I figured I'd start a project thread for the boat.

It's an '85 Advantage Sport Cruiser. It was built out of the Rogers Bonneville Classic mold. It's pretty dang unique. Rogers didn't make many and so far I've only seen one other like it.

I bought it a couple years ago. I ran it for a summer then had the pump rebuilt to be sure it was in good shape. I also added an inducer.

Everything was good until I blew the motor up a few weeks ago. I bought Mike Dewey's 496 and he and I installed it in the boat. It still needs to be plumbed and wired. I need to relocate the batteries due to running headers instead of logs. To move the batteries I needed to move the diverter pump. I made a bracket for that which uses existing holes. Next up is exhaust hole covers.

I guess this is a PSA. When I bought the boat I got underneath to check out the pump hardware and saw that ALL four loader bolts were loose. Since it's already 5/16" hardware I got new bolts and put nylocks on the two back loader bolts. The front two are covered by the oil pan.

Check out your loaders! If it were to come loose it could sank or flipped the boat.

Time for some updates! Yesterday I took the boat out for a shake down run and couldn't be happier. For the motor swap I cleaned up the wiring which was a bit of a mess, redid all the plumbing in stainless braided line with AN fittings, relocated the batteries, mounted an electric fuel pump, relocated the diverter pump, and plugged the exhaust holes. I spent way too much time on the diverter bracket, exhaust hole covers, and fuel pump mount, but I'm happy with how they turned out.

turning out nice! everything you have to fabricate is going to take more time than originally figured on, but the final look is always worth it!
Where did you take it out?

I took it to Elsinore.

The helicopters helping with the fire up near the Ortega highway were sucking water out of the lake. It was pretty cool to watch. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

It looks good with the tunnel ram, scoop, and headers. They really fit the look of the hull. 

How did it run? Did you get a chance to GPS it?

Thanks! No GPS on Sunday, we were just out for a shake down cruise. I'm excited to see what it'll run. It's almost twice the power of the old motor.

I'm interested how quick this runs.  Just picked up an 18 advantage open bow.  What are the specs and est horsepower on the motor? 

I'm interested how quick this runs.  Just picked up an 18 advantage open bow.  What are the specs and est horsepower on the motor?

I have a 1983  18' open bow advantage the Boneville hull it has a 396 chevy 350 horse with dominator pump and GPS at 60 mph.

Just saw you coming out of hemet. Boat looks great in person!

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Thank you.

She sure is sexy! I love your boat

GPS this thing yet?

I still haven’t GPS’d it. I’m really interested in one of the GPS cameras that Garmin makes. It tracks all your info while recording video. It would be great to put numbers to the seat of the pants feel.

I’m really happy with how the boat ran this summer. Not a single issue and the new motor really woke the boat up.

Look N good Buddy


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Cool boat. I think this is the only Advantage that I have seen with this hull. Any idea if Advantage still has the mold?

Roger pulled the mold back in the late 80's.
There's a few of these out there.

I talked to a guy that his son works for Advantage and he said they still had the mold. He is probably mistaking it for the 20.5 but it would be pretty cool if they still had it. How do these hulls handle are they similar to the 19 TR performance wise?