My uncle still owns his 1973 webbcraft. i think its about 17-18' bowrider

Yep. The Nexus was built by Brad Webb, and the 28' your talking about is a different 28 than the one being compared to the Cig. And just a side note about the Nexus, they caused a pretty big probelm( a foreseeable one in my opinion) with Webbcraft dealers. Since they were Webbcrafts with different names. Gotta love a family business sometimes don'tcha.

I'm checking on a '86 Webbcraft deck boat. Not sure what model it is actually. It is 21' and has a 260HP engine. Anybody know what the actual model is? This would be my first boat to own and i'm just looking for something to ski behind and party on. Didn't really want to go the pontoon route and don't want to spend a lot of money. Anything I need to be leary of when I actually go look at it?

i remember my father talking about that. it was no big deal here in the northeast, because there were no other dealers nearby, but i remember that it may have been a problem around your home state...

good boats...good people...

Ah yes, I remember that boat. Frank & Joe Bonaduece, or some think like that, from Sumerville, NJ. They had a summer house in Forked River, around the corner from me. The boat was also know as Moly Black Gold. I remember a Longport drive and alot of HP. It was heavy for such a small boat, and quite stiff. Never knew you did some of the repair work for them, small world.

yeap I remenber it racing in plymouth, and NH it took on water at one of the NH races . I thimk a hose let go I liked the boat it was black right.

I was a dealer for Webbcraft
 

Back in the '80s, I owned a boat dealership in Fox Lake Illinois. At the time, we sold Webbcraft and SleekCraft. We later partnered up with some other people in the area and sold Cigarette, Sonic, MasterCraft and Skeeter (I think it was Skeeter). The runabout line that Bill Webb was building at the time were really nice boats. We always stocked a 19', 21 and 23' or 24' open bow models. The build quality was really nice and we managed to sell quite a few of them. Back then, they were considered on par with Cobalt. I remember that the interior construction was particularly nice. Another thing that sticks out in my mind was Webb was always proactive and very accommodating when it came to warranty work. If my memory serves me, Brad Webb owned the trailer company at the time. We sold probably 45 to 50 boats that were used on the Chain of Lakes in Illinois, Lake Geneva in Wisconsin and several large bowriders that went to Chicago for use in Lake Michigan. I spent a lot of time with Bill Webb during that time and got to know him fairly well.

There was a guy by the name of John Sheppleman (I think that was his last name) who was if I remember correctly, the national sales guy. Around 1990 he went off and started a company in Paxton Illinois called Sunray Boats. These were a direct knockoff of the WebbCraft line. I know that the 21' open bow was because he bought one from us and popped a mold from it. Sunray later went under and last time I heard, John was semi-retired and building tail-sections and cockpit fairings for Gambler Sprint Cars and building tail-sections of the C-3 Corvette for a guy who builds and sells car-furniture.

A funny story: Bill Webb came into town to work the Chicago Boat Show with us. This had to be either the '87 or '88 show. We had a 30' SleekCraft Enforcer and Bill brought one of his 30' “sport” boats which again, if I remember correctly, was a new model. We had both boats parked right next to each other on the main floor of the show. Right before the show opened Bill came up to myself and my brother and bet us $1,000 that his 30' "sportboat" would sell before the SleekCraft. It was opening day on Wednesday. On Thursday, a woman (she was a commodities trader with a seat at the Chicago Board of Trade) came waltzing up with her $1,000 per week boytoy (significant money at the time), crawled through both boats and proceeded to crack off a check for the SleekCraft. To make a long story short, Bill never did pay the $1,000 and he ended up taking the boat back to the plant with him after the show. The following weekend this guy shows up to take delivery on his new SleekCraft with a full-sized Pontiac. A company had come up to our store earlier in the week and installed the components for a “load-leveler” hitch. He took off that day headed for Florida with that 30’ boat on the back of a car! I still have pictures somewhere of this clown driving down rt. 12. It looked like a cartoon!

Overall we had a good run with WebbCraft boats, but when one considers where the technology of boat building has gone since then, you couldn’t give me one on a bet. Same goes for SleekCraft. They were good in their day and we did really well selling them, but they cannot even compare to whats out there now.

Hey Airtime!!!!
 

How are things?

I Know Of A 28 That Is For Sale Rigged With Nothing But The Best I Will Get Some Pics Of It.... It Was Called 50 Cal Choppers

very few parts left.
 

I posted on this forum a while back telling people we still had parts left and to let me know what they needed. There was a good response, and now alot of the parts are gone. I still have very old stuff. 20-25 year old stuff. Other than that I have a few old Crests and Nameplates, but you'll have to fight me for them:D Anyhow, it was( and is) great hearing from all you webbcraft owners. If you still need a part you can still email me. It never hurts to ask, just don't hold your breath:D