New 29' Scarab
 

Finalized everything on my 1999 Scarab 29 that was purchased brand new from Welcraft by Flag Ship Marine as a blank with every option except the engine and was used for Mercruiser's mock ups and has never been registered or tagged until today. This boat has 3 hours on the hull with a brand new crate 502 and IMCO race out drive is being buttoned up as I post this today. We will have the fuel system checked and cleaned Wednesday and do a shake down run Thursday of next week. Will post pics from my desktop tonight.

Almost forgot to mention that it has been in a tempature controlled storage wharehouse all this time, it still smells new!

Sounds AWESOME.

Heads up: be very careful on the vents on the aft sides.
They are no longer made. Quite a few 26' Scarab and 29' Scarab owners have had to have something custom fabricated to recover from damage. There are several posts on this topic over the years.

Amen to that !

Thank you for the heads up! I will be very careful

Where's those pic's

All of these where taken in the warehouse before we got it home and started cleaning over a decade worth of dirt and dust off here.
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scara...2005%20PM.jpeg
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scara...2043%20PM.jpeg
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scara...2002%20PM.jpeg
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scara...2025%20PM.jpeg
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scara...2058%20PM.jpeg

Bringing her home!
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scarab/on-jeep.jpg
Will send up to date pictures as we finish the cleaning.

Looking good, congratulations! Flag Ship Marine don't happen to have another one with 3 hours on it hiding in a shed......?

Is that trailer a bit short? Maybe the winch post needs to come forward a bit. Just looks like her bum is hanging out a long way....

Great find.

RR

Great find ! but the first thing that you need too do is get rid of the drive spacer that drive looks to be very very low. Stand off box and a drive spacer that boat has to be a handful. Also if you need side vents we made them in stainless.

Do you intend to tow with the Jeep all the time ?

Thanks! We are looking forward to getting in the water soon.
Flagship used to rig a lot of offshore racing boats so hence the IMCO set up, spoke to the gentleman who rigged it and he said it actually handles very well so long as the trim tabs are left straight out, he said it rides a little higher on plane but handles well. I am going to have my friends from Phantom 9 Racing come to our shop and help finish tweaking the set up since we are looking at being their safety boat for the 2016 race season.

Probably not even though it has all the nssasary towing and brake upgrades to handle it from here to the boat ramp ( 3 miles from the shop) I will most likely store at a marina closer to where we like to put in at Boca Grande. I have a few different 1 ton trucks to utilize for any kind of long distant towing.

There is a 35' Cigarette Mistress that with 12 hours on it. It belong to the prince of Bahrain but was sent back to Flagship when his mechanic died ( some kind of superstition thing) anyway, it is rigged to run over 110 mph with twin 575 cu high decks and speed 3 out drives on it. They told me during testing it would "cruise" at 60 mph at 3200 rpm so that's about all I know about it. I looks like a new 1982 Cigarette inside and out.
Give them a call and ask for Steve if you want to look at it.

Nice looking boat!
Be sure to scoot that thing a bit further up the trailer so the whole boat including the transom is supported. All that suspended weight, way off the transom without it being supported on the bunks is bad news. You may have to cut a relief in the bunk for the transom water pickup.

I've posted my thoughts on surge brakes many times on the forum. Even if you are going to tow long distance with a 1-ton; EoH are the best money you can buy for any towing setup. There is no such thing as "overkill braking".

And last bit of advice, that winch stand could bite you one day, more specifically, it could bit the bow of the boat if you are on a steep ramp.
I'd advise swapping out to a 2-piece bow stand and winch setup.
Two threads, one with experience on same hull as you:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...i-can-get.html
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...ler-winch.html
V-block winch stands are infinitely better than any roller setup. Even though in that first thread, the OP stuck with a roller setup; I'd still try to find way to setup a V-block winch stand. I've loaded the exact same boat/hull on many trailers, and it's worth the money/time/investment.

I thought you were going to buy that one as well! Haha.

If it was on my doorstep I'd be right there. Getting a boat to my side of the globe, the Cig is probably a bit much boat for me right now but that Scarab......?? Looks like a great find.

RR (a little envious)

Thanks for all the help and advice.

I was honestly thinking of it but I had an 87, 34' Scarab with twins a few years ago and just not enough room or time to run both but may buy it just to flip it. Thanks for the all the help and compliments on the little scarab.

Exactly what I was thinking! I pulled my 25ol with my JKU, but would never had taken her on the hwy! Rated at 3500#!

Took her out for a shake down cruise today and much to my amazement, no hiccups. It runs and handles like dream! I have a 4 blade prop we going to test out I would like to see if I can get a little more bite taking off but other then that it jumps up on plane and hauls ass!

Took it out Tuesday when we had the 84 degree day down here in S. FL and tested out the new four blade prop, all I can say is wow! It performed like a thoroughbred. The way it was rigged is perfect for the Gulf especially with the out drive set up, it make it ride higher in the water on plane and slices through a 3 foot chop like its flat water.

congrats!

what,s your prop shaft centerline? pics ?

Will post some pics this weekend when it warms up a little

My new bud Scippy
 

My new friend Scippy from the forum here came all the way down from NJ to get his new Cigarette Mistress rigged for the long ride home. He brought us some really great FDNY shirts from his firehouse for Kristen and myself. What a great guy and now friend we have found! Just remember you owe me a ride in that beast when we come north for some vacation time my friend!
http://4x4tabs.com/forum-stuff/scarab/cig1.jpg

Anything for you Guys!!............Enjoy the T-shirts. Thank you for being so wonderful to me. Rare to find people like this "Rob and Kristen are really cool people!"

Im going to be in North Port Apr 20 - 30th.. i want a ride! haha.. Thats a beautiful boat. I would really like to check out that drive setup. We commonly have 3-4' waves up here on our lake. Where is the place you bought it from? Im looking for things to do while I'm down there.

Hi Slinky,
Thanks!
We will be in Daytona for Jeep Beach April 20th -24th but will return on the 25th Lets see what the magazine schedule has me doing and play it by ear.

The place I bought my boat is Flagship Marine Engines, Address: 200 E Ann St, Punta Gorda, FL 33950 Phone:(941) 639-3738 were they still have a whole warehouse full of racing engines and out drives ( IMCO stuff ), cleaver props, blowers,you name it, they are selling off.
PM me you contact info.

Hi Slinky,
Thanks!
We will be in Daytona for Jeep Beach April 20th -24th but will return on the 25th Lets see what the magazine schedule has me doing and play it by ear.

The place I bought my boat is Flagship Marine Engines, Address: 200 E Ann St, Punta Gorda, FL 33950 Phone941) 639-3738 were they still have a whole warehouse full of racing engines and out drives ( IMCO stuff ), cleaver props, blowers,you name it, they are selling off.
PM me you contact info.

a 97 scarab was the first new boat I purchased. I had a single 825 hp blower motor in it and a 1 inch shorter imco drive on it. the boat always amazed me how well it handled rough water. like you said it ate 3 footers like it was nothing.
I never did get around to an extension box. I am curious why you are running a spacer between the upper and lower drive if the transom is at the stock location I would think it would run a little better without the spacer

Flag Ship was and has been big in the offshore racing scene since the late 70's and not only sell the big bad Mercruiser racing engines like the 1650's Miss Geico runs but they also built some of the best race engines out there so when they rig a boat for a specific application I have learned not to question the methods too much but I had to ask the exact same thing when I bought the boat lol
Sooooo
they rigged the boat to test different engines for fit only in my hull so far as mock ups for Mercruiser Racing but the current set up was done for a prototype 6.0 super charged Cadillac race engine that was producing something like 700 HP and they told me the reason for the spacer was that while running in the gulf the prop would stay in the water since it was not surface piercing set up. With less HP from the 502 that currently resides there we thought about removing it but my buddy over at Phantom 9 Racing may have talked me into a Whipple blower install this summer.

very cool to have a boat that was used for testing. the first year I had mine I pulled the motor and started increasing horsepower (so much for the warranty:lolhit:) and was never really happy with it as far as speed goes until I put a blower on the 540 bbc. I went from 415 hp @ 60 mph then 550hp @ 67mph maybe to then 620 hp @70mph and then 825 hp @85mph then I loved it, but I was coming from the 26 scarab with the factory 500 hp that ran 75mph and going from 75mph to 60 mph in a bigger boat felt like you were not moving. if you are not looking for all out speed enjoy it. if you want every last mph you can out of it, remove the spacer and put a whipple on it you will be much impressed :

I would think they did it or left there because of the 3 blade prop.. I think you would be pleasantly surprised with spacer gone. I had a the a negative 1 inch imco on mine and it ran very well. but - 2 inch imco would probably be the ticket with the extension box.
do you have the neutral extension box or 3 inch up extension box it is hard to tell by the pics

Saw all the Jeeps heading down i4 Friday when we were coming back from Disney! Bet that's a fun time.

Checked out Boca Grande yesterday, wish I had the 29 down here! Going up to Venice for dinner tonight then everyone leaves and the wife and I have the week to do what we want.

Wow that's wild, looks like it was in a time capsule! Congrats.

Well hell, I'm at a cross road with this great boat that have enjoyed for the last 2 + years and now I think we are going to put it up for sale. Building a new home and I'm downsizing so some of the toys must go, I've been looking at some boat brokers but not sure how to move forward with a 1999 Scarab with only 44 hours on it. It still smells new lol

Hey Rob, Scippy here!............Good luck with the sale!....You & Kristen must've had some pretty good times with the Scarab over the last 2 years......She truly was a barn find in every sense of the word!
The family and I have been enjoying the 35 Cig for the past 2 years as well ....she's a pleasure in the ocean and just got back from a week up in lake George N.Y......Whoever buys your boat is going to
be a very lucky new owner, been in storage most of it's life and with just 44 hrs. on the hull and engine it's brand new old boat! ....plus fitted with top notch components she should sell quickly!........I can't
believe I left my money belt at that lunch spot we ate at.......Thanks to your race back through red lights and sidewalks I recovered the money!........gotta say, people down south are very honest & trustworthy....Regards, Pete (Scippy)