by Preston Stark member of the Dixieland chapter
How we came to own our 1985 Century Coronado is a long story. We had a nice ’68 wood Century Resorter and a ’76 Coronado for several years. Thinking to downsize to one boat we sold those and purchased a very nice ’68 wood Coronado I rationalized it would be a great single alternative. In short we concluded that the boat would not meet our needs. The hull design of the wood Coronado was just not suited to the weekend waves and wakes on our lake and it wasn’t an enjoyable ride.
I again purchased an offshore Fountain. It is superior for rough water, cruises about 40mph at 2750rpm, but as well as it performs it just won’t run below 30mph without falling off plane. I guess I had forgotten that characteristic. It had to go because grandkids like to tube and ski. Hindsight is not 20 20 when it comes to boats. I think you tend to remember the good and forget the bad. It seemed the best solution was another glass Coronado that had a good rough water ride and a hardtop to protect from our hot summer sun. As you may already be thinking, I should have just kept the ’76 Coronado we had because it was in perfect condition with a new replacement interior and had a super strong original 440 Chrysler. My wife has reminded me multiple times of that.
I always look for a very original low hour boat in overall good condition. I usually buy boats in the fall, so I have a winter project. I bought the ’85 sight unseen relying only the selling broker’s information. A few days before Thanksgiving the boat was delivered by the hauler and it exceeded my expectations, with a near perfect original interior and complete with a 4” stack of service records dating back to ‘85. Always wanting my user boats as close to as new condition I spent the winter replacing the name plates, replacing the deck and side vinyl inserts and pulling out the mufflers that had been installed. I now have it just about in the condition I want.
A boat broker once told me the great thing about boats is that owners always think they want something different. He is right! We have had about 33 boats, eleven were wood and all have been a classic except for five Fountain offshore performance boats. 17 of our boats have been a Century and 6 were a Coronado. When I get everything in perfect shape and run out of things to do, I can begin thinking about another boat.
