Hello everyone, My name is John Saucke from Rochester NY. Just joined and am amazed as to how many people love the old hydrodynes. I'm presently restoring a 1964 1700 with an AQ100 Volvo-Penta stern drive. I owned this boat approx 20 years ago. (my now ex-wife made me sell it). My Grandfather had a 1600 when I was a kid which was wrecked in 1971 from the Agnes hurricane. When I bought this one the first time (from the original owner) it was in near mint condition. Now it's rather worn out. (neglect) My brother and I decided to find one to restore and re-live our childhood. Much to my surprise I found this one locally and it was my old boat. I'll try to post pictures as I go along. Being the computer idiot that I am I'm sure it will take multiple tries. This is an excellent site and I've already obtained priceless information from it.
Welcome. It must be great to find your own boat after all of these years. I used to ride around in an identical Hydrodyne as a kid that my neighbors owned. That volvo penta sounds like a sea plane taking off - it is great. I spent a lot of time and $ a few years ago trying to track down my grandfather's 1968/69 14' Glastron runabout (I think it was a Triflite or Starflite or some such thing) but eventually I ran into a dead end and couldn't locate it. I would have loved to have found it... Welcome aboard...
Thanks Mark. I checked out your restoration and found it very impressive. A tremendous amount of work. As with yours I need a new floor. The transom is good however. Looking under the deck of this boat it would be a nasty job to have to split it. Fortunatly the boat is complete except for the gas cap. Would like to find an original. Also have to replace one of the side Hydrodyne emblems. Any Idea where I can find one ??
John I would suggest running a search on the words "decal" and "emblem" on this forum with the search tool because I know it has been a common topic. I went with decals, which I prefer for a variety of reasons. Any company that does vinyl signs or graphics can take a digital photo of your existing emblem and make new ones out of UV resistant vinyl. You can also have new plastic emblems made, and there should be information on that on this website. If not, I can direct you to someone who probably can. Also, the real expert on restoring your type of Hydrodyne is a guy named Brian Lawson. I don't think he is a member of this website but I'm not sure. I can try to dig up his contact info. or you can probably find it somewhere on the forum for fiberglassics.com. He can probably tell you where to get everything you need. It has probably been 2 years since I've spoken with him. I know at one time he had some extra Hydrodyne emblems. Go to Fiberglassics and search for him in the forum and/or look for a reference to him under the section dedicated to Hydrodynes on that website.
