I have been enjoying your web site for a few years now, thanks for the
great info. I have been messing around with this 69 sportsman 155 for
several years now, so forgive the below ramblings if they are a bit
drawn out but I hope that someone out there can use the info as I
frequently reference this page and want to return the favor.

Here are the stats on our 69 sportsman:
Model name: Sportsman 155 
Model year: 1969 
Model number: 224506A 
Serial number: WI-31276 
Home port: Portland, Oregon 
Owner name(s): Dale Conn c/o BC Howk 

This boat was purchased by my step father in-law (Dale) brand new in
1969 right after he bought his lake house. This fine old girl has made
her home there ever since and been much beloved.

I first saw this boat when I was dating my wife a little over 6 years
ago. While getting to know my soon-to-be in-laws I noticed the boat
sitting in the driveway under a tarp looking a bit neglected. I asked
Dale about what he had under there and he sort of lit up as he started
telling me about it. He was pretty “stoved-up” for the last few
years of his life with arthritis, gout, bad knees, bad back, bad
heart, you name it, I don’t think that the boat had run for a
couple of years as a result. At any rate, it seemed a shame to have a
lake house in the summer with a boat in the driveway and not in the
water, so I asked him if he minded me cleaning it up and attempting to
get it running. He did not mind at all

Being an Ex-Coast Guard guy, I have cleaned my share of boats and have
a particular idea of what a boat should look like, so I went to town.
She shined up pretty well if I do say so, and Dale was like a proud
papa again, I couldn’t believe it but he actually came out and
crawled up the ladder, into the boat and helped me sort out the
mechanics, it took surprisingly little to get it running again, just
an oil change, plugs, clean the points and Dale poured A CUP OF GAS
down the carb YIKES Don’t try this at home!! Fire extinguisher at
the ready, we turned it over and VROOOOM!!! We dropped it in the water
the next morning and the whole family had a ball with it for the rest
of the summer. Dale surprised us all again by crawling in the boat
again and giving whatever young-un that needed a skiing lesson the
benefit of his expert driving and ski experience.

After the season was over Dale gave the boat to my wife and her
sister, although technically it is still registered to my mother-in
law so that we can keep it in the semi-private lake. Sadly, Dale
passed on a few years ago and I became the head mechanic from then on.
Well, as most of the folks reading this will understand I have come to
really love this great little boat and make it my mission to bring it
up a notch every spring before we enjoy it all summer long. Here is
what we have done so far.

First year, just a cleaning, get it running and enjoy

Second year I put in a Pertronix kit (retaining the stock coil) I have
to tell you one of the BEST things to improve reliability that I have
done, cheap and VERY easy to do

Third year, I replaced the spark plug wires and gave the out drive a
bit more attention than usual and fixed the running lights (the wiring
was damaged when the aftermarket rear view mirror was installed)

Fourth year, this is the first year that we really went for it. The
year before, I did not install an automatic bilge pump and the mooring
cover was pretty torn up so it filled with water at the end of the
season, at the time I just pumped it out and ran it to the ramp to
yank the boat. At the beginning of this season though, I realized that
being underwater was NOT GOOD for the electrics. SOOOO, I replaced the
tilt motor, the alternator, starter solenoid and the starter motor. I
also installed an automatic bilge pump and got a new mooring cover
from the nearby GI Joes (not a Perfect fit but not bad for under 100
bucks), costly lesson learned. We then replaced the rubber floor
matting, installed real wood on the kick panels, new seats, replaced
the vinyl padding, new vinyl registration numbers on the side, new
bottom paint (Dale put this on originally so I’m sort of stuck with
it) and used 3M Marine fiberglass restorer and wax with a 10”
orbital buffer to really get the oxidation out of the Gel Coat, really
looks good if you forgive some of the “battle scars” that she
has accumulated over the years, I call the finish a 10 foot finish
(looks fantastic until you get within 10 feet, then you see the scars)

Last year, I FINALLY replaced the Port side exhaust manifold, when I
took it off to get a better look at what I thought was a leaky gasket,
the flanges crumbled in my hands from rust and there was a HUGE hole
on the underside close to the front, quite an exhaust leak and fairly
common I understand. The new manifold was a HUGE performance boost. I
also replaced the far to shallow 14 inch 16 pitch prop that Dale had
put on with a stock sized 14 inch 20 pitch prop, with a decent tune up
on the carb, in dire need of a rebuild, the old girl was trucking
along at 37-38 MPH by the stock speedometer and 4600 RPM WOT (wide
open throttle) this from 32 MPH and a very scary 5500 RPM not quite
WOT I would have certainly broken something if I ever left it wide
open. I felt the results were not bad considering the trim tabs
probably being set to low and the bottom paint stealing a few MPH.
Pulling out a skier seemed a bit slower though, so of course I wanted
more. I also replaced the lights on the trailer and went ahead and
replaced the old wheels and tires with a very standard set of steel
wheels and new tires. This was a really safety and long term budget
concern, the replacement TIRES for the original trailer would need to
be special ordered and cost $175 EACH, however, heaven forbid, I ever
have an issue on a road trip with STANDARD wheels and tires I can
replace the whole WHEEL AND TIRE combo for around $120 and be fairly
certain that I can pick them up, just about anywhere. It took a little
doing as I had to take the hubs in and have them turned down by a
machinist to make them accept a standard sized wheel and of course
repack the bearings, but my wife and I feel much safer towing the old
girl. Of course, it doesn’t hurt my feelings that the new wheels
are white with red and blue pin stripes that match the boat and with
the chrome center caps and lugs they look pretty sharp. I’m not
after a 100% stock restoration anyway.


This year I borrowed heavily from Mr. Shuster’s web page, thank you
sir. I did the upgrades on the below list but have not put it in the
water yet for a thorough shake down but it is running again, starts
very easy and sounds great so far.

1.	I have installed a rebuilt Holley 4160 on an offenhauser
	intake with a nice looking Stainless K&N Marine flame
	arrestor.  If you are going to do this, make sure you check
	with you local laws to be sure that you do not have to have
	“USCG approved” actually stamped on the flame arrestor,
	turns out in Oregon all you really need is to meet SAE J1929.

2.	I replaced the Starboard side exhaust manifold (the flange on
	that one gave up the ghost as well), besides, who wants to
	have mis-matched manifolds anyway.

3.	I removed and rebuilt the engine wiring harness.

4.	Esthetics ARE important to me so, I also went ahead and
	painted everything (I unbolted everything I could then
	degreased and painted the block and heads without taking them
	out), took the pulleys, alternator fan and lower alternator
	bracket to a local chrome shop, who did a GREAT job cleaning
	an chroming them. I polished the aluminum upper alternator
	bracket, voltage regulator and throttle bracket myself.

5.	I tried to install the HEI that Mr. Shuster talks about on his
	page with the integrated coil on the distributor cap but the
	wiring plug on the unit that I got from CRT performance
	interfered too much with the thermostat housing, so I am
	working with them to figure out what to do about that, any
	advise is welcome, in the meantime I am using the stock system
	(with the addition of the Pertronix kit) I will be sure to
	post the results of what we had to do to fit in the HEI once I
	get it all dialed in.

6.	I also replaced the foam that was glued to the deck lids with
	new hood liner material (the shiny heat insulation stuff for
	about 30 bucks at the auto parts store)

7.	In the not done yet category are; painting the out drive,
	freshen the bottom paint (this is going to be a recurring,
	every other year thing) and of course the standard cleaning
	and polishing.


All of the pictures here were taken at Blue Lake, with the exception
of the sad guy holding the screwdriver. That’s me during the shake
down cruise ‘05 on the Columbia River. We had a jammed button and
could not get the boat into forward gear! We got it fixed and were on
our way a few minutes after this shot.

I will try and send more pictures after I have it in for the season.

Thanks again for all of the great info.

Sincerely,
B.C. Howk