Hooters Redux

[Outdrive1]

So Hooters, a 1978 Schiada 20ss. I bought it off a board member here, it’s been owned by at least 5/6 people I know. It was named Hooters a long time ago when it was a practice boat out of Long Beach, running to Catalina and back. I doubt there’s a Schiada in existence with more trips skiing to Catalina. I’m guessing this boat has thousands of hours on it. I think I bought it 2010? She was hammered, motor had a dead cylinder. Interior was mix matched from another schiada, pretty sure it was free for a friend/owner three owners back. The side panels were dark grey or brown, and interior had orange and red stripes in it, which actually matched the boat. Trailer was red and in really bad shape. Gel was a couple colors where the transom blew out of it 30 years ago, and instead of matching the yellow, they put a red line in between the two yellows.

Here’s a pic of her, I don’t have the early pics of when I bought it unfortunately.

 

[Outdrive1]

Right away it needed a motor. Luckily one of my buddies found a 280 ROS with an 15” mid, and turned me onto it.

I ran that motor a for a few years. I loved it actually. Should have never sold it. Worst thing about it was how much fuel it used, and shifting. Joe at DBR was talking to me about building me an XS with a custom 15” mid. He had a 250 that was bored out with high compression pistons. It was supposed to make more hp and torque than a 300xs. He built me a fleet master lower with a Bob’s nose cone. That’s supposedly the fastest lower you can put on an XS.

My transom was bowing out, so I had the transom replaced and put the XS on it.

 

[Outdrive1]

The weight of the XS ended up breaking my transom again, I even added all new plating inside, but they were never built for 500 plus pounds and 300hp. So I had the transom completely re imagined with kickers and filling in the well.

This was in 2020 I think.

During that time, I broke a lower unit. And the custom mid section developed a crack in it. The one guy in the country who was building the mids had family issues, so while I was waiting for him, I bought a stick 250xs. Which is now on one of neighbors 20 Schiadas.


Here’s one with the 250xs

 

[Outdrive1]

Somewhere in those years I redid the interior but left the original stripes in it and the original logo. So they cut those out and redid all the rest of the vinyl including the brown side panels and brown hatch piece.

A couple years later the stripes were starting to fade, so I had the interior done a second time in all white.

You can see that the stripes are gone in the interior here.

 

[Outdrive1]

In 2022, I did the lower river run. I had sold a friend of mines 20 year old kid a 21 Daytona with a 300X. Kid was stretched buying it, but it was a cool first boat. Right out of the gate he smokes the power head. It’s mid summer and no one is going to rebuild it until winter. I ended up selling him power head because we had a new born, and we were using one of the other boats we owned. I felt bad for the kid.

The kid never liked my power head, it never made the power his X did. And the following year, he asked if I’d buy his entire motor so he could use the money to pay for a 300r. My boat was still sitting in storage. It had stress cracks I planned on getting fixed. That’s the next story. Myself and Joe bought the motor off him, Joe kept the lower, mid and Alien cowl, I got my power head back. The kid was finally happy.

 

[Outdrive1]

So, part of why I sold the power head was because I was going to derig the boat anyhow to fix the gel. When the transom was done, I had all the yellow on the top and dash redone. It was multiple shades of yellow from all the previous repairs and I wanted it all fixed finally. Well less than a year goes bye, and all the new gel cracked like an egg. Like the product was bad or too much hardener or something.

Here’s what it looked like. If you look close you can see the entire transom has cracks everywhere.

 

[Outdrive1]

So I take it back to my gel guy, he says he can get to it in the off season and make it right. Ok. Well I put it in my storage sideways in the back and parked 4 bouts in front of it. Next thing you know 1 1/2 years goes by. I still have completely taken the boat apart, and I didn’t feel like digging it out.

But, back in 2020, I had ordered the new style buckets. Schiada now makes them out of fiberglass. 4 years later my seats show up, I had given up on them since it was a trade for a commission selling a boat.

Here they are

 

[Outdrive1]

So…. After a year and a half, I decide I should get the boat out and get it fixed. I dropped it off in November and got it back a week ago. Just finished rigging it this weekend. Gotta mount the seats, and bolt the motor back on. 2 years later……

If you ever want to know how to spend 100k on a 9,000 dollar boat, feel free to read this thread. 3 interiors, 4 motors, 2 transoms, years of broken motors and gel repairs. At the end of the day I can never sell her. I’m way too far in it now. lol I’m gonna be buried in it.


I’ll grab some more pics when she’s up and running.

 

[Outdrive1]

Found this pic of Bildo when he owned her. You can see the brown hatch behind them. And the 200 it had on it. Bill was 2 owners back.

 

[Riverbound]

Found this pic of Bildo when he owned her. You can see the brown hatch behind them. And the 200 it had on it. Bill was 2 owners back.

View attachment 1469218

lol. Was Just going to post this pic. I think the hatch was gray when I had it but turned brown after some time in the sun. It was a hodge podge interior for sure. But everyone needs a beater boat and schiadas are perfect for that.

 

[Backlash]

Awesome write-up!! One of my favorite boats out in Parker! Glad to see you putting her back together!

Did you happen to "Find" a certain 300xs with yellow decals?? I saw the Liberator is now for sale minus motor......

 

[BHC Vic]

I thought bill owned it when I got here. That was like 2014 though