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stinger 314 general questions

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jesse 314:
hello all, i am new here and had a couple general questions for all of you.
 i recently sold my sea ray 240 and hopefully upgraded to a 314 stinger. paid a good price and am very happy so far with the boat, but as i speak were getting pummeled with snow here in seattle so no chance of running her till spring, so im doing a general clean up of the boat. after reading here i have heard of bad hull craftsmanship and this being a 87 im curious if it is a problem for my boat, also do these hulls do the hopping or was that the smaller boats. shes running what i believe is the original outboards, yamaha 200's that run great with 400 hours. i was told a top speed of 65 but that seems high to me, what do you guys think. also i would like to find a radar arch and a manual if that is possible. information seems pretty limited on these boats so any specific info would be great. thanks in advance

ccstinger:
Welcome to the board!  The 314s are beautiful boats - basically a 312 hull with outboards.  Quality wise, I've heard rumors of a 312 hull splitting, but I think that was in Europe and they were racing the boat offshore.  I've talked to owners who are tearing down their boats and rebuilding them (see Bad Example or M-61 on the website) - the consensus has been the hull itself is strong and well made, but details such as the deck to hull connection may not be as sturdy.  From a review, the 1986 312's had the following top speeds from the factory:

2-330 hp Mercruisers    63 mph
2-370 hp Mercruisers    69 mph
2-400 hp Mercruisers    75 mph

Not sure where the 314 would fit with the lighter weight but less power outboards.

Han

stinger390x:
Congrats... great boat!
I just looked at one in Miami two weeks ago but sadly it was JUNK!

The "Stinger hop" your referring to is usually a condition of the 230, 245 and 260 and has been well documented by owners of these boats (see offshoreonly.com/Chris crafts). At least that is my observation as I have owned all of these boats and they were all bad especially the 245 as it was a big block and crazy fast! My 260 had tabs and at least you could trim some of it out, but not completely. The 230 had an OMC.......nuff said! (I hate OMC drives!)
My 390X is a smooth as a baby's bottom and cruised like a knife through butter! I love it ...

I have not had much experience with the 312 but I undestand they are much more stable that the 260 so the "hop" may not be an issue with you as the length of the boat is sufficient to cut out the hop?

As for the Hull issue, the rumour is that the 84-88 boats were good then the 89-91's were questionable asthey changed something in the production and caused some bad hulls. Not all just a few and ones to watch were the Penatanguishine builds. My 260 was built in Penatanguishine by Grew under licence to Chris Craft, and that boat was solid as a rock! I am not up on the issues with the Florida or Indiana built boats but maybe Han can chime in and give us the skinny on the Florida built boats.

jesse 314:
thanks for the reply's, the hull on this boat seems to be in great shape but i do see where the floor concerns could come in to play. i ripped all the carpet out to survey the integrity of the floor and it seems they may have cut corners there. my floor is sturdy and sound but non the less i am going to put a layer of glass over it to strengthen as from the factory the glass extends from the hull only 8 to 10 inches onto the floor. and then they glassed the seems of the where the subfloor joints. seems to me a couple of layers of glass over the whole thing would really help. im still amazed at the seating capacity of this boat and man am i excited to get out on the lake and sound. my 240 srv was screaming to get to about 35mph or so and very buoy like when floating. all things that should be improved with the cc. i have noticed some spider cracking here and there and i have heard of some people that have concerns over this. i look at it as a 25 year old fiberglass product that is out taking a pounding over waves and what not, and that would seem to be the nature of the beast so im not to concerned about that, and there minimal to say the least. over all i am very happy so far with the build quality and engineering of the boat, hopefully i will be as pleased with the way it rides and handles, is there any active 314 owners on this forum.

ccstinger:
In regards to build quality - I've had conversations with people working on their boats - i.e. tearing them all of the way down to the hull and rebuilding.  The following is a comment from an owner of a 1988 311 working on his boat - this is typical of what I hear when I ask others as well:

Regarding build quality, I am finding it good and bad.  The hull is very solid and appears to be a minimum of ½” thick solid fiberglass below the waterline, and the sides are about 3/8” thick and have a 1/16” structural core.  The original transom was two layers of 1-inch marine ply, but holes and modifications turned several segments of the transom to mush.  The deck is cored with ¾” plywood sections, and there are a surprising number of small pieces between the glass. For instance in a eight foot section of the deck, they typically used four small segments. These decks are molded (gelcoat goes first, then lots of glass, lay in the plywood planks, then another layer or two of glass).

After the main deck and hull was molded, they built boxes and bins with far lower quality construction. There is plenty of resin-starved glass, where the fiberglass was insufficiently coated and adds very little strength. Measurements were eyeballed, and seldom symmetrical.

One of my biggest complaints with the build is the hull to deck joint.  There is a 1” x ¾” backing firing strip that is supposed to hold the screws that go thru the hull to deck, as well as catch the rub rail screws.  As built, the hull to deck joint had brass screws every thirty inches.  I use this boat offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, where 3 to 5 foot waves at five to seven seconds are typical. These are not swells, but rolling, breaking, and white-capping waves that can pound your boat at speed, and make everyone wet with the spray.  The first time I noticed this deficiency was sitting still in four foot waves, and water was pouring into my rear quarter at the hull to deck joint every time the waves would rise to the rub rail. My bilge pumps were working overtime that day!  Brought it back to protected water and caught some bay fish, but that was not what I was after.  I implemented a repair by removing the rub rail and installing a section of HDPE ½” to replace the firing strip, and sinking about a dozen screws where three had broken loose.

A year or so later, while I was about 40 miles offshore running in three foot seas, I was alarmed to see water shooting out of the inside top of my cabin.  This occurred when forward screws broke loose, and wave crests had found their way between the critical hull-to-deck joint, and washed behind the cabin upholstery, run along the ceiling of the cabin and out the cabin door.  This told me that the critical forward edge had busted loose and we were taking on ten to twenty gallons of water with every wave.  I brought it home slow that day.

I have also heard that the Grew made Stingers (hull number starts with GR) seem to be better quality.  Don't know anything about the quality throughout the years, i.e. older Stingers are better than newer ones.

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