chance to buy a 35ft, circa 1970 - chris craft built, miltitary
landing craft. 671 GM diesel, hydraulic gate, sonar and radar, 9x9
wheel house, 5 ton capacity.

Is it worth converting?
What speeds?
What sort of beam?
What does it look like?

Looking for pictures before I take the long drive.
thinking possible live aboard...

might make a really nice dive boat

brian

Try doing a search for 36' LCVP.
wrote in message
...
chance to buy a 35ft, circa 1970 - chris craft built, miltitary
landing craft. 671 GM diesel, hydraulic gate, sonar and radar, 9x9
wheel house, 5 ton capacity.

Is it worth converting?
What speeds?
What sort of beam?
What does it look like?

Looking for pictures before I take the long drive.
thinking possible live aboard...

As a 1970 landing craft and being built by Chris Craft, I would expect that
it would be fiberglass.

Earlier version of in this size range were plywood and most of these were
built by Higgins.. There were so many of them these built during WWII that
the surplus met the Navy needs until the '70s. Not because there was
anything wrong with the Higgins LCVP, but the plywood of these hulls had
seen the limits of it's life expectancy.

I have seen very fine conversion of the old WWII LCVPs to motor yachts.
There was a standard way to add a fair bow by extending the keel and the
prow of the bottom planking. They ended up being about 38-40 ft. They
weren't very fast since the hull was never intended to plane. The internal
hull volume tremendious, with the engine all the way aft and still had a
straight shaft.

The 671 engine is a great engine and you can find part for it anywhere in
the world. The last time I checked, it cost $75 a cylinder for a pro-shop
rebuild. That's probably up to about $200 now. Still a bargin at that price.
The only thing major to worry about is the blower and the twin disk clutch
but these seldom ever cause any major problems.. Being 2 cycle the engine is
fairly simple.

Sounds like this might be a good prospect for a similar conversion or us it
as is.

I don't remember the beam on the old ones, but I think it was under 10 ft
and with this you can get permits in most states to haul it yourself on the
highway (with proper wide load stuff).
Sea Story
I had an old shipmate who's family owned an island in the middle of the
Mississippi River where they pastured cattle during the summer.. In the
flood season, they had to bring them back to the farm. This friend bid on
and got a surplus LCVP, rebuilt the engine, etc. and trucked it back to the
family farm.. Was still going strong when he finally retired back to the
farm..


Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Thanks everyone, had a drive and the boat was in less then workable
shape, I just had to see it.
Very interesting boat indeed; I can see alot of possible uses and
adaptations but my wallet and I couldn't agree on what it would cost
to do it. Too bad this really made me think...

$8500.00 vancouver island, bc, ca - post and I can get anyone more
info if they need

On Sun, 4 Apr 2004 19:15:11 -0700, "Steve" wrote:

As a 1970 landing craft and being built by Chris Craft, I would expect that
it would be fiberglass.

Earlier version of in this size range were plywood and most of these were
built by Higgins.. There were so many of them these built during WWII that
the surplus met the Navy needs until the '70s. Not because there was
anything wrong with the Higgins LCVP, but the plywood of these hulls had
seen the limits of it's life expectancy.

I have seen very fine conversion of the old WWII LCVPs to motor yachts.
There was a standard way to add a fair bow by extending the keel and the
prow of the bottom planking. They ended up being about 38-40 ft. They
weren't very fast since the hull was never intended to plane. The internal
hull volume tremendious, with the engine all the way aft and still had a
straight shaft.

The 671 engine is a great engine and you can find part for it anywhere in
the world. The last time I checked, it cost $75 a cylinder for a pro-shop
rebuild. That's probably up to about $200 now. Still a bargin at that price.
The only thing major to worry about is the blower and the twin disk clutch
but these seldom ever cause any major problems.. Being 2 cycle the engine is
fairly simple.

Sounds like this might be a good prospect for a similar conversion or us it
as is.

I don't remember the beam on the old ones, but I think it was under 10 ft
and with this you can get permits in most states to haul it yourself on the
highway (with proper wide load stuff).
Sea Story
I had an old shipmate who's family owned an island in the middle of the
Mississippi River where they pastured cattle during the summer.. In the
flood season, they had to bring them back to the farm. This friend bid on
and got a surplus LCVP, rebuilt the engine, etc. and trucked it back to the
family farm.. Was still going strong when he finally retired back to the
farm..


Steve
s/v Good Intentions