1960 MANTA RAY STORY Better grab yourself a 3 galloner (Bilge Beer!), sit back , and get comfortable. WOW, where do i start. What got my desire back to having another boat was a photo of a 62 CC DEVIL RAY I ownwd back when I was 19 yrs.old. I sold it a few years later, but always kept a picture where I could view it daily. (on the refrigerator) hehehe. (You can see this boat by following the '62 Devil Ray link in the Fiberglass Boat Gallery) I loved the styling of this boat. About 7 yrs. ago I got the itch after being out on my bro's Sea Ray. I wanted to re-live my youth and I wanted the same boat I had as teenager. I searched for a Devil Ray all those years but to no avail. One day I came upon a boat site while surfin and found a guy in NY state who had a Custom Craft. I called him and complimented him on his boat and said that I have been looking for one for quite a while. he told me to be patient and one would show up. I guess it was about 2 months later that I got a call from Brian. He was very excited as he told me about a Custom Craft Manta Ray he had found. It wasn't a Devil Ray but it had a cat hull and fins. The pics the owner sent to Brian were beautiful (white when bought). The boat had little use and was always stored in a garage. Pics showed no damage and based on that I was told it was worth the asking price. So off to Pennsylvania I went with my wife. When we arrived the owner was there re-packing the wheel bearings. We talked about the boat for a while, he hammered on the transom to show me it was solid, and started the engine. We drove down to the local notary and did the transfer and registered it. The trip home was un-eventful. The next group of pics shows the damage. When I got her home I did a visual inspection and was surprised by the amount of gel-coat cracks. None of these showed in the pics. If they had I would of had second thoughts of driving 400 miles to buy the boat. I had wanted a boat free of this kind of damage. ON TO THE RESTORATION I removed all chrome and brought it to a local bike shop for rechroming. They sent it to california. Illegal to do that work in NJ. The next group of pics shows the grinding out of the cracks. There were cracks all over except for the back half of the tunnel hull. Duraglas was used for filling and was done by 2 different shops. My buddy offered to prime it with Pettit epoxy primer. He applied it in my garage with the doors closed and without a respirator. Needless to say, he was sick for a week for making this error. The prime job turned out O/K after he recovered he asked me who was going to paint it. I told him I hadn't made any calls yet. I asked if he wanted to apply the blue ice color, but I insisted he spray it outside. He agreed and applied 3 coats, to the tunnel and back half. Job turned out fine. To save money I painted the bikini blue. WHAT A DISASTER! The paint ran like crazy and was full of birdseyes. Had to re-sand all the bikini blue. The next phase is where I became very discouraged and became quite a scutch to my wife. I called and visited body shops for about a month trying to find someone to paint it. No one wanted the job. Reasons: "We don't do fiberglas, we don't do epoxy, we don't paint tne color unless we did the primer, we don't have time, we don't paint boats, that's a winter job for us, why don't you use the same guy who applied the blue ice, we don't have the lift to raise it off trailer," and I know I'm missing a few. I became very angry and depressed all in one. I wish I had never brought the boat home. Forgot to mention, while this was going on I restored the trailer. It was custom built for this catamaran tunnel hull. Primed and painted trailer, installed new rims, tires, bearings, trlr. jack, tongue, and transom saver. I should of replaced the hubs also. MAACO SAVES THE DAY My bro comes home from the lake one day and says, "Ron, I was telling the mechanic at the marina today about your ordeal trying to get the boat painted. He said, 'Take it to Maaco'". Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, they do them cheap paint jobs, whatarucrazyee? Well needless to say they did it for me within 3 days, 3 coats baked on. GEORGEOUS! I called the paint mfr. and inquired if the epoxy paint could be baked. They didn't know. no one had ever asked that question. Well now they know. I mailed them pic's. I re-installed the windshield, the re-chromed hardware,(took over 2 mos. to get back) and new rubrail (I wish I would of ordered white). By the time this was completed I had missed 2 shows I wanted to bring the Ray to. Clayton, N.Y. and Tuckertown, N.J. The bench seats I had re-upholstered. Then I hung the Merc back on (pic). The steering was a problem trying to re-install, but got it to turn smoothly.(pics) Took apart the control box to clean and grease and took weeks to figure out how to re-assemble. Parts had fallen out and I didn't know where they fit. Outside help figured it out for me. Now all i have left is to figure out what to do to the floor. Because of the tunnel and stepped hull you have to be careful of your footing. If I had known the work, aggravation, anger, feeling of hopelessness, beforehand, that boat wouldn't be in Lodi, N.J. I have received many compliments but NO, I wouldn't do it again. I was miserable for months. I would like to own a CC CAT HARDTOP but it would have to be free of cracks. All I would want to do is have it painted if need be. WELL, THATS MY STORY. -Ron Vuyosevich