Heres a couple of pics of my 69 42' Commander.
We keep it on Anchor Bay iun Lk St Clair and hhave owned it for 8 years now. It has 427's with 2600 hours (no record of rebuilds)and burn about a quart of oil per side if I run them hard (over 3000 rpm's) for 8 hrs or more, under 2500 rpm's they don't burn any! We've done MANY upgrades to the interior since owning it and I will post pics as I get more.
Great site by the way














edit: images converted from thumbnail (th_) to full size.

Hi Steve,

I recall hearing your name in the past, and I also noticed we have a photo of your boat in our "hall of fame" section on the front page, next to John Kloka's 35' Commander. Look at the fourth row down, on the far right, of our thumbnail hall of fame photos (shown below too)



427s with 2600 hours sounds like Todd Heinrich's GROSSE ILE, which I believe he said had 2600 or 2700 at the time they took a 700-mile cruise up the entire length of Lake Michigan and back, to Drummond Island on Huron, departing from South Haven. Good care will greatly enhance the life span of engines like these. As for the oil consumption, that can be a factor of the kind of oil you're using, and also some normal wear factors. As long as you watch the dipstick I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm a big fan of the 42' Commander, hope you saw the recent post about the 42' hull evolution http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1188049710

I saw a few nice 42' Commanders at Algonac, and I'm impressed with the quality of boats in the St. Clair area. I'm still stunned at the quality of water you guys have!



Thanks for the good words about the Forum, it's a collection of contributions by many participants, and we're having fun sharing the info with others. I hope you'll feel comfortable sharing more photos with us, and also commenting on anything here you are able to assist others with. In addition, if you have any issues we can help you with, we'll help if and when we can!

regards,

Paul
forum moderator

I can tell you firsthand, my "neighbor" Steve keeps a tight ship... and he uses it, too. I can always count on seeing Bear Z Girl on the water when I leave the harbor on the weekends! Hey Steve, tell 'em about my "fly-by" last weekend...

After about a 5 hour return trip from two days at Lexington Harbor in southern Lk Huron with five others aboard we were approaching our home port in Harrison Twp when out of nowhere (at first I thought it may have been a low flying F16 from Selfidge Air Force Base) comes a nice shiny 35' Commander doing around 18 - 20 knots right off my starboard side! Then the high speed vessel proceeds to do a button hook around my bow to port and continued on to his respective channel back into the harbor. Sure enough it was Klokanuts and crew, what a great welcome back greating after a long weekend. The real "kicker" is that when he put the boat down off plane, after that well performed button hook the sheriff's boat pulled right behind him and followed him into the harbor, totally coincedence but pretty funny none the less!!! Wish I had the time to get the camera for that one, but our guests thought it was pretty cool.

"hey...........watch this"

Roy

More than that! I had her wound up pretty tight - GPS telling me I was running 24.5 knots... about 27 MPH!

And that Sherriff boat - he tried to get ahead of me going into the harbor, but finally backed off and got in line behind me! Those guys only mess with "new boats"...

The Sheriff probably thought it was a Canadian boat, but upon getting a closer look, saw the fenders were not down?

Sorry to our Canadian friends, I couldn't resist !

Paul

With all due respect... our Canadien neighbors prefer WOOD Chris Crafts

Canadians run with the fenders down???

Tom

Steve,
Your girl is looking great since the last time I was aboard. Fine job!!! I love to see it up close again. Give me a call.

Dave @ Wixom

This can only mean one thing, a future Commander owner?????
Go for it, its worth every penny and hour spent but then again I do have a boating addiction!

Here is Mike Schrage (35’ Sports Cruiser owner) with Don Endres, owner of the beautiful 42’ Commander, ANDON. Note this one has the optional hardtop.



Here is Jeff and Darlene Watkins’s OTTER CHAOS, a beautifully finished boat on the inside and outside.


Here are two photos of Lan Lozon’s PASSAGES



Not sure whose boat this one is, but it sure showcases that 42’ upper deck. These gals seem to be enjoying the sun and the view too.





edit comment: as a handy cross reference, I added the following link to a series of brochure scans for the 42' model. http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1169159959/