way2fast

are there any of these around now for sale?
guess they aren’t popular as slow old sleds.
And new generation wants flash fast starburst painted cigarettes. What’s the market values?
are there any around.

was there build quality good for rough water assuming no transom rot etc ?
thinking it may be time for a project.
mans for something this big. A new truck !

rak rua

As nice as the iconic KV Scarabs are, I always preferred the Stinger. It’s has a big boat look about it. There was one lived near me back in Australia 30 years ago, horrible 2-tone brown/beige but it still looked great.

From what I’ve read, they’ll all be full of rot now, unless someone’s been right through it so check as much as you can and prepare for the worst case. I did read a long time ago, some had a few structural issues but I think you’d need to allow for that in any project of that age.

Wave crushers…..? They just have to be. Big, beamy and heavy but not overly fast.

Hope you find one and make it great again.

RR

way2fast

Was there really one in Australia!! ?

these boats like a USA KV scarab ciggy do not exist there really aside from the odd import crappy old formula etc etc. but something as rare and exotic as a 39 stinger. Tell me the story more now I’m interested!

Twin O/B Sonic

I think I remember them being built when Chris Craft was in trouble and selling anything/everything to try snd survive???

One docked beside my parents cruiser when they would have been new and I remember making fun of it.

Course I would have been 21 or so then and knew everything 😂

rak rua

The story…..? Since you asked, here’s one story….

I lived on Patterson Lakes (access to PortPhillip Bay) and owned a 26’ Aussie Scarab at the time. The Stinger lived at a house nearby.I can’t swear to it but I think the owner at the time, 1990, imported the boat. He did have some issues, apparently mis-matched engines and difficulty getting work done as they were built up, in the U.S.

Anyway……..Australia Day holiday weekend, January 1990, we had racing on Port Phillip Bay and Mike, who owned the Stinger was due to take his boat across the bay from Patterson Lakes to StKilda to act as a start boat. Port Phillip Bay can be pretty horrible and that morning, we had 20-25 knot winds and the bay was a mess. Mike cancelled, rumored he wasn’t happy about the 20 mile trip to StKilda, so the organizers had to find another start boat.

I went out in my 26 footer to see the racers at a nearby turn buoy and it was seriously rough. My brother was at StKilda Marina in his Riviera Diavolo 34’ which he’d bought brand new, 26 days earlier. He became the start boat. He ran his brand new sports cruiser through horrible bay chop at 40-45 mph and when the flag dropped, the race fleet barely pulled away! Smaller boats dropped back, only the bigger one’s kept pushing but not much faster.

A couple of years later, I bought the Diavolo from my brother (pic below) always knowing that it was a better rough water ride than a 39’ Stinger. (I never truly believed that but I always tell it that way to friends )

If I’d have known more about Stingers then, I probably would have had a go at buying it. She was certainly a beast, but needed some love. Don’t know where she ended up, probably the only one in Aus.




RR

rak rua

Made fun of a Stinger? Young and innocent………..
Bet you wish you had that Stinger now.

way2fast

Great story. I’d say definitely the only one.
the culture and boats barely exist sadly. Really only runabouts and trailerboats or big stuff. And if I see another Bertram 25 on boring cold & choppy PPB I will be sick!
.
are you still based there or?

rak rua

I moved to Thailand in 2007.

I miss “boring cold & choppy PPB”, always boated there and go easy on the 25’ Bertie, I know someone who used to own one…… .

RR

way2fast

😂 😂 :d

way2fast

yours was prob at least a real Bertie! Not the floppy Caribbean ha.
I get it. Practical etc And they are ok but they are a bit keep your clothes on sorta thing?