Skagit 24' Express Cruiser ?

[WizardIII]

This is a question out of curiosity or maybe I'm just bored. I came across this boat on the FG site and wonder if anyone knows anything about it. It's seems like a far departure from the usual rounded look of the Skagits (and Dorsets) I see folks talking about. I personally like the style and the layout looks good and wonder if it exhibits the same build quality of other models. Could this model have been their Cadillac or maybe their Edsel.
Cheers,
Steve
WizardIII

[Helmar]

Karl has two of them, one is named Arthur and is a inboard as I think most of those were.
We have several folks that will come in and share information about them.
Stay Tuned

I was looking at one of them and how easy it would be to take a later model 24ft boat and use it for a donor boat. Skagits with there fiberglass stringers, I found this would be pretty easy to pull off.
A fair amount of the later 70's and 80's boats had some of the smaller V8 engines with the OMC outdrives which were plentiful if needed. Pretty much Any boat yard had several to choose from.

A fair amount of the late 80's boats (I think 80's) and some of the 70's had that double hull which would fail. Made Great donor boats for all the running gear.

I just never made it happen.

[Karl]

Here is a picture of Arthur, taken late this spring in south Puget Sound. Yes, I have two 1960 25's. 1) Arthur, is being used. (Although it is out of service right now with battery and electrical issues) 2) Minnow, is being used as a guest cabin. The 25' is the same hull as the 24', they just changed the color design a bit. I've found another one in an old boatyard in Aberdeen. I couldn't get to close to it, but it appears to have been modified as a fishing boat.

Karl

[WizardIII]

Really nice looking. I really like the angular lines (much like my 18' Wizard) and the build quality, an extra 6' plus being able to stand up in it sounds like the perfect combination for one not tooo big to trailer. I certainly don't need another boat but if I came across an outboard version I think me knees would start shaking.
Happy boating,
Steve

[bruceb]

Karl is the source for these boats and I'll add a few tidbits from past postings I've contributed. Skagit commissioned the Seattle naval design firm Spaulding Associates, to design what was originally known as the 24' for production starting in 1959. The 1960 was called a 25', as Karl noted, with a different hull stripe starting at the bow. Skagit renamed the entire fleet in 1960, except for the 20' boats, by adding a foot to the length, trying to keep up with a trend in the industry. Also, the boat was a natural progression in fiberglass boatbuilding to go bigger, for competition in the larger segment of trailerable boats in the 22-26' range. Skagit, by that time, had already built the largest fiberglass pleasure boat, the 31' Saratogan in 1957, an in-house Howard Roberts design.
I've only been able to document 7- 24 or 25s, with boats whereabouts being Newfoundland, Quadra Island, Vancouver Island, Arizona, Puget Sound area. Arthur came from Portland, where it had spent it's whole life !
There is one outboard that I know of, and it's really a cool design. Along with having twin 20" V4 motors (no longer mounted), the transom looks cut down pretty low, with the perspective of the tall hull or "freeboard" of the 24/25s. And it had a cool cowl that fit over the transom and tops of the motors to "quiet" the engine sound. The cowl is still with it. That boat is presently shrink-wrapped.
I'll attach a shot of the 24 in the Aberdeen boat yard- have been watching that one for 12 years ! Like to call it an outhouse mounted on a boat.....24skag59aberdeen0001.jpg24skag59aberdeen0002.jpg

[Karl]

Bruce, that's the one! What did you do, climb the fence? I've also seen the 24' outboard version. The cowling over the transom was really cool. It was up in Everett and in pretty poor shape.

[John Nelson]

I've seen five or six more that Howard made into fishing boats after the fact. Did they use the Tyee mold to make the 57 20 Express boats I cant tell the difference ?

[bruceb]

John- yes, that's cool that you can spot the fishing boats built off the 24/25 hull mold. Think I've seen one.
Yes, your Tyee was built using the same mold as the 20' inboard mold, actually the same mold as my 58 express. After Skagit went out of business, Howard had possession of the 20' mold, possible he made some fishing hulls, then it was used by a few factory workers to build boats for themselves. Supposedly 7 boats were done as "non Skagits". The trail of the 20 hull went dead in 2003 when it was offered to another club member and later to me, but we had no place to store it ( pretty big beast, if you've ever seen one) and was destroyed.
Three weeks ago found a 28 Roberts fishing boat and two 31 Skagit hull fishing boats, one of which I'd found last year. They were in Juneau, AK. Have turned over the pics of the 31s to Tim Jones.

Karl- Heck, when i was in Aberdeen about 7 years ago, the gate was open but nobody around, so I carefully navigated back to the boat. Not seeing anyone around, climbed inside. Here's a couple of pics ! Cool upholstery, don't know if it was factory, maybe a little too fancy for that !
The 24' outboard boat we're talking about was in the Central Area in Seattle and was being used as a camping "shack" for some druggies ! The inside was a mess, just plain filthy. Needed a lot of blackberries cleared out of the way to get at it. Not to mention hornet's nests, geez, the present owner was amazing in his "extraction" skills.DSCN1674.JPGDSCN1681.JPGDSCN1689.JPG

[Kelly]

Bruce is your middle name Skagit? Very knowledgeable! Thanks for sharing!

[WizardIII]

Yes, thanks Bruce for the interesting history. The stern and front views sure make it look huge. Now would somebody please take that 'outhouse' off!