The mid-60s were seeing the era of mahogany Coronados winding down, with the last year being 1968.  From 1955 – 1968, one of the most beautiful and all around best handling and rugged mahogany power boats were produced, all in Manistee, MI.  This ’66 model came to us from Houston and was primarily used in salt and brackish waters around that area.  Approximately ten years earlier a hard epoxy bottom and been installed, believing at the time it would last for many years… hopefully for the rest of the boat’s natural life.  Alas, that was not to be the case.

The owner learned about us from another client in TX and contacted us about persistent leakage problems and noticed some soft wood.  Uh-oh, could it already be time to replace that bottom again?  The boat was transported here where we rolled her over and began cutting off the epoxy bottom.  Right from the get-go we noticed the frames were cracking, soft, and just plain toast.  Once we removed the bottom layer the frame disaster became obvious.  As the hard epoxy will not flex with the framework it eventually just wore the original frames out.

So, now we’re looking at a complete framework replacement before starting on the bottom.  The owner flew in to make sure we were being accurate in our description, and after five minutes he came to the same conclusion… ‘it has to be replaced’.  Off we go…