it home to where it was built, Holland MI. It still has the seat cushions wrapped in plastic from the factory. The gelcoat is a bit faded, the dealer never polished it because it was a "new" boat, and he didn't want to wear the gelcoat. The engines have 500-hours on them, standard Chris Craft 350Q engines, but with original full freshwater cooling, including the exhaust manifolds.

The boat is far from perfect, seems like a 5-year-old boat, with some scuffs and marks here and there, a few chrome pieces showing age. 47 years as a dealer demo I guess.

I expected the engines and fuel tanks to be rotten after sitting decades, but noticed the engines had maintenance tags, with a long string of dates and initials, indicating they had been maintained. The raw water pump belts were off, indicating they had been getting turned over in storage, like a museum piece. The engines are perfect, compression better than factory specs. The fuel tanks are perfect inside, shiny and clean after I siphoned out the old gasoline.

Every rubber part was suspect, even though they looked and felt great. The fuel pumps had bad rubber diaphragms, were leaking fuel into the crankcases, and no rebuild kits were available, so it has electric Holley pumps now. I had to replace the old Carter carbs with Edelbrock, built by the same company and visually very similar, the engines run great. I made new fuel, coolant, water, and exhaust hoses, with over $1,500 in constant-tension stainless hose clamps. I enjoy this kind of work, and spared no time or expense. I worked as a kid at a marina right down the street from the Chris Craft factory that built this boat, worked on a lot of old Chris Craft, and still love this kind of work decades later. There is a lot of expertise in this area to advise me, I know several guys who worked in the plant when this was built, including Chris Smith.

Changing the prop log hoses and cutlass bearings required taking the props and shafts out, and dropping the struts. I took the props to a local shop that has been working on Chris Crafts from the local plant since forever, they were giddy to see like-new props from '74. They polished and balanced them, didn't need much, and the shafts were dead-straight.

Everything went back together well, better than factory now. There are still a lot of small things to improve, but it is running great. The son of the dealer sent me a box with the radio and depth finder originally installed by the dealer, they work like new. Summer of 2021 I used it as a day boat, idling around with friends and family. I've been reluctant to change anything, but I finally took the old toilet out, added battery switches and a charger, it is time to modernize and enjoy this boat as it was intended. I might even take the plastic off the seat cushions. I'm still resisting painting the bottom, the original copper is green patina, I love the look, it just feels old and right.

So how did this boat never get sold? Nobody really knows. John Thenell was the owner of the marina and dealership in Sturgeon Bay. He took delivery of the last three 31' Chris Craft built in Holland, and sold two. For some reason, he never sold this one. Locals and family there say he loved this boat, not sure why, he just did. It was his initials on the maintenance tags on the engines. He was out on this boat in the shed, even when he was elderly. It still has the original fire extinguishers, life preservers, and boxes of new spare parts, manuals, very much a time capsule. He saved and documented everything, a lot like me. I'd like to think he would want someone like me to own and enjoy it.

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John definitely used this boat, but never titled or licensed it, it remained a dealership demo boat. It was run and enjoyed at least for a while.

Supposedly he took it out of storage about a decade ago, to put it back on the water, when he was elderly. I'm not sure that was possible, maybe they did get it out for a run, but it would have run badly with the rubber fuel pump and carb internal parts old and stiff.

The crank cases were very over-filled with foul-smelling oil, that was my clue that both fuel pumps had ruptured diaphragms, raw fuel was filling the crank cases. The engines had definitely been run for some amount of time that way, after sitting a very long time. It could have ended badly if they had run it long enough. The fuel had lost most of it's volatility when I siphoned it out, saving grace perhaps.

It appears no harm was done, compression is excellent, and top speed is 35mph as it should have been new. It is getting plenty of TLC, I still have my father's old tune-up equipment I used in the '70s, still able to find parts I need new.

The running gear still looks and feels mostly near-new. The distributors are probably the weakest link I can't get new, so they get a mist of WD-40 any time they will sit. The springs and weights tend to rust from the crankcase venting through the distributor, kiss of death for a lot of these old Q engines. I'm slowly taking things apart, checking, measuring, polishing, and putting back together better than new, but mostly as original.

It would have been nice to put this in a museum, but it isn't quite nice enough for that. Chris Craft could put it alongside their modern boats at a show, I think Bertram has been doing that with restored Berts.

Thanks, maybe a good idea for winter layup. I use T9 elsewhere, it leaves a waxy film that might build up with frequent us. Probably the engine heat would melt it and sling it to the sides, and it would run down to the crankcase, but no telling where it might build up if used regularly.

Normally distributors don't need lubricating, and don't corrode, they stay slightly oil from crankcase fumes. But in a marine environment, there is more moisture travelling into and out of the engine when running and cooling off. WD-40 is particularly good at displacing water, which is what I'm after, and it will last a long time in a closed distributor out of the weather.

Somewhere on YouTube there is a video of someone spraying WD-40 into a distributor, then closing it up and trying to start the engine. The small explosion that followed is good warning not to spray it before starting.

My engine gurus:

The boat sits beside a very high-end restoration shop, full of classic Hacker, Ventnor, Garwood, Chris Craft, etc. They have a gelcoat guru who comes in for special fiberglass work, he checked out my boat and was much impressed with the condition of the gelcoat. I paid him to buff the hull for the first buffing since it left the factory, it came out gleaming. I think I'll stick with the gelcoat. I do need to repaint the stripes and trim, and some interior bits.

Thanks! I haven't needed much help, but aligning the struts when reinstalling took a few people from the shop working together. This is definitely the motherland, plenty of people here remember working at the Chris Craft plant long ago. And Slickcraft/S2/Tiara/Pursuit, and Broward. My first job was at "Pappy" Lynn's marina, he founded and sold Roamer Yachts. Chris Smith lives nearby, as well as his son Mark, who I used to work with and occasionally boat with.

A little eye candy from the shop:

These 350Q still have backward engines with flywheel pulley driven accessories, L/R coolant on each engine (two thermostats), Carter carbs with heat riser chokes (now Edelbrocks), and crab-cap distributors. Manual says Thermocon Chris Craft engines.