Posted: July 03 2007 at 08:38 | IP Logged

Hi Pete,

I'm Mark Dawes.  Bought a 1986 Connie in April this year.  So to those of you who are in the market there is hope.  I grew up on a Pacemeker 46 that my grandfather owned and caught the bug.  If you've read the posts you know that this is the base design from which the "expanded" Connie 500s were taken.  Took me a long time to get back to boating what with kids and sports and such, but I'm very happy to own one.  We keep her on the Ohio River at Four Seasons Yacht Club (FSYC).

I appreciate the maintenance check list.  The previous owner of my Connie, Ken Marcotte (Cincinnati, OH), owns a Firestone automotive repair franchise and is one of the most meticulous people I've ever met.  He loves the classic designs as I do and did a marvelous job restoring this boat.  The motors are very well maintained as are the infrastructural systems.  He's replaced many along the way.  He also recently updated the interior and last spring finished a complete strip down repainting (including removal of all the bright work).  She was repainted with IMRON paint.  I have a beautiful "virtual" new boat.

I have one major item to deal with, I need to replace the A/C in the lower salon and will takle that in the next few weeks.  Beyond that, I'm replacing the navigation electronics.  But, that's more driven by lack of replacement parts for the current components.  The LORAN is the only malfunctioning component I have.

As I said, I couldn't be happier.  I also realize that I'll be faced with replacing aging parts and systems and will need this site.  I strongly suggest that you expand the mailing list as indicated in your letter.  All of these hulls are essentially the same and all of the current owners stand to benefit.

Thanks for doing this.  Glad to help any way I can.

Best,

Posted: July 03 2007 at 08:42 | IP Logged

Oh also, I'm a bit of a historian and have a great set of files that include blue prints, the original Chris Craft owners manual and installation and owners manuals for almost all of the internal systems.

If anyone needs background information or a copy, please just ask.