1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 refit

[jim rosenthal]

Looks great. These are self-contained units, right? When I replace mine, I'll look at Flagship- everyone seems to like them.

[q240z]

Yup. The salon is 16k, the aft stateroom is 12k, and the v-berth is 9k, and all came with scroll compressors, so the start-up current draw is only 110% of normal running current. I think my total with all three running is ~15 amps at 220vac. All of the other big boats I've had came with the late-'60s era OEM split systems with piston compressors. The difference in amp draw and sound is incredible.

[yachtsmanbill]

It's a welded aluminum hull. Everything that's welded together is bonded. But you know that, Bill.

The "smart Y" smoked itself the first time I plugged it in. I cut off the "smart" part and remade it into a dumb Y that works without getting so hot it smokes my deck paint.

I have Bridgeport Magnetics isolation transformers. There's no shore neutral or ground that comes aboard, so the magic boxes would serve no purpose on my boat.

Whats up with that? I used it for 2 summers (a single zone 12K unit) and never had an issue. Is the supply at the dock split phase 110s? Sorry about the late reply. Dont come over here too often...

[q240z]

I don't know what's up with that, Bill. I plugged it in, went to the dock and turned on the breakers. Then I climbed aboard and smelled smoke. The "smart" box was black and sizzling on my white non-skid. I turned off the breakers, took it home, cut off the fried box and put it back together as a dumb reverse Y. It works fine, so the problem isn't the dock.

[Dan Mapes]

This is tough to do without opening the tower, but have you measured the voltage for each leg to neutral at the tower? Just wondering out loud here.

[q240z]

I appreciate the suggestion, Dan, but dock power didn't make the "smart" reverse-Y let the smoke out. The legs are balanced (I probed the shore power cords) and working fine once I cut off the smoked "smart" box and just made a stupid Y.

[q240z]

After cutting all of the major panels for the built-in salon settee, I had to make corner pieces to connect them all together. I wanted the same look as the nicely radiused corner pieces I used on the aft stateroom walls. But I didn't have any more 8/4 (~2") solid mahogany that was long enough. So I ended up making identical halves from a 4/4 board and bonded them together with epoxy, then rounded the outsides on my planer, and finished with a sander. They turned out very nice, and you can (hopefully) finally see the shape of the settee base.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Remaking the Salon Settee IV

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

When you enter the salon on these boats, one of the first things you see is the settee. And one of the first parts of the settee you can see is a drawer that faces directly toward the salon entry door from the aft deck and aft cabin. I saved all of the original drawers, cabinet doors, etc, and this particular drawer was in rough shape. The varnish was 50+ years old, the solid mahogany front and moldings had cracks, and somebody had spilled blue paint inside. It was a mess. But I got it cleaned up pretty good, and now it has modern soft-close slides. You just have to push it within an inch of being closed and it pulls itself fully closed automatically. It's pretty slick.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Remaking the Salon Settee V

Cheers,
Q

Before


After (the camera flash makes the stain appear much redder than in real life)

[whoover]

I like your corner treatment of the setee. How did you attach the panels to the rabbets? I have a project of building a deck step/box and want to use that joinery.
Thanks
Walt Hoover

[jim rosenthal]

Nice work! Q, where was your Roamer built? Was the Roamer factory always in the same place or was it moved around?