I can see this is an old thread but last year I managed to snag an old 21' Crusader that was sitting in a yard of junk boats still on the original dual axel trailer. I grabbed it for free, but had to pay $500 for the trailer, it was well worth it! Unfortunately the boat had seen some hard times, sitting in the sun with no top, full of water, damaged transom, destroyed stringers and bulkheads, and animal infested interior, no motor or jet, and aged gel coat. I just could not walk away from this boat seeing the very strong hull, all chrome parts were mounted and still in perfect condition, original gauges intact, and the trailer was immaculate minus weathered tires and cut electrical!
We ran a title search immediately before anything and found out everything was clean and clear, and also found out this is a 1981! The most recent Crusader Mini-Day, and the last one made! From what we understand so far when the company folded they were bought out by another in which they took the last hull and finished it when they reopened around 1980/81 before taking on ocean boats. They then registered the hull and titled it as an 1981 as sold it.
I found this boat in August 2016, stored it in a storage dirt lot until November 2016 in the middle of the desert when we finally had some time to drive from Colorado, replace the wheels, repack the bearings, rewire the lights, and add a new jack. We hooked it up to our 3.0 CRD Jeep, and hauled it all the way home in Denver.
I've spent a good part of the last 9 months doing research, trying to track down information on this particular boat. We have found a very enthusiastic group of owners who seem to know bits and pieces of this boat, and yes it has the original emblems INTACT! Not bad for sitting in a junk yard for the last 13 years. Us having some brutal winters here, we haven't had much time to work on the boat, but as of yesterday I started to purchase some of the items needed to get underway for my new project. I am set on bringing this boat back to life and making it what I've always wanted.
I think this weekend I am going to start breaking out the transom and cleaning it up. The main goal of the project is to lighten up the boat as a whole, to compensate for the weight of the hull itself. I've chose to go with either Coosa Board, or one of it's competitors, and standard 1.5oz chop strand mat with 1708 biaxial with epoxy resin. I am thinking of using PL to bind the stringers and bulkheads to the hull tabbed in with 1708 unless I come across a better way before I actually get to work on that part of it.
I will post some picture soon! Hopefully someone is still active here.
