Graham wrote:
Hi,
I have just posted a similar message to this on a UK board, then found
this one too. I guess there's a good chance that someone reading this
will be able to point me in the right direction.
I am new to boating (if you don't count some time with the UK's Royal
Naval Reserve!) and have recently bought an early 1960's 16ft Owens
speedboat. I need to do some work on it before putting it back in the
water next year, but would love to get hold of any information that
would help me with restoring it to at least some of it's former glory. I
have searched the web and can find very few references to this type of
boat. It seems that Owens was a Baltimore/Annapolis based company well
known for building wooden hulled motor yachts and latterly went into
smaller GRP hulls before collapsing. I think they may also have built
minesweepers for the USN somewhere along the line: and that is about all
I know. All very interesting but not particularly helpful! If my history
is wrong I apologise.
So, if anyone can shed any light on this particular craft for me I would
be very grateful. What might be really helpful would be pictures, or
information on where I might be able to lay my hands on an owners
handbook/manual (if such a thing existed) or a company brochure for the
period the craft was in production.
Thanks,
Graham (UK)
=================================
The Owens boats were very popular in the Great Lakes during the 60s and
I knew a number of people that owned them. They were price a bit under
the Chris Craft boats. Most people that I knew that had them were
pretty well satisfied with them. I didn't know anyone that owned a
runabout, tho. They built a 30 ft. double planked hull that was very
popular and seemed to be a well built boat. Their 24 footer was very
popular. Probably because of the price. In 1964 it sold for about
$4400 base price. Not much more than a good outboard runabout......
I have a lot of old boat maganizines that would have some pix of various
boats in the advertisemts, but I doubt that it would have the info that
you're looking for. Most of these boats were powered by the Owens
Flagship engines that were based on the 283 Chev. block.
Good luck on your project and happy boating, Norm