Timeless Boatworks
Wooden Boat Building and Restoration
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1964 Chris Craft 22' Cavalier Dory

A proud new owner of a rare 1964 Chris Craft 22' Cavalier Dory called and asked if I would be interested in refinishing his new boat. This is my kind of boat and I quickly agreed.  At first look, the boat, while showing its age, appeared to be quite sound with no visual existing damage to the planks, transom, stem, nor bottom. There is a little bit of rot visible along the bottom of the center console, along a short section of the port side rub rail. And there are some soft spots along the edges of the transom deck under the vinyl cover. It seems some minor rot repair, fresh paint, varnish, and vinyl is all it needs. Hopefully after stripping the paint, varnish, and bottom coating, further work requirements will not be revealed.

This new owner is just the second owner of this boat.  From my understanding, the boat was used primarily on Lake Erie all of its life.

Only 130 wood (plywood) versions of this boat were built by Chris Craft from 1964 to 1966. Later Chris Craft built fiberglass versions. This particular boat was purchased from Worthy R. Brown & Son, Inc. of Lakeside Ohio in 1965 where it was used as a demonstration boat. It is the 32nd boat built with hull number VUA-22-0032C.  It is equipped with its original 283 V8 engine producing 185 HP. I have strict instructions to keep it all original... as it should be.

Specs:

LOA:                22'-0"
Beam:              8'-0"
Draft:              23"
Displacement: 3000 lbs
 
The Chris Craft 22' Cavalier Dory is a handsomely lined well proven rough water boat used by serious boaters. It was one of the first open hull modeled boats on the market. Its hull has a unique wide, hard, chine with a round shaped plywood bottom, and plywood lapstrakes. This was a new hull design in the 1960's as plywood bottoms are typically built flat.

Here is the boat as delivered to my shop.