Stevens Boat Manufacturing Co. of Gardena, CA.
Adds for this company first appear in 1962 magazines. Stevens starts with an 18' flat bottom all fiberglass hull design. By 1964 they are advertising "SK" (circle) and "Drag" racing as well as ski family hulls. The 17 foot Silhoutte hull sports an adjustable cavatation plate, an early design with 5/16" turnbuckles and a one-piece cross shaft-operating arm & stand offs that require split pillow blocks to mount. Mack Stevens is found in a 1964 article, but this may be the original "Stevens", son.
Note: It would be great to have that 8 page color brochure to post here. Could we possibly get a scanned copy ?
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Michael Caruso from the fine state of ILL. sent us these shots of his 1964 Stevens Regency build.
This is what they look like when we find them and get started. Many of us have been HERE!
It appears that Mike has all of the good vintage parts needed for a great restoration. Not shown is the 427 Ford big block. The Casale top loader gear box appears to be the good one with forward, neutral, & reverse. The hull appears to be glass with a wood cap. We hope he elects to restore the wood deck. Natural grain wood would really set this project off. He now has several projects here: rebuild and cleanup the 427, take all of the rigging out of the hull and start cleaning all of those pieces up, take the hull off of the trailer and do the trailer restoration, and finally start on the hull. The fun part will be re-rigging the hull with all of those fresh clean parts. Have at it, Mike and be sure to send us shots of the finished project. Our experience is to not get in a rush and allow yourself about four seasons to get the job done.
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During a September V-drive cruise I found this stunning example of a restored boat. Sorry I did not get a name but had to post it in hopes that they will contact us.
We found this super clean Stevens restoration making it's first water dip at Needles, CA during the Feb., 30th 2016 show & v-drive gathering.
Guys - we have misplaced our notes about the boat's background and the owner's name, so wen you see this, please send us an email. Thanks, BoB
Carl S. saw this note and relayed that the owners name for the above Stevens is Ryan Minegar and we thank Carl for this information. This was a spacial day for Ryan and crew since this was the boats first dip since being restored. Pretty gutsy since my experience has been that some "tweeking" s always needed. Eventually the notes will show up now that we no longer need them, right? - BoB
Found a nice Stevens restoration above at CFW today (1-01-16).
Stevens