WH-A-A-A-T? Did Conner tell you about that 17' Wellcrack. He swore in blood he would never say a word.
Honest, it was one of those C. Raymond Hunt, Alem designs and It was Preetty...!
How was I to know the stringers had the same structural integrity as a Twix! (1" X 12" white pine glassed half way up!) It had a 3/4" plywood floor so it felt SOLID. Self bailing too. EXCEPT I couldn't figure out why it was so sluggish one afternoon, so I opened the bilge inspection port and the water was just below the deck. Jumped in the water with a tank on to see what was going on and there was a 2' long crack running lenghtwise down the hull mid-way between the keel and the chine. I about swallowed my regulator. Decide to "go for broke" and pulled the drain plug, climbed in and bent the throttles till they hit fiberglass and "9 holed it" for the beach, which wouldn't have been too bad except where we were we couldn't see land. Everybody climbed in the front and I spooled the twin Evinrude 50's up and we barely planed off. The water was going out the drain only slightly faster than it was coming in the crack. Finally we saw the Don Cesar, rolled through Pass-a grille "yodling"
and slid it up on the ramp at Gulfport. I had to change bathing suits on that one...!
All my smart St. Pete Underwater Club Brothers were running Sea Crafts, so I fixed the WellCrack, sold it and bought the Safari Conner and I dove out of in the 70's. So that's why I am the way I am.
Only thing scarier was that hammerhead that was the same lenght as a phosphate train on Riley's Hump, south of Fort Jefferson or the Cuban gunboats at the Pickle Banks north of Cayman Brac. Don't let Conner tell you otherwise, Scouts honor!
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