“old yellow”1975 SleekCraft Executive

The story

Had the original 455 Olds engine with a Jacuzzi YJ pump. The boat had been sitting for about 3 years in the Arizona heat. The interior was shot, wood was full of dry rot. The engine would not start, so the owner let it go for about $2,800. Since it was already July, and with empty pockets, I put a new carb on it and a new fuel pump and I was off to the lake. After day one the throttle and shifter cable broke and it was back to the home front. Two weeks later it was launch time, so far so good. It ran great all weekend, it was good for about 38 mph with six dudes on board. Next time out the alternator flew apart about eight miles from camp. Luckily we made it back on batter power. The next day the boat had about 50 gallons of water inside, we scooped it out and with a new battery we kicked it till noon. The boat had a nusance leak that would not go away, so I bought (2) 1,000 gph pumps. That took me to about October. I slowly, I mean as a turtle, started to fix old yellow up and to this day it's far from done after a marriage, three kids, two mortgages, you know how it goes. Out went the Jacuzzi pump for a well built Berkeley 12 JC. Since I was into Mopar muscle cars, I had some vintage engines laying around. In went a 75' big block 400. I put in make shift seats and I was in the water again. This lasted for about 5 summers, still no interior. Last summer the engine blew up due to bearing failure. I bought a 87 Sea Ray 26' cabin cruzer, but continued to work on a new engine for old yellow. Now I have a new seat on the drivers side, a rebuilt 69' 440 engine, new bimini top and so forth. Oh, it goes a little faster now, like 58-62 mph. — 69mopar440