Buddy's boat

M

marvin4239

New member
A young friend of mine moved his family to Kenai Alaska several years ago. He does a lot of fishing and hunting while working mostly on pipeline related stuff. If you run across him say hello from me. His name is Steve and you'll easily recognize him he's 6'9" and a great young man with wife and three kids. The boat is 26' with a penta/volvo I/O and a 302 Ford.

Stevesboat.jpg
 
Marvin, that boat is a cousin to a C Dory once removed by marriage or something . When the Reynolds bought Orca ,they got the Olympic molds as well . They tried to build and sell them to me before I became a C Dory dealer , but ended up mothballing the Olympics .
Marc
 
Thanks Marc I new someone out there in Pilothouse land could identify it. He claims it runs in 4 foot seas without pounding at 22 mph. I guess it has quite a bit of dead rise. He bought it about a month after seeing my C-Dory when he was in town last year for Christmas.
 
Additionally, all of the Olympic molds, except the 34' were destroyed.

The 34' was a stretched version of the Tollycraft Sport Cruiser, outfitted with I/O's instead of inboards.
 
You sure there isnt one mold sitting out in the back forty in Auburn ? They were in Monroe , where the R 29s are built now . I saw one being built and they were rough [more commercial looking] compared to the Skagit Orcas . That one kinda looks like a Radon
Marc
 
I was told by the folks at Fluid that they destroyed the molds as they saw no profitable way to build them (not enough demand for that style boat in an increasingly aluminum world) and they didn't want anyone else to have access to them.

I agree, it seems a waste....
 
We owned an Olympic 26XLF from 1996-2000 and found it to be the best boat we have ever owned (considering all trade-offs in boats). It was a superb handling boat in all sea conditions and provided excellent fuel economy 3mpg @ 28mph. The 26 Olympics had a 13 degree deadrise, providing an excellent ride off the Oregon coast and low 13-15mph planing speed.

Olympics were fast, economical, stable, and extremely sea worthy (hulls were patterned after CG rescue craft of the 1980's).

The only negatives were a slightly smaller cabin than the CD 25 or the Bounty Hunter 25. However, I think that I would buy a new one today if a reputable builder like Sea Sport decided to resurrect the 26XLF model (sorry to hear that the true Olympic molds were destroyed yet the 34' Tollycraft/Olympic abatross mold that almost bankrupted two companies was saved) .

Good to see an older 26 SS model still in use.
 
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