A few days ago a friend called me about my 1967 Howard. It's an 18' flatbottom v-hull with a 1964 427 CI Ford and Casale v-drive. He told me a friend of his was looking for a nostalgia flattie, and I've been told mine is one of the nicest ones in the Texas-Oklahoma area. After a phone conversation and email the buyer was interested...yesterday morning I went to my lake house shop and started cleaning the boat. He showed up around 3:30 PM...we made a deal...
I'm sorry to see it go. It was a one of a kind, I was the second owner. The original gelcoat and upholstery, the old school rigging, and the period correct restoration I did made it into a fantastic nostalgia flatbottom. Everywhere we went people gathered around to check out our ski flat from the 60's, frozen in time.
We owned it for twelve years. It was a lot of fun.
A short video I shot just before the boat left my shop yesterday...
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c29yiLhqUGQ
.
Hooking up...
.
.
Ready to roll...
.
.
Heading down the driveway...see ya
.
.
I hated to see it roll down the driveway and disappear. The boat is truly a time capsule. It still has most of the original hardware and parts. Over the years I spoke to the original owner's son about that and other details of the boat's life several times. He had found a photo of the boat I posted online in 2004 and contacted me. We corresponded intermittently from that point on.
His dad, Alvis Williams, was a fireman in Anaheim, CA, and he purchased the bare hull from Howard Custom Boats in the fall of 1967. Over the next months he installed the engine and v-drive along with all of the other rigging and running gear. The work was done in his driveway. As you can see in the photos and video, the tuck and roll interior is in unbelievable condition considering it was made and installed in January 1968. The interior was built by "Interiors by Jack", a small company that had a shop in the same light industrial row shops occupied by Howard Custom Boats in Bellflower, CA. Howard Custom Boats is still in business.
As I mentioned in the video, the boat's engine, a 427 cubic inch Ford FE, was the "low riser" version, and was first built for the 1964 model year. The story of how that particular engine came to reside between the frame rails is quite interesting. Alvis had a friend who owned a 1956 Thunderbird, and the T-Bird's factory stock engine was a 312 cubic inch Y-block with 225 horsepower. In 1964, the 427 CI low riser became available, and according to Alvis' son his dad's friend purchased the 425 HP 427 and installed it in the T-Bird.
Between 1964 and summer 1967, Alvis' friend enjoyed driving the re-engined Thunderbird. After all, it had 200 more horsepower than the stock 312, and it must have been quite entertaining to wheel around the mid-sixties LA basin in the 'Bird. In the summer of 1964, the fun came to an abrupt end. A girlfriend was driving the car, and she lost control and totaled it. It just so happened Alvis had a need for the high performance engine in the wrecked Thunderbird, and he made a deal with his friend to buy it. Alvis purchased the parts required to modify the engine for marine use (exhaust manifolds, front and rear motor mounting plates, and bellhousing) from Edelbrock, and those parts are still on the engine today.
Once the boat was complete, the family used it at Castaic Lake in the central valley, and also began taking it to the "Parker Strip" on the Colorado River. The Strip is below the Lake Havasu dam. The Williams rented a space in a trailer park on the river and kept a small travel trailer there. The mom and two boys stayed at the river all summer, and Alvis Williams commuted to the river. As a fireman, his work schedule was two weeks on, one week off which allowed the boys to have a constant summer playtime on the river with mom and then water skiing when dad showed up.
The family kept their Colorado River property from 1968 until 1976. The boys grew up, went to college, and acquired other interests. The boat was put in storage in Lake Havasu City, and stayed there for 25 years until I purchased it in 2001.
While I was rebuilding the 427 back in 2002 I checked the casting dates for the block and heads. The dates are inserted in the molds prior to casting, and pinpoint the week, month, and year the parts were cast. The heads were cast in the second week of September 1963. The block was cast in the third week of November 1963...the same week JFK was assassinated and fifty years ago come next month.
The engine still has the stock internals...pistons, rods, and crank...and is still standard bore. Fortunately I still remember most of the skills I learned as a teenager and young man, and after a bit of work fine tuning the two Holley four barrel carbs the engine runs perfectly.
It took me sixteen months to complete restoration of the boat. When it was done, the boat looked almost exactly like it did in the winter of 1967-1968, sitting in Alvis William's driveway. We have greatly enjoyed owning this piece of 60's Americana and are pleased it has been passed on to someone with the passion to keep it running for its second half century.
I'm sorry to see it go. It was a one of a kind, I was the second owner. The original gelcoat and upholstery, the old school rigging, and the period correct restoration I did made it into a fantastic nostalgia flatbottom. Everywhere we went people gathered around to check out our ski flat from the 60's, frozen in time.
We owned it for twelve years. It was a lot of fun.
A short video I shot just before the boat left my shop yesterday...
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c29yiLhqUGQ
.
Hooking up...
.
.
Ready to roll...
.
.
Heading down the driveway...see ya
.
.
I hated to see it roll down the driveway and disappear. The boat is truly a time capsule. It still has most of the original hardware and parts. Over the years I spoke to the original owner's son about that and other details of the boat's life several times. He had found a photo of the boat I posted online in 2004 and contacted me. We corresponded intermittently from that point on.
His dad, Alvis Williams, was a fireman in Anaheim, CA, and he purchased the bare hull from Howard Custom Boats in the fall of 1967. Over the next months he installed the engine and v-drive along with all of the other rigging and running gear. The work was done in his driveway. As you can see in the photos and video, the tuck and roll interior is in unbelievable condition considering it was made and installed in January 1968. The interior was built by "Interiors by Jack", a small company that had a shop in the same light industrial row shops occupied by Howard Custom Boats in Bellflower, CA. Howard Custom Boats is still in business.
As I mentioned in the video, the boat's engine, a 427 cubic inch Ford FE, was the "low riser" version, and was first built for the 1964 model year. The story of how that particular engine came to reside between the frame rails is quite interesting. Alvis had a friend who owned a 1956 Thunderbird, and the T-Bird's factory stock engine was a 312 cubic inch Y-block with 225 horsepower. In 1964, the 427 CI low riser became available, and according to Alvis' son his dad's friend purchased the 425 HP 427 and installed it in the T-Bird.
Between 1964 and summer 1967, Alvis' friend enjoyed driving the re-engined Thunderbird. After all, it had 200 more horsepower than the stock 312, and it must have been quite entertaining to wheel around the mid-sixties LA basin in the 'Bird. In the summer of 1964, the fun came to an abrupt end. A girlfriend was driving the car, and she lost control and totaled it. It just so happened Alvis had a need for the high performance engine in the wrecked Thunderbird, and he made a deal with his friend to buy it. Alvis purchased the parts required to modify the engine for marine use (exhaust manifolds, front and rear motor mounting plates, and bellhousing) from Edelbrock, and those parts are still on the engine today.
Once the boat was complete, the family used it at Castaic Lake in the central valley, and also began taking it to the "Parker Strip" on the Colorado River. The Strip is below the Lake Havasu dam. The Williams rented a space in a trailer park on the river and kept a small travel trailer there. The mom and two boys stayed at the river all summer, and Alvis Williams commuted to the river. As a fireman, his work schedule was two weeks on, one week off which allowed the boys to have a constant summer playtime on the river with mom and then water skiing when dad showed up.
The family kept their Colorado River property from 1968 until 1976. The boys grew up, went to college, and acquired other interests. The boat was put in storage in Lake Havasu City, and stayed there for 25 years until I purchased it in 2001.
While I was rebuilding the 427 back in 2002 I checked the casting dates for the block and heads. The dates are inserted in the molds prior to casting, and pinpoint the week, month, and year the parts were cast. The heads were cast in the second week of September 1963. The block was cast in the third week of November 1963...the same week JFK was assassinated and fifty years ago come next month.
The engine still has the stock internals...pistons, rods, and crank...and is still standard bore. Fortunately I still remember most of the skills I learned as a teenager and young man, and after a bit of work fine tuning the two Holley four barrel carbs the engine runs perfectly.
It took me sixteen months to complete restoration of the boat. When it was done, the boat looked almost exactly like it did in the winter of 1967-1968, sitting in Alvis William's driveway. We have greatly enjoyed owning this piece of 60's Americana and are pleased it has been passed on to someone with the passion to keep it running for its second half century.
