Old guy from Minnesota

[necks]

I bought my second HydroStream last year. The whole unit is 1971, boat motor trailer. The seats were gone, so I put some of my fishing boat seats in it. Its got a Merc 1350 shortshaft on it and goes like the wind, nice handleing boat, quite happy with it. When I bought this outfit I thought it was a 16' Panther Tunnel hull. I took the old bucket seats out of my 85' Ventura, rebuilt them, installed in this boat, they don't even come close to being correct. I looked at some pictures of seating arrangements on different panthers, they are definitely different. The frames that were molded into bottom of boat hull are completely different. From what I have been reading the original panthers etc. didn't have serial numbers stamped on them, which is the case with the one I have, no numbers. The title card lists this as a 17'. My question is if this is not a panther, what is it? Would like to see what seats go with this boat. I'll see if I can send some pictures. Anybody out there own Streams this old? Thanks, Gene

[Hippie459MN]

Welocme to the forum! Post up some pictures here. I would love to have an old Panther but not many of them around.

Where in Minnesota are you? Im in the Zimmerman area myself.

[Surface Scratcher]

Welcome, a Panther is a great piece of Hydrostream history!

http://hydrostream.org/Specific%20Models/Panther.htm

Best of luck on your info search

[necks]

P9050041.JPG (693.8 KiB) Viewed 15892 times

Here is my seat arrangement.

[transomstand]

That is a Panther for sure.

This is the original seat layout

[Hippie459MN]

Here is a fixer upper too - http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/boa/5273447570.html

For whatever reason, I have seen a few of these pop up recently.

[ Post made via Android ]

[necks]

Hippie459MN, I live in St. Paul, as you were wondering where I live in Minn. Back to my picture, what had me confused, is the way the seats mount on the platform which is fiberglassed to the bottom of boat, straight across. If you look at the other panthers, the way the seat frames are fiberglassed , I can't see how the back-back seats would bolt onto my platform. It appears to me there should be a walkway between both bucket seats, being able to get from front to back without climbing over obstacles. I have been looking all over for these bucket seats, its like looking for a needle in a haystack. I did measure the boat length roughly with a ruler and come up with 16'2'', which should be a 16'. Right now I need all the help I can get.

[transomstand]

All early Streams use the "torque bridge" seat box across the hull.

[necks]

transomstand, That's very interesting, I didn't know that, that is what I was puzzled about. So apparently the pair of seat brackets that the buckets attach to are missing. What's the chance of you sending me a picture of the framework with the seat off, so I get a better idea of what I have to make up to make this seat setup work. I have been looking for this seat setup for quite some time,not having much luck. I've seen some Carlson contenders with looked like the same seat, dating back late 60's - early 70's, don't know if these are similar or not. Do you know of anybody who wants to sell a pair of these seats? I guess at this point can't be to fussy, torn, ripped, as long as I had the framework to go off. Bye the way, what kind of motor do you have on that good looking Panther?

[transomstand]

Sorry, never owned one. I've always had an interest because the Panther became the Ventura after some work with a sawzall. Toyed with the idea of restoring one so I'd have a "matching set". Just never gonna got around to it (kinda like my project of becoming a billionaire).